Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 104 | Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

spORTs, 9 OpiniOns, 11

Overtime loss Beyond faithHay showcases history of Portugal’s nationhood

W. soccer falls to Penn after holding lead late in game

Chelsea Waite ’11 appreciates the Chaplain’s Office

Simmons addresses faculty on departure of provostBy ashley aydin

Senior Staff Writer

President Ruth Simmons discussed the departure of Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 and recent cases of bullying concerning sexual identity that resulted in suicides at college campuses nationwide during Tuesday’s faculty meeting.

Simmons explained that bul-lying happens in some environ-

ments more than others and that the University must fight these attacks. “Failure to challenge this behavior” can result in similar in-cidents, Simmons said.

She said it will take enormous effort and involvement to tackle problems that “threaten civil rights.”

“We should set examples,” she said. Simmons said the Univer-sity is a “privileged community” in

terms of respecting rights, but she explained that the University must continue to fight against incidents of discrimination.

Simmons also discussed Kertzer’s decision to step down at the end of the academic year. The “provost position is a chal-lenging one,” she said, adding that the position is vital “for the future of the University.” There will be a search for a new provost start-

ing in the next weeks. “We should search nationally but be open to internal candidates,” she said. She mentioned she also wants to “en-courage thoughts and comments” about the search.

Simmons briefly spoke about the budget and said that the Uni-versity does not anticipate addi-tional budget cuts. She explained

Bruno’s big night: wins for Chafee ’75, Cicilline ’83

endowment posts gains comparable to peers’By chip leBOviTz

Contributing Writer

Brown’s endowment grew 6.9 percent last year — with a 10.2 percent net gain — chiefly due to rebounding markets. Currently valued at $2.18 billion, the endowment grew by a total of nearly $180 million over the last fiscal year, which ended in June. Although the endowment actually cultivated a 10.2 percent total return, the University spent $135 million on operational costs, according to Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper.

Brown finished near the middle of the pack in terms of net increase com-pared to other Ivy League schools. Though the University’s net gain of 10.2 percent was trounced by Colum-bia’s 17 percent return and Prince-ton’s 14.7 percent return, according to Bloomberg news reports, Brown outgained Yale and Dartmouth. Har-vard, which has the nation’s largest endowment, grew by 11 percent.

The difference in institutions’ en-dowment success this past year was chiefly due to their asset allocation and

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Mayor heads to nation’s capitalBy alexandRa ulmeR and

BRigiTTa gReene

Staff Writer and Metro editor

January will see Mayor David Cicil-line ’83 sworn in as Rhode Island’s first openly gay congressman. De-spite a late surge in the polls, Repub-lican John Loughlin was unable to trump the Democrat in yesterday’s midterm election for the first district congressional seat.

Cicilline garnered 50.6 percent of votes to Loughlin’s 44.6 percent in the race to replace retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

“I ran for Congress because, like so many of you, I believe Washing-ton is really broken,” he said to

Independent wins tight 3-way raceBy BRigiTTa gReene and

claiRe peRacchiO

Metro editor and Senior Staff Writer

Independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 defeated Republican John Robitaille, Democrat Frank Caprio and Moderate Ken Block to become Rhode Island’s first independent governor. He will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65.

“You’ve given me your vote, and I give you my word,” Chafee told supporters gathered at the Warwick Sheraton. “I will always listen to you. I will always be honest with you. And I will always do what is right for Rhode Island.”

Chafee, whose proposed 1-per-

Men’s water polo beats MIt in senior night gameBy gaRReT JOhnsOn

SportS Staff Writer

In a thrilling 10-9 senior night vic-tory, the men’s water polo team (16-10) topped the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (11-8) last Thursday at Wheaton College.

The Bears quickly grabbed a 4-0 advantage, but the Engineers came roaring back, taking the lead at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, Bruno was able to re-take the lead and hold on for a nar-row victory.

“We came up strong,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado. “But just like every other game, we got into a dogfight.”

With momentum from the se-nior night win, Bruno went on to Emily Gilbert / Herald

Freshman Walker Shockley recorded nine saves in water polo’s recent loss to Princeton. His performance has been “amazing,” said head coach Felix Mercado.

Just two years ago, students marched to the steps of the state capitol, celebrating Barack Obama’s presidential victory with fireworks, champagne and trumpets. But the midterm elections found Brown’s campus quiet last night.

Republicans regained the U.S. House of Representatives after four years of Democratic control. The GOP gained over 58 seats in the House — more than the party took in the 1994 midterm elections. While Republicans also made gains in the Senate, the Democrats were able to hold on to their majority in the upper chamber. more election coverage, page 5.

GOP takes U.S. House, Taveras to city hall

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Jesse Morgan / HeraldKatie Green / Herald

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 member 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.

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WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010THE BROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 2

CaMpuS newS “The momentum after her death is really what has inspired us to make it a reality.” — vyvy Trinh ’11, BIRC member

By meia geddes

Contributing Writer

The kick-off event for the Tam Tran Scholarship for Undocu-mented Youth, a dinner held on Oct. 22 by Brown Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, raised $2,756.45, including online donations, said Juan Martinez-Hill ’12, a BIRC member.

Over 70 people — including friends of Tran, professors, par-ents and community members — attended the dinner, which also featured student performances, a screening of one of Tran’s docu-mentaries and speeches from undocumented students.

The scholarship was estab-lished in honor of Tam Tran GS, who was killed in an automobile accident last spring. Tran was a member of the advisory commit-tee of the Cesar Chavez Scholar-ship Fund, an organization for Latino youth in Rhode Island, which will manage the Tam Tran Scholarship. An advisory commit-tee comprising representatives of the Cesar Chavez Scholarship Fund, BIRC and the Coalition of Advocates for Student Opportuni-ties will begin meeting in early November.

The advisory committee hopes to raise $10,000 this year to estab-lish an endowment, wrote Mar-ta Martinez, chair of the Cesar Chavez Scholarship Fund and co-founder of the Coalition of Advo-cates for Student Opportunities, in an e-mail to The Herald. The scholarship will be awarded an-nually to one undocumented high

school senior planning to attend a four-year college, regardless of racial background, said VyVy Trinh ’11, a member of BIRC.

BIRC has “yet to solidify” detailed criteria for choosing a student, but students who have shown leadership and been in-volved in their communities would be likely candidates, Trinh said.

Trinh said students who re-ceived the scholarship would “bring important perspectives to schools” because of their per-sonal experiences and that it was important to put these students in positions of power where hope-fully they could give back to the larger community.

As an undocumented Vietnam-ese student, Tran took longer to complete her education than she would have on the traditional route because she had to work to support herself, Trinh said. While at Brown, Tran was an active advocate for the rights of immigrants and undocumented students. “The momentum after her death is really what has in-spired us to make it a reality,” Trinh said.

While BIRC is still accepting donations online, it is also think-ing about fundraising for next semester, Trinh said.

Trinh said BIRC hopes for some major organizational or corporate backing “to make this sustainable.” The group also hopes that local businesses, ac-tivist organizations, parents and alums will donate, Martinez-Hill and Trinh said.

tam tran Scholarship to aid undocumented students

u. third in producing Fulbright scholarsBy hannah aBelOw

Contributing Writer

For the second year in a row, Brown placed third among research insti-tutions in the number of students who received Fulbright Awards, according to a list released Oct. 24 by the Institute of International Education.

For this year’s awards, 96 Brown students applied and 24 students — 25 percent — received awards. The Herald reported in 2009 that 106 students applied for the schol-arships and 29 received awards. Northwestern University and the

University of Chicago came out on top of the 2009 list, and Brown pro-duced more Fulbright students than Yale and the University of Michi-gan, which placed second and first this year, respectively.

According to Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the College for fellowships and pre-law, 82 of Brown’s applicants this year ap-plied as undergraduates, while the remaining 14 applied as graduate students. Out of the 82 who ap-plied as undergraduates, most were members of the class of 2010, though a few graduated in 2009 and 2008. Out of the 24 who received

awards, 22 were undergraduate applicants.

The “Fulbright program has re-ally taken off at Brown in the last five years,” Dunleavy said. She said she is eager for even more students to “know about it and at least think about applying,” though she hopes that students realize that “it really is a lot of work to write a successful Fulbright application.”

This year, most students from Brown received Fulbright awards for research projects, though a few received awards for teaching

that one of the concerns is the financial aid budget, adding that many families were affected by the difficult economic times and there is now more need for financial aid.

Kertzer discussed the new tool for concentrations called Focal Point. He said there has been much effort to create “tools to enrich the faculty-student advising relation-ship.” He also mentioned a few pro-posals that must be examined by faculty soon, including a proposal for the Program in Public Health to become four different depart-ments and to evolve into a school of public health. He also mentioned a proposal to change the name of

the Department of American Civi-lization, and the Literary Arts Pro-gram’s request to change its status from a program to a department.

Kertzer also introduced a pre-sentation on the United States Na-tional Research Council Review of Research-Doctorate Programs, which is important to graduate stu-dents who are looking at Brown, he said. He said that though the council generates “a certain amount of controversy in some parts” be-cause there are frequent mistakes and inaccurate statistics about the University, the council does provide some useful information.

Professor of Education Cynthia Garcia Coll, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, said the

committee will spend next month working on the motion concerning tenure passed at last month’s fac-ulty meeting. There are “a couple of different proposals” on how to divide the motion up, Garcia Coll said. She said that dealings with the motions will last until April.

Garcia Coll said the faculty com-mittee held a meeting with the Med-ical Faculty Executive Committee, adding that the faculty committee is trying to work on how to foster the collaboration between Brown, Alpert Medical School and hospitals where faculty work. The hospital-based faculty have no access to the Brown network, and there are a “bunch of problems with e-mail,” she said.

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Faculty to continue discussing tenure

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CaMpuS newSWEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010 THE BROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 3

“you really want to look at the strategy over a period of years.” — Beppie Huidekoper, Executive vice President for Finance and Administration

investment strategies, Huidekoper said. The University does not focus on year-to-year comparisons with other Ivy League endowments, Huidekoper said.

“You really want to look at the strat-egy over a period of years,” she said.

Huidekoper credited the stabiliz-ing market for Brown’s endowment gains, saying the endowment’s invest-ments increased in all areas of market sectors across the board.

Though Huidekoper cautioned reading too much into the gains until an audited financial statement, the University’s summarization of the eco-nomic narrative of the past fiscal year, is released in December, she said that the University was not surprised by the endowment’s gains.

“They all performed about where we would expect,” Huidekoper said, adding that real assets “didn’t do very well.”

“Nothing did badly, but they all performed relative to what their nor-mal market value did,” she said.

The University’s investments are spread among five major categories: equities, fixed income, hedged strat-egies, private equity and real assets. Public equities, or investments in publicly traded companies, featured the largest gains, while real assets,

investments in physical and tangible goods like gold and housing, made the smallest increases. As of June 30, 2009, 15 percent of Brown’s assets were invested in public equities and 11.5 percent were devoted to real as-sets, according to the Annual Report 2008-09.

Private equities performed better then expected, Hudiekoper said.

In regard to real assets, Huideko-per said though the University was disappointed about its nominal gains, Brown tries to gauge its investment success “relative to what the market did.”

“It’s sort of like if your house … didn’t decline as much as everyone else, you did well, so you kind of have to look at this in the context of how other classes did,” Huidekoper said.

According to Brown’s financial statements, the endowment “con-sists of approximately 2,500 individual funds.”

The five- and 10-year returns for the endowment are currently at 4.6 and 6.9 percent.

These numbers are woefully low, Huidekoper said. The University shoots for 10 percent annual growth.

The endowment is overseen by the Investment Committee, which is chaired by Corporation Trustee Larry Cohen ’78 P’08 P’11 P’13 P’13, Huidekoper said.

endowment performs well, but returns miss u. goals


By KRisTina FazzalaRO

Senior Staff Writer

Tucked away in a small corner of the John Hay Library — always a treasure trove of information — is the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies’ literary exhibit: “Portugal, 1910: The Advent of the Republic.”

The exhibit, which includes books, postcards and caricatures, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Portuguese Republic.

“Portugal, 1910” offers visitors the opportunity to explore the rich political history of a nation in a condensed, but revealing, man-ner. The Bopp Seminar Room in which the exhibit is housed is a tiny offshoot of the Hay’s impres-sive third floor gallery, home to the 6,000 toy soldiers of the Anne K.S. Military Collection. The seminar room provides a cozy home for the literature of Portugal’s finest writers, including Antero de Quen-tal, Guerra Junquieros and Ana de Castro Osorio.

The exhibit provides a useful historical backdrop of the time period which contextualizes the literature section of the show.

The exhibition focuses on the period between the regicide of King D. Carlos and of Prince Heir D. Luis Filipe in February 1908 and the establishment of the Por-tuguese Republic October 1910, providing viewers with a unique opportunity to see a slice of Por-tuguese history from a literary perspective.

Curator Sandra Sousa, a visit-ing fellow from Portugal, said that while she was in Portugal this sum-mer with fellow curator Maria Ana Travassos Valdez, visiting assistant professor of Portuguese and Brazil-ian studies and history, she found

a wealth of material to include in the show.

Valdez and Sousa attended ex-hibits hosted by the Commission for the 100 Years of the Republic, Sousa said, where they were loaned several documents and postcards for the display in the Hay.

The curators then explored the John D. Rockefeller Library for resources and materials to put on display, Sousa said. In particular, she said that the Rock hosts a good collection of Portuguese newspa-pers, which were on display over a projector at the opening reception of the exhibit.

Sousa said they also found sev-eral items online and pulled cer-tain pieces from their own private collections. With such a wealth of material — Sousa said her office was full of books on the topic — a great deal of editing had to be done to fit the entire collection in

the four display cases the seminar room has to offer.

The end result is an interesting collection of pieces from a time period not well known to those outside of the subject area. Even Sousa had to do a great deal of research before embarking on organizing the collection, she said.

Valdez, as a historian, contrib-uted greatly in filling in the his-

exhibit explores portuguese politics

Katie Green / Herald‘Portugal, 1910: The Advent of the Republic’ chronicles the birth of Portugal a century after it became a nation.

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CaMpuS newS “It’s really a world-is-your-oyster kind of program.”— Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the College, on the Fulbright scholarship

panel hosts discussion on ‘asian identity’By JeFFRey handleR

Contributing Writer

On Tuesday night, as a part of Asian and Asian-American His-tory Month, eight students came together in Solomon 001 before an audience of about 40 to offer different perspectives of the so-called Asian experience.

“The term is just used because of the coincidence of geography. I am Asian because India is in the continent of Asia,” said Raj Kothari ’11. “I don’t think it’s a bad term to use, but I want to note that it is too big a region” to make generaliza-tions beyond geography.

“There is no Asian identity,” Kothari said.

Melissa Dzenis ’12, who is half Filipino and half Latvian, said she didn’t agree with Kothari because she feels there is some tie between Asians that is not simply coinci-dental.

Panel member Kaijian Gao ’13, who doubled as the moderator,

began by inviting the other panel-ists to discuss how they personally identify. Students discussed how their identities have impacted how they have been treated in the U.S., as well as what they think being Asian means to the broader world.

Most expressed some uncer-tainty when faced with this ques-tion.

“It’s a very messy identity,” said See Vang ’13, who was born in Cal-ifornia and is Hmong-American, a race that she noted is not relatively very well known in the U.S.

Amanda Kim ’12, who was born in New York City and has also lived in Korea and in Tokyo, says she is still trying to figure out her own identity. “I guess that I would say I’m Korean-American,” adding that she has always had trouble identifying her “home.”

“I don’t like to categorize my-self,” she said.

“I guess I identify as being a Chinese-American, with more emphasis on the Chinese part,”

said Max Song ’14, adding that with such an identity it is easy to get lost between the two sides of the Pacific.

“I was the Asian kid” in high school, said Kenji Morimoto ’11, who is fourth-generation Japanese-American, as he had attended a high school in Chicago that was one percent Asian. It was not until Morimoto came to Brown that he stopped feeling this way, he said.

“I’ve been to Japan about seven times,” Morimoto said. “I look it, I know much of the culture and mannerisms, but in the end, I’m not.”

“People definitely do see Asians as intelligent,” Kothari said, which led to discussion of the “model minority myth,” which concluded the panel discussion.

“Those racist notions make themselves true because we are born into them,” said VyVy Trinh ’11. “I have never been told that I couldn’t achieve something due to my race, or gender or sexuality.”

projects. According to a booklet pub-

lished by the Office of the Dean of the College, recent Brown alums are undertaking projects that range from researching “Owner-Operator Trucking in Chengdu” to “Reconcil-ing Global Wildlife Conservation Efforts to Local Cultural Context in Cameroon.” Other projects in-clude researching “The Role of NGOs in the Implementation of the Mudawana” in Morocco and “Teaching English in a University or Binational Center” in Venezuela.

Linda Zang ’10 was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant to study in Germany. About her research, Zang said, “I’m interested in lo-cal legislators with an immigrant background and the political di-mensions of national identity in contemporary Germany.”

“This scholarship gives you a chance to push yourself out of your comfort zone and do something on your own,” Zang said. “Fulbrighters have a great deal of intellectual and creative freedom with the projects — and that’s something that Brown students value.”

Both Dunleavy and Zang empha-sized the benefits that Fulbright

awards offer Brown students. Zang said that as an undergraduate, she had often wished for more time to pursue research in topics that interested her, but did not have the chance.

“The Fulbright is, above all, the gift of time,” Zang said. “If you have an idea for a project, or there is something that you’ve always wanted to study, then the Fulbright is your chance to bring that project into being.”

“It’s really a world-is-your-oyster kind of program,” Dunleavy said.

In order to apply for a Fulbright award, students must undergo a campus review. Each year, a cam-pus committee from the Univer-sity interviews the Brown student applicants before they move onto review by the national committee. “At Brown, we use that as an oppor-tunity to comply with the Fulbright regulations, but we also see that as an opportunity to support our students and offer feedback on the parts of the application that could be improved,” Dunleavy said.

Recently, the on-campus portion of the review process for Fulbright applicants has been completed and this year’s applications for Ful-bright awards have been sent off to the national committee.


Fulbright scholarships take 22 Brown undergrads abroad

torical context while Sousa focused largely on researching the litera-ture of the time period. Patricia Figueroa, curator of the Iberian

and Latin American Collections at Brown, also assisted in curating the exhibit.

The opening reception, held Oct. 5, exactly 100 years after the formation of the Republic, was at-tended by members of the Brown community, as well as Portuguese newspapers and community mem-bers from the Providence area, Sousa said. It is important to the

curators that not only the Brown community but also the large Por-tuguese population in Providence get to experience the exhibition, she added.

The quaint collection of ma-terials provides visitors with the chance to get an interesting history lesson in just one short trip to the Hay, illuminating a time of change and conflict in Portugal.


portuguese exhibit gets community support

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By JaKe cOmeR

Contributing Writer

“Gracias a todos,” Angel Taveras, who will be Providence’s first Latino mayor, greeted his supporters last night. “This is a historic victory for our team.”

Speaking at the Rhode Island Democratic party’s election-night event on the 17th floor of the Provi-dence Biltmore, he praised the party for permitting the son of a Domini-can immigrant family to triumph in the race.

But Taveras struck a more som-ber tone discussing the problems looming over Rhode Island’s capital city, which faces budget shortfalls, high unemployment and a struggling school system. “As goes Providence, so goes Rhode Island,” he said. “To-gether, we can make our great city of Providence even greater.”

Among his supporters, optimism about his ability to rally the city’s diverse population and overcome challenges prevailed.

“I’m very proud --- we as Latinos are organizing ourselves to be com-petent in the political process,” said Marilyn Sanchez, a fellow Domin-ican-American who grew up near Taveras.

“He was always quiet and disci-plined,” added Sanchez, who cam-paigned for Taveras in the primary. “If you have a vision, you can be anything you want.”

Later, Taveras’ victory party at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel was marked by an atmosphere of ex-citement.

Speaking to a crowd of hundreds at the concert hall, he thanked his supporters and volunteers in both English and Spanish and especially acknowledged the support of his mother, who is currently visiting her native Dominican Republic. At the end of his speech, Taveras spoke to her on a cell phone as he leaned down from the stage to shake hands with members of the audience.

“A year ago today, who would have imagined that any of this was even possible, that this son of im-migrants from the Dominican Re-public would become the mayor of Providence?” Taveras said.

“Thanks to your unwavering support, dedication and talent, we assembled the greatest volunteer organization this city has ever seen,” he added.

Those in attendance called him “an inspiration,” “a role model” and “a champion of the people.”

“I’m just so glad to be able to see history in the making,” said long-time supporter Jim Vincent. “Angel Taveras is going to be the first mayor of color in Providence history.”

Vincent said that much of Tav-eras’ appeal derives from his being a Providence native and from his

life story, characterized by success in the face of imposing challenges — “from Head Start to Harvard,” as Vincent put it.

Taveras, an attorney and former housing court judge, was raised by his single mother in south Provi-dence and went on to attend Harvard as an undergraduate. He earned his law degree at Georgetown Univer-sity.

“It’s the American dream,” said supporter Tony Vasquez, a Domini-can-American. But he went on to add that Taveras will face more tough challenges as mayor.

“It’s going to be hard for Angel. He’s in the spotlight. He’s Domini-can!” Vasquez said.

In an interview with The Herald,

election 2010The Brown Daily Herald

WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010 | PAGE 5

By Ben schRecKingeR

Metro editor

Despite big GOP gains nation-wide, Rhode Island Republicans will be shut out of all five state-wide offices and all four U.S. con-gressional seats for the first time since 1972.

Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, an independent, will replace Repub-lican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 in January.

Democrats swept all other statewide elections.

In Rhode Island’s two U.S. congressional districts, Mayor David Cicilline ’83 beat Repub-lican John Loughlin in the race to replace retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, and incumbent Jim Langevin defended his seat with 59.9 percent of the vote. Neither of Rhode Island’s senators, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, were up for reelection.

In the other four statewide rac-es, Democrats Elizabeth Roberts ’78, Ralph Mollis, Peter Kilmartin and Gina Raimondo were elected lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and trea-surer, respectively.

Roberts, the incumbent, beat Robert Healey of the Cool Moose Party by 15 percent after the Re-publican candidate dropped out and endorsed her challenger. Healey had promised not to take a salary and work to abolish the office, which he considers a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Terrence George ’13, presi-dent of the Brown Republicans, said he was “happy” with the elec-

tions results across the country, which he called a “repudiation of the Obama agenda.”

But “Rhode Island is the most solidly Democratic state in the union. That’s a fact,” said George, a Herald opinions col-umnist. “That’s not something we expect to change with one election cycle.”

In Providence, the results were much the same.

In the mayoral race, Democrat Angel Taveras cruised to victory over independent candidate Jon Scott with more than 80 percent of the vote. The Republican Party did not field a candidate.

Over on the East Side of Providence, Democrats swept the three General Assembly seats representing College Hill. Voters sent Rhoda Perry P’91 back to the State Senate for her eighth term representing the third dis-trict. Perry, who ran unopposed in 2008, beat Republican Mor-ris Markovitz and independent candidate Miriam Ross to retain her seat.

Edith Ajello, a nine-term in-cumbent, beat Republican Dan Harrop in the third district Rhode Island House race by a margin of three to one.

Chris Blazejewski carried the race to fill the District 2 House seat vacated by Democrat David Segal with nearly 75 percent of the vote, beating independent candidate Richard Rhodi.

Democrat Seth Yurdin, who represents College Hill on the City Council, ran unopposed for re-election.

State GOP misses out on party’s nationwide surge

Jesse Morgan / Herald“A year ago today, who would have imagined that any of this was even possible,” said Angel Taveras to a cheering crowd at his victory celebration yesterday.

Julian Ouellet / HeraldAs expected, Taveras beat Jonathon Scott by a broad majority yesterday, garnering over 80 percent of the vote.

mayor of providence

angel taveras to be first Latino mayor

continued on page 6

applause last night at the victory celebration, held at the Providence Biltmore Hotel downtown. Audience cheers mixed with U2’s “Beautiful Day,” blaring triumphantly from the speakers.

Cicilline’s campaign centered on providing jobs to Rhode Islanders, which he said will remain his prime focus in the Capitol.

Candidates traded allegations throughout the race amidst declin-ing confidence in Democratic leader-ship nationwide. Cicilline boasted a fundraising advantage, a nod from Obama during his visit last week and high visibility as a top Rhode

Island politician. But Loughlin made significant gains in polls during the last weeks of the campaign, run-ning neck-and-neck with Cicilline and threatening to take the lead in the historically blue district.

“We all talked about how we get Rhode Island back on track,” Cicil-line told The Herald after his victory speech. “I’m doing all I can.”

Referencing expected Republican Party gains in the House, he said he would favor cooperation over parti-san politics. “This is going to be an important time for us to work to-gether,” he added. “Americans want us to find common ground.”

Cicilline’s charismatic personality will allow him to overcome a polar-

ized Congress, according to Kat-erina Wright ’11, president of Brown Democrats. “We are ecstatic about Cicilline,” she said. “He’s certainly going to face some difficulties ... but he’s going to bring people together.”

He supports large-scale infra-structure investments as well as a $2 billion loan program to aid Rhode Island manufacturers.

Loughlin, endorsed by Sen. John McCain, ran under a platform of “less spending, lower taxes and smaller government.” He supported repealing the health care reform law and has criticized Social Security. His message appealed to voters in a state bearing the weight of budget deficits and continuing fiscal woes.

He focused on thanking his sup-porters and other national political figures — including Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. — in his concession speech to a crowd of nearly 60 people at the Providence Marriott Hotel. He did not mention Cicilline in his remarks.

“We may have lost tonight, but I hope that the energy and enthu-siasm that you showed during my campaign can be continued to be nurtured. Our state and nation fac-es great challenges and will only move forward with the continued dedication and service of the good people in this room,” Loughlin said to cheers from his supporters, many of which urged him to run in 2012.

Supporters — some dissatis-fied with Cicilline’s performance as mayor — expressed frustration with the loss.

“Rhode Islanders need to start voting for the person not the party,” said Thomas Glenn, who attended the event.

Cicilline “has not balanced the budget and not done anything pro-ductive,” said Kendra Furman, a

registered independent.But at the Democratic celebra-

tion, Cicilline had one particularly staunch supporter — his mentee, Alex Morse ’11. Since 2008, Morse has been mentored by Cicilline through the Point Foundation, a non-profit that pairs LGBTQ youth with an adult in a similar field of study. The two have coffee at Starbucks and chat on the phone when Cicil-line is busy campaigning, according to Morse.

“We’re both LGBTQ and I also want to be mayor of my hometown,” said Morse. “This is a really special moment, he’s breaking a lot of na-tional barriers.”

— With additional reporting by Chip Lebovitz


eLeCtIon 2010 For more in-depth election coverage, check outbrowndailyherald.com/election-2010

Julien Ouellet/ HeraldThough David Cicilline ’83 carried a lead early in the race, competition heated up in the days prior to the election.

Representative in u.s. congress - district 1

Cicilline to be rhode Island’s first openly gay congressmancontinued from page 1

Taveras said his first projects as mayor will be fiscal ones. “First thing we’ve got to do is get a bud-get. ... We also have to address the tax increase that was recently passed by the city council,” he said.

For those in attendance, im-proving Providence’s education system and bringing more jobs to the city were top priorities.

Vasquez said that though he has a job with the city, the num-ber of jobs in Providence is a major issue among voters. But “as long as he improves educa-tion and brings honesty, that’s enough for me,” he said.

In the interview, Taveras said that if the public education sys-tem can succeed for students in Harlem, it should be able to suc-ceed in Providence as well.

“We want to make Providence a children’s zone,” he said.

“With respect to jobs, we’re going to focus on retaining the jobs that we have, and recruit-ing jobs and businesses from all over the state and all over the region, and reforming the way we do business here in the state and in the city,” Taveras told The Herald.

Rachel Peterson ’13 volun-teered for Taveras’ campaign this summer. She said she was attracted to his environmental policies as well as his personality.

“I’m really happy to be having him as a mayor,” she said.

–With additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer

Jesse Morgan / Herald“We did our best,” said Democrat Frank Caprio in his concession speech last night. He faced a tough loss to independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14.

taveras to focus on education in office


WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010 THE BROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 7

eLeCtIon 2010

cent sales tax increase garnered national attention, branded himself as the candidate who could supply the tough medicine to fix the state’s budget woes and ailing public educa-tion system.

A competitive showing by Rob-itaille provided election night sus-pense, as he and Chafee traded the top spot in early returns.

Robitaille, who had lagged in third for much of the campaign, surged into second place after Caprio said Presi-dent Barack Obama could “shove it” last week. Obama declined to en-dorse the Democrat in deference to his friend Chafee.

Chafee’s victory brings him back to public office after his 2006 Senate defeat to Democrat Sheldon White-house, amid a national anti-Republican backlash.

“Ultimately, what this election was about was honesty,” said Chafee, the now-unaffiliated former mayor of Warwick.

Chafee told The Herald in October he plans to focus on the “A, B, C’s” of Rhode Island — the state’s assets, budget and corruption. This entails improving public transportation in the state, investing in infrastructure, improving budget transparency and revitalizing the Jewelry District — the future site of Brown’s Alpert Medical School — he said.

The state’s troubled public educa-tion system, which was thrust into the national spotlight during a standoff with Central Falls teachers last spring, will also be an important issue for the new governor, he said.

“I’m a public school teacher, and I think he’s the best one to support edu-cation in the state,” said Cynthia Braca P’10, a North Providence elementary

school teacher and member of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers. Chafee was endorsed by both of the state’s top teachers unions.

The Chafee family has a long his-tory in Rhode Island politics. Lincoln’s father, John Chafee, held the Gover-nor’s office from 1963 to 1969, and continued on to the U.S. senate in 1976. And his great-great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was governor from 1875 to 1877.

Caprio, whose family business is also Rhode Island politics, was relatively upbeat in his concession speech.

“Tonight is a great night for Rhode Island,” he said, surrounded by his family at a ballroom of the Providence Biltmore Hotel. “I wish I could have been part of it, but we did our best.”

Many of the Democratic support-ers assembled at the hotel said they

had voted exclusively for Democrats — save in the gubernatorial race. “Caprio’s disrespect for the office of the president turned me off,” said Jeff Davis, a 34 year-old urban planner who voted for Chafee.

William McPhillips, 70, a retired truck driver, said the candidate’s com-ment was instrumental in his loss. “He shot himself in the foot,” according to McPhillips, who said he cast his vote for Caprio.

Robitaille, endorsed by the Tea Party, ran on a platform of lower taxes and lower spending.

He took 33.6 percent of the vote, compared to Chafee’s 36.1 percent

and Caprio’s 23 percent. Block won more than the requisite 5 percent needed for the state to recognize his Moderate party in the next election cycle.

At the Brown Republican election night gathering in MacMillan 117, students wearing Robitaille stickers were disappointed with his defeat.

But group members were still “feeling great,” thanks to the GOP gains in the House, Terrence George ’13, the Brown Republicans president, said.

— With additional reporting by Ana Alvarez and Alexandra Ulmer

Julien Ouellet / HeraldDespite finishing fourth, Ken Block received enough support to allow his Moderate Party to continue to receive official recognition from the state.

Rhode island governor

Chafee ’75 p’14 edges robitaille, CaprioKathryn Green / Herald

Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 pulled out a win after a tough four-candidate race.


SportswednesdayWEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010 | PAGE 8

The Brown Daily Herald

women’s squad finish third in weekend raceBy James Blum

SportS Staff Writer

Last Friday was a bittersweet day for cross country as the women’s squad captured third place at the Ivy League Cross Country Hep-tagonal Championships in Van Cortlandt Park, while the men finished last. Both the men and women of Princeton brought home the Ivy League title.

Margaret Connelly ’14, who finished the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 29 seconds, led the women. Her efforts placed her fifth overall and earned her the honor of being on the First Team All-Ivy.

The next two finishers for Brown were Lauren Pischel ’11 and Elaine Kuckertz ’13 with times of 17:49 and 17:52, respec-tively. Finishing 10th and 12th, they were both named to the Sec-ond Team.

“I would say we exceeded external expectations that other teams had set for us,” Pischel said. “We performed well and fought really hard for what we wanted.”

Pischel added that the women had been recently ranked behind most of the schools that they beat.

Heidi Caldwell ’14, who had been a top finisher for Brown in the past, slipped to fifth-place on

the team. Caldwell said, “It was a very off day. I left the starting line and already felt bad, but the team did really well, so that was exciting.”

Women’s Head Coach Jill Miller said, “It was a good day, not an amazing day, so there are a couple of areas we could work on. Overall, I was really happy, but it can be a springboard.”

Dan Lowry ’12 and Matt Duffy ’12, who finished the 8-kilometer course in 25:20 and 25:24, respec-tively, led the men. The squad’s poor performance was reflected in the points with Brown accruing 188 points compared to seventh place’s 149 and the winner’s 33.

Despite their finish, Lowry wrote in an e-mail to The Her-ald, “I think we all know we are capable of a lot better. We are ready to move on from Heps and come back to surprise people at Regionals.”

Men’s Head Coach Tim Spring-field said, “I know we’re a better team than we showed on Friday. We didn’t perform to the level I know we’re capable.”

The men’s team will have an-other opportunity to prove itself when Bruno competes at the NCAA Northeast Regional Cham-pionship on Nov. 13 in Madison, Conn.

“I’m expecting the team to be really excited to just get back out there and execute a little bit bet-ter,” Springfield said. “I’m going

to try to get us better prepared.” The regional meet is the sec-

ond of three important postseason competitions, with the Heptagonal Championships as the first and the NCAA National Champion-ships as the finale on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind. There are sev-eral paths that can be taken to qualify for nationals.

The top two teams at each of the nine regional championships automatically qualify and 13 ad-ditional at-large teams will be se-lected by a committee based on a points system.

Additionally, individuals can qualify separately from a non-qualifying team if they are the first four finishers from a region. Again, two additional at-large runners will be selected by com-mittee.

The selection system leaves open the possibility for both of Brown’s teams to advance or for runners to individually qualify. For example, though the men did not qualify as a team last year, Chris-tian Escareno ’11 did compete at nationals by finishing 10th in the region.

For now, the teams are simply focused on running at the ability level they know themselves to be capable of, according to Miller and Springfield.

“We can’t take anything for granted,” Miller said. “We real-ize we have a lot more potential than we showed this weekend.”

beat Harvard (10-15) on Saturday in the first round of the Ivy League Championships, held at Princeton. Their streak ended when No. 18 Princeton (15-8) outlasted Brown 7-6 in overtime to capture the Ivy crown.

Mercado said his team gave Princeton “two or three opportu-nities that they capitalized on.”

Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 netted five goals in the loss, and said his team played “really well” despite the game’s outcome.

“We believe in ourselves and we know we can do it in the next couple of tournaments,” Stefanovic said.

The next test for the Bears comes this weekend at the North-ern Division Championships, held at MIT. Mercado’s squad will face Iona College (5-17) in the first round of the tournament. Though Brown is heavily favored, the match is critical because the winner quali-fies for the Eastern Championship tournament, which begins Nov. 19 at Bucknell University.

Mercado emphasized that his squad will need to play good de-

fense if they are to move deeper into tournament play.

“Shooting is fixable,” Mercado said. “We can’t take an off-day on defense.”

The play of Brown’s two goal-ies, Max Lubin ’12 and Walker Shockley ’14, will be crucial going forward. Shockley has seen more and more playing time as the sea-son has progressed. He netted nine saves in the loss against Princeton. Mercado described the freshman’s recent performance as “amazing.”

“Right now we have two good goalies and Walker is getting the minutes,” Mercado said. “And he’s taking full advantage of it.”

Stefanovic agreed with his coach, saying that Shockley is “a very talented player” despite his “limited experience.”

Should the Bears defeat Iona, they will likely face East Coast pow-erhouse No. 13 St. Francis College (17-3), to whom they’ve lost twice this season. Stefanovic dismissed the previous losses, and is confi-dent in his team.

“We have great momentum coming out of the tournament,” Stefanovic said. “We will be ready for Northerns, without a question.”

Check out Herald sports online

browndailyherald.com/sports

Men’s water polo looks ahead to big tourneys


WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010 THE BROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 9

SportSwedneSdayw. soccer almost upsets first-place penn, loses in overtimeBy madeleine wensTRup

SportS Staff Writer

A goal by the University of Pennsyl-vania in overtime smashed hopes of an upset win by the women’s soccer team. The Bears were ahead 2-1 until a late goal by Penn sent the teams into overtime. The Quakers (9-6-1, 4-1-1 Ivy League) took only two minutes in the extra time to score a goal for a sudden victory. Despite the loss, Bruno (7-5-4, 1-3-2) ended Penn’s four-game shutout streak and challenged the number one-ranked Ivy League squad.

“The players gave everything they had, that’s what made it exciting,” said Head Coach Phil Pincince. “Everyone made a con-tribution to the effort.”

The Quakers went on the board first in the 22nd minute. Penn’s high-scoring forward, Marin Mc-Dermott, was situated at the back post and headed in a cross to give Penn the lead.

With 11 minutes remaining in the first half, Brown evened the score with a header from Diana Orht ’13, her second of the season. Orht’s score marked the first goal allowed by Penn in their last five games.

Early in the second half, both teams had dangerous attempts. Mary Lesbirel ’12 had goalkeeper Caroline Williams beat two minutes

into the second half, but Williams managed to redirect Lesbirel’s at-tempt, sending it wide. Thirteen minutes later, the Quakers got the ball in the net, but were called off-side after the play.

The teams went back and forth, and the Bears held a slight 11-10 shot advantage. Brown took five corner kicks, while the Quakers took none.

“It was a well-played game,” Pincince said. “Both teams capi-talized on their offensive plays, and we had three great opportunities.”

A captain-led play finally brought the Bears out of the tie with 20 minutes remaining. A free kick by Charlotte Rizzi ’11 set up Gina Walker ’11 for a beautiful header that went high over Williams’ head.

For almost 10 minutes the Bears led against the top team in the Ivy League. But the lead was short-lived as McDermott took another header to tie up the game.

In a sudden-death overtime, the Quakers were not interested in playing for long. Two minutes in, an assist by McDermott set up forward Ursula Lopez-Palm for a one-on-one play with MC Barrett ’14. Lopez-Palm took a final touch to push it past Barrett and end the game, 3-2.

The Bears end their season at Stevenson Field, taking on Yale in a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photoDespite close shots on goal in the second half, Mary Lesbirel ’12 was unable to beat one past the Penn goalkeeper.

editorial & LettersPAGE 10 | WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 3, 2010


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privacy in giving

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Brown students consistently rank among the happiest in the nation, so it’s no surprise that when the senior class gift campaign rolls around, many soon-to-be graduates are glad to donate. But things aren’t so nice and simple at some of Brown’s peer institutions — a few of last year’s seniors at Cornell and Dartmouth had their privacy violated during those schools’ senior gift drives. Fortunately, seniors at Brown can rest assured that their decisions about whether and how much to give will be treated as private information.

According to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, student volunteers assisting with the fundraising drives at both Cornell and Dartmouth were given lists of their peers who had not yet made a donation. The article notes that the holdouts were subjected to a barrage of calls and e-mails. At Cornell, at least one volunteer sent out a mass e-mail listing those students who had not yet contributed. And at Dartmouth, the lone holdout in the class of 1,123 students was called out by name in a popular blog for Dartmouth students.

The single student was criticized because the Dart-mouth class of 1960 had promised to give $100,000 if the class of 2010 achieved a 100 percent donation rate, the Chronicle reported. (When the single student refused to give in, the class of 1960 ended up giving the money anyway). Frankly, we don’t care how much in possible matching funds is at stake — it’s wholly

inappropriate to use public humiliation to pressure students into giving away their money. Both schools must put safeguards in place to prevent something like this from happening again.

Brown seniors do not need to worry about similar events transpiring here. Any volunteer working for the senior gift campaign who receives a list of donors to target must agree to a confidentiality statement, Tammie Ruda, executive director of annual giving, wrote in an e-mail to the editorial page board. Stu-dents who do choose to give money are recognized in an online publication that lists all individuals who have contributed to Brown in the previous year. But Ruda also noted that all donors have the option of giving anonymously. Finally, Ruda highlighted that students can opt to honor a particular individual with their donation, and these honorees are mentioned in The Herald’s commencement issue.

We’re pleased to hear that Brown’s senior gift campaign is conducted with respect and dignity. For those students who feel great about their four years here — and we know there are many — the senior class gift presents a fantastic opportunity to express one’s appreciation.

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opinionsThe Brown Daily Herald

When I tell people I work in the chaplains’ of-fice, their responses mostly tend to be, “What is the chaplains’ office anyway?” It’s unfortu-nate that not many Brown students know what the chaplains’ office does or how they can use it.

The office is much more than a multi-faith team of chaplains advising campus religious organizations. The Guide to Brown 2010, a packet for first-year students, says the work of the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life “involves caring for all members of the Brown family, encouraging the University’s multicul-tural richness, contributing to the intellectual enterprise on campus and advocating for mat-ters of conscience in all facets of the Universi-ty’s life and beyond.” I like this description, but it’s too vague to communicate all the essential services the office provides.

Let’s begin with “caring for all members of the Brown family,” the aspect of the office that I experience most often. Freshman year, I found myself pulled into the OCRL because of the Chaplains’ gifts for personal attention, sup-port and recognition of students’ struggles, from breakups to family illnesses to lack of fi-nancial aid. I have seen the office lend money to a student who has not been able to afford food in two weeks. I have seen them help a student rearrange midterms around a little-known religious holiday. I have seen them counsel a family over a situation that caused a student to leave school after freshman year.

What other department handles these crises and meltdowns, the ones that often trouble us the most as students but tend to fall through the institutional cracks?

To many, it might seem strange to recom-mend the OCRL for personal matters unre-lated to religion. Yet the chaplains’ office, as the Guide to Brown dutifully states but fails to elaborate, serves as support for our whole be-ings — mind, body and spirit. Is the death of a friend not a crisis of the entire being? Does the inability to buy food not simultaneously affect mind, body and spirit?

I’m not saying the chaplains’ office can substitute equally well for health services or psych services, but it has an essential comple-mentary function. Matters of the spirit do not have to pertain to the religious, but rather are issues that we face beyond the physical (a bro-ken foot) or the mental (a particularly difficult problem set).

Beyond the role the chaplains’ office plays in caring for Brown students, it also encour-ages “multicultural richness” and contrib-utes to the “intellectual enterprise.” Religious identities are an essential if sometimes unrec-ognized part of diversity at Brown. In an Ad-

mission Office pamphlet titled “Diversity: Per-spectives from the Community of Color,” one student cites her involvement with the Catho-lic community as bringing her ethnic heritage into her life. As such it seems obvious, to me at least, that the OCRL should be listed as a resource for students interested in diversity on campus.

Yet the “useful websites” section of the pamphlet lists offices from the Third World Center to the Office of Residential Life — but not the OCRL. If the University truly thinks of the OCRL as supporting multiculturalism and

religious identity as an element of diversity, it should begin engaging it as such.

Furthermore, the chaplains have exten-sive academic expertise and knowledge, and the office contributes greatly to intellectual discourse at Brown. OCRL initiatives recent-ly brought to campus Ada María Isasi-Díaz, world-renowned theologian and ethicist, and Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core and advisor to President Obama. Thurs-day Night Supper, a weekly dinner and dis-cussion open to all students, invites speakers to talk about issues from hospice care to the practice of nonviolence.

Yet my sense is that at Brown we have work to do to give to religion the same attention to detail and nuance that we give other issues like race, gender or politics. We analyze religion as a monolithic phenomenon somehow removed from us. The history of religion, its diversity and the lived experience of it are not concepts to be glossed over or simplified. The chaplains, not to mention members of the Department of Religious Studies, can help provide more sub-tlety to these questions.

Finally, and perhaps most vaguely, the of-fice “advocates for matters of conscience” at Brown and beyond. I am not claiming that ethical living must stem from religious roots. Even so, the chaplains’ office is a place that not only encourages, but engages and exem-plifies, integrity and social responsibility. Janet Cooper Nelson, the chaplain of the University, appeared at the Brown vigil held for the recent highly publicized suicides of five gay students. As the face of the religious community at this University, she encouraged those gathered to act from kindness.

Last week while I was at work, she won-dered aloud if Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman, had anyone to help him work through his reaction to his roommate’s humili-ating video ploy. As students, we need people to remind us that we are “precious,” Nelson said. Part of the mission of the chaplains’ of-fice is to provide that reminder.

Chelsea Waite ’11 works on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and will be happy

to talk your ear off about the OCRL.

I’ll take the chaplains’ office for five hundred

It was that time of the year, when Brown students took a break from the usual stress of their classes to think about their outfits for the upcoming “holiday” season. No, it was still not the season to be jolly, but rather the much-anticipated “All Hallows’ Eve.” In between the talk about midterms and the ever-increasing pile of unfinished readings to be done, ideas for Halloween costumes took over the normal, everyday conversations of Brown students. Even Facebook became an open forum where people asked their fellow 500-plus friends for advice on whom they should dress up as or how to put their inventive ideas ro work — the answer to most of which is a flood of links to ehow.com.

Two years ago, an invasion of Sarah Palins — or a considerable percentage of Brown females dressed in professional at-tire — took over the line outside the tent for the “Wriston Rising” Halloween party. But this year, the Halloween inspiration was elsewhere: in the new self-proclaimed queen of the media, Lady Gaga.

Perhaps it was because Halloween be-came an impromptu festivity for me here at Brown — one that required little thinking and not an exhaustive number of hours of preparation — that I wasn’t ranking highly on the creativity scale when it came to pick-ing a costume. Nevertheless, the thought of dressing up as Lady Gaga sparked my

interest. After all, it did not seem incred-ibly hard to mix and match random gar-ments and pair them up with a platinum blonde wig to get the Gaga style going on. I kept imagining all the possible combina-tions of costumes that could pass the test for Lady Gaga — anything from the bubble dress that she wore on the cover of Roll-ing Stone to black, metallic and asymmet-ric ensembles thrown together — until a distinctive image took hold of my mind: a snapshot of Lady Gaga in her now iconic yet infamous raw meat dress.

On Sept. 12, an outraged American pub-lic watched as Lady Gaga took the stage at the 27th Annual MTV Video Music Awards to receive the “Video of the Year” award wearing pieces of raw meat strewn together as a “dress.” Despite the myriad of indignant responses from PETA and other organisms of the media, the most sought-after Halloween costume is — you guessed it — Gaga’s meat dress. Although butchers have cautioned against wearing meat for trick-or-treating purposes — giv-

ing reasons as diverse as the questionable state of hygiene of raw meat to the prac-tical difficulty of sewing pieces of meat together — the meat dress is already too much in vogue.

Quite recently, the Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York’s meat-packing district presented its own take on Franc Fernandez’s (the now notorious mind be-hind the meat design) dress: a Gaga-in-spired version of the meat dress worth $100,000 (and available for purchase). For those whose can’t take that fast-cash out of

their accounts, there are certainly other al-ternatives: the DIY method of buying indi-vidual cuts of meat (roughly a $250 invest-ment) from local butchers or the knock-off approach of frying strips of bacon and as-sembling them, as a New Jersey woman suggested on The Huffington Post.

The bottom line is this: Sadly, there was little to be done to prevent Gaga aficiona-dos from donning the “walking charcute-rie” look this Halloween.

At a very basic level, I don’t see why

it should be too much of an issue when people tend to over-esteem their favorite Hollywood stars and their “bold” fashion choices — it’s natural and, for the most part, harmless. Yet, I believe that the Lady Gaga Meat Dress/Fashion Statement/whatever you want to call it has transcend-ed the register of mere admiration. True, her dress might be the absolute sensation now — the most-talked about garment and originator of the eponymous Halloween costume — but the consequences of fall-ing into this trap are much more serious. By paying homage to Lady Gaga’s meat dress in this sort of grotesque act of mime-sis, we are putting at risk our own capacity to judge what is admirable in an artist and what is downright reprehensible. And just because Lady Gaga happens to be a “fame monster” at the present moment does not mean that we should glorify and further imitate every single one of her actions.

Her extravagance and postmodern glamour are an undeniable staple of our pop culture, but they can also blind our critical eye and lure us into buying these deluded definitions of coolness. So for Hal-loween, I’d stick to the witch costume, no matter how trite and uninventive it might seem. It’s classic, easy-to-do, Gaga-free and will forever remain in style.

Lucia Seda ’12 is a comparative litera-ture concentrator from San Juan, Puer-

to Rico. She can contacted at [email protected].

halloween and Lady Gaga: a ‘meaty’ combination

By paying homage to Lady Gaga’s meat dress in this sort of grotesque act of mimesis, we are putting at risk our own capacity to judge what is admirable in an artist and what is downright

reprehensible.

I found myself pulled into the OCRL because of the Chaplains’ gifts for personal attention,

support, and recognition of students’ struggles.

By LUCIA SEDAopinions coluMnist

By CHELSEA WAITEopinions coluMnist

wednesday, nOvemBeR 3, 2010 PAGE 12

Today 25

Tran scholarship hosts dinner

R.I. GOP emerges empty-handed


52 / 35

Bat & gaz | Sofia Ortiz

dot comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

The adventures of Team vag | Wendy Kwartin

2 55calendar

Menu

crossword

the news in iMaGes

coMics

54 / 40

today toMorrow

5 p.m.

“Wealth, Health, and Democracy

in East Asia and Latin America,”

Watson Institute

7 p.m.

SPG: Sex, Power, Good? List 110

4 p.m.

“The Brazilian Elections:

Implications for the Future of Brazil

and Latin America,” Watson Institute

7 p.m

Ocean Night by emPower, List 120

shaRpe ReFecTORy veRney-wOOlley dining hall

lunch

dinneR

Castle Hill Inn Pork Spare Ribs,

vegan Ratatouille, Beets in Orange

Sauce, Fudge Bars

Rotisserie Style Chicken, Sweet and

Sour Tofu, Mediterranean Shrimp

Stir Fry, Squash Rolls

Beef Tacos, vegetarian Tacos,

vegetarian Mori Soba Noodles,

Whole Kernel Corn

Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich,

Tomato Quiche, Italian Marinated

Chicken, Chocolate Krinkle Cookies

TOday nOvemBeR 3 TOmORROw nOvemBeR 4

classic Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

classic deo | Daniel Perez

Documents

Wednesday, November 3, 2010