8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

1/8

www.rownaihera.com 195 Ane Street, Provience, Rhoe Isan hera@rownaihera.com

News.....1-3Metro.....4-5Eitoria. .6Opinion...7Toay........8

Stone Cold

Thaers financia

troe Co Stone

Creamer shts its oors

Metro, 5Survey SayS...

Nine out of 10 Provience

resients ca city economy

not so oo

Metro, 4anti-anti-meat

Michae Fitzpatrick 12

sinks his teeth into the

case for veetarianism

Opinions, 7

inside

DailyHeraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 79 | Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

A , zBy Seth motel

News editor

For the rst time since an ambi-

tious eort to expand Browns

aculty began earlier this de-

cade, the size o the Universitys

aculty has declined slightly

this year, losing a net o three

members.

The University began the

year with 686 aculty members,down rom 689 at the start o the

last academic year, according

to data released by the Oce

o the Dean o the Faculty last

month. The size o last years

aculty represented a 20 percent

increase over the 573 aculty

on campus in 2001-2002, the

academic year immediately

preceding the boom in aculty

hiring that later became a oun-

dational element o the Plan or

Academic Enrichment.

That wide-reaching blueprint,

whose core elements were rst

outlined by President Ruth Sim-

mons in February 2002, calls

or 100 new aculty positions,

including 25 target o oppor-

tunity spots, which enable the

University to quickly hire es-

pecially distinguished proes-

sors when such opportunities

arise.

Provost David Kertzer 69

P95 P98 said 82 o those 100

positions have been lled so ar,

including 20 o the 25 target

spots. But aculty expansion is

nearing an end, he said.

There was a airly intense

period o hiring, he said. Were

kind o past that heyday.The size o the aculty had

increased by about 18 members

per year rom the 2001-2002

academic year through the

2007-2008 year, but last year

the aculty grew by only nine

members.

The three-member decrease

in aculty or the 2009-2010 aca-

demic year did not dier greatly

rom what had been an antici-

pated modest growth o about

our members, said Dean o the

Faculty Rajiv Vohra P07.

Quite apart rom the eco-

nomic downturn coming at this

time, I think that in the normal

course o implementing the Plan

or Academic Enrichment, we

would be slowing down growth,

Vohra said.

P,

bbBy Brigitta greene

seNiorstaffwriter

The Jonathan Nelson 77 Fitness

Center and a new aquatics center

may be combined under one roo

rather than being constructed as

separate acilities, top administra-

tors said recently.

A combined and somewhat

scaled-back acility would cost

approximately $40 million, about

$25 million less than the com-bined price tag or two buildings,

said Richard Spies, executive vice

president or planning and senior

adviser to the president. Built sepa-

rately, the tness center could cost

$40 million and the swim center

another $25 million.

The University is in conversa-

tions with the lead donors or each

project, and the buildings remain

in the initial stages o planning,

Spies said. Donors or both proj-

ects have been receptive about

the idea, he said, but want to see

more detailed plans beore moving

orward.

Administrators will present

a detailed proposal to the Cor-

poration at its October meeting

next weekend. I the Universitys

highest governing body approves

the proposal, construction could

I , k b ABy Sophia li

featureseditor

When the University announced ithad hired amed Arican writer Chi-

nua Achebe last month, it brought

into its Department o Aricana Stud-

ies one o the worlds highest-prole

thinkers on Arica. But rather than an

isolated move, the hiring is just the

latest indicator o a consistent eort

to enhance the Universitys contribu-

tion to Arican scholarship.

Brown is moving towards

establishing itsel as a leader in

scholarship on Arica, said Anthony

Bogues, proessor o Aricana studies

and the departments ormer chair.

Theres no way we can consider

ourselves a leader at this point.

Recent hires, such as Achebe,

suggest that Brown is willing to

spend serious resources on scholars

who are o and rom Arica, said

Associate Proessor o Anthropology

Daniel Smith, whose own research

ocuses on HIV/AIDS, reproduc-

tive health and marriage, mostly in

Nigeria.

But despite those eorts, the

University has its work cut out toestablish itsel as a destination or

Arican scholars. The aculty, aca-

demic departments and University

centers that have long ocused their

work on the continent are looking to

Proessor o Anthropology Matthew

Gutmann, the new vice president or

international aairs, and Michael

Kennedy, the new director o the

Watson Institute or International

Studies, to lead the way.

Bogues said he expects the two

new leaders o Browns internation-

alization eorts to bolster the Uni-

versitys reputation or scholarship

on Arica. Ive been in discussions

with both o them, and both have

expressed support or movement

in this direction, he said.

The Universitys Aricana studies

department, which houses much o

continued onpage 2

Nichoas Sinnott-Armstron / Hera

Officias ma fo a permanent repacement for the temporar aqatics e, aove, into a panne new m.

F B, By Brigitta greene

seNiorstaffwriter

From Seattle to Cincinnati,

streetcars are rattling back onto

U.S. streets and Providence may

not be ar behind.A streetcar system connecting

Brown to the hospitals and medi-

cal centers downtown could be op-

erational within 10 years, said Tim

McCormick, ormer manager o the

planning department at the Rhode

Island Public Transit Authority.

The Metro Transit Study Work-

ing Group, which comprises city

and state representatives, RIPTA,

development organizations and lo-

cal universities, has been workingon plans or a circulatory transit

system to connect Providences

medical acilities to its educational

institutions or meds to eds,

said Amy Pettine, RIPTAs special

projects manager.

The working group, which was

created in March 2007, plans to re-

lease the results o its study next

month.

Though route plans and unding

options have yet to be nalized , theproject is not a pipe dream, Mc-

Cormick said. This is something

thats not outside the realm o pos-

sibility.

In a 2007 report on the citys

transit projects, Mayor David Ci-

cilline 83 gave his support to the

system. Future economic growth

requires reversing the congestion

that increasingly clogs our roads

and highways, he wrote in the

report. The real solution lies increating a great transit system.

Because o the permanence o

rail inrastructure, streetcars dem-

continued onpage 2

continued onpage 4

continued onpage 3

SHEddINg lIgHT ON AbuSE

Enice Hon / HeraHnres of prpe an white f as were pante on the Main green over theweeken to raise awareness of omestic vioence.

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

2/8

sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, President

Michael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, Treasurer

Alexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Mondaythrough Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once duringCommencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown DailyHerald, Inc. Single copy ree or each members o the community.POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Oces are located at 195Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com.World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

e p: 401.351.3372 | Bsss p: 401.351.3260

DailyHeraldthe Brown

TuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009THE bROWN dAIly HERAldPAgE 2

CAPS wS

This years new data are not

necessarily indicative o a certain

pattern o aculty growth, said

Faculty Executive Committee

chair Chung-I Tan, a proessor

o physics and chair o the de-

partment.

At a given year, a slight drop

o this sort is not to be an alarm,

he said. Every eort has been

made to maintain the momentum

weve gained.

By aggressively growing the

aculty beore waiting or the $1.4billion Campaign or Academic

Enrichment to meet 100 percent

o its goal, President Ruth Sim-

mons did something rather

bold, Kertzer said.

Considering the economic

eects o the past year, Kertzer

added, Weve been remarkably

successul in staying on track.

S fzs

Kertzer said fattening aculty

growth coincided with the salary

reeze implemented this year or

most aculty.

To be adding a lot o aculty

while reezing salaries, rom aaculty point o view, would have

been questionable, he said.

The new report by Vohras

oce showed a slight increase

in the median salaries o proes-

sors at every level between the

2007-2008 and 2008-2009 years,

though both Vohra and Kertzer

said the change in median salary

in the current academic year will

be close to zero because o the

salary reeze.

According to the data, the

median salary o ull proessors

rose 3.2 percent last year, rom

$131,127 to $135,424. Associateproessors saw their median sal-

ary go up by 3.7 percent, rom

$84,000 to $87,213. The median

salary o assistant proessors in-

creased rom $73,500 to $75,328,

or 2.4 percent.

Vohra cautioned that median

salaries can be misleading be-

cause in any given year some

aculty are promoted, while oth-

ers leave the University and are

replaced.

A more accurate measure is

the total salary increase o re-

turning aculty, Vohra said. That

number was about 4 percent last

year and had been 5 percent and

higher during the early years o

the Plan, he said.

Last year, the growth o sala-

ries o ull proessors at Brown

was ourth-highest in the Ivy

League, while the growth o as-

sociate and assistant proessors

mean salaries at Brown ranked

seventh, according to data rom

the Chronicle o Higher Educa-

tion. Still, Brown remains the

lowest-paying Ivy League school

at every level.

Faculty are generally under-

standing o the salary reeze,

Tan said, but a prolonged reeze

might undo some o the positive

changes that have occurred un-

derSimmons leadership.

At some point, in order to

remain competitive, you have to

address that issue, he said.

Sc

Vohra said endowment losses

across the country have eliminat-

ed some o the usual suspects

among peer institutions that are

typically looking to hire aculty,

which makes it easier or schools

like Brown to attract talent. But

despite many active searches indierent departments, adminis-

trators have told departments

to be par ticularly selective, he

said.

Many department chairs said

they have not encountered much

diculty in hiring new aculty.

Department Chair and Pro-

essor o History Omer Bartov

said he saw no contradiction

between a drop in the overall

number o aculty and the Univer-

sitys pursuit o new high-prole

senior aculty. Because the overall

growth o the aculty may remain

limited, recruiting prominent and

established aculty makes sense,he said.

But Bartov added that he has

concerns about the use o the

target program. Such hires,

typically older proessors, oten

do not stay at Brown or very

long, and can make a department

top-heavy, he said.

Bartov cautioned against mov-

ing too ar in the direction o pri-

oritizing more senior, target

hires over younger aculty.

Andrew Foster, proessor o

economics and department chair,

said he appreciated the fexibil-

ity that the target program hasgiven departments.

It used to be the case histori-

cally at Brown that you had to

argue or how many FTEs you

had, Foster said, reerring to

ull-time equivalent aculty

members. You just never know

when you start the year whos

going to be available.

The new data show that most

new positions since the 2002-2003

academic year have been at the

level o assistant proessor.

The number o assistant pro-

essors has jumped 51.6 percent,

while the number o associate

proessors is up 11 percent and

ull proessors have increased

by 10.2 percent in that time. The

number o lecturer positions at

the senior and junior levels saw

a 4.3 percent increase.

For Kenneth Wong, proes-

sor o education and chair o the

department, the key issue now

is not the size o the aculty, but

the amount o suppor t available.

Increasing resources or the

growing aculty has been one o

the Plans primary goals.

I think that thats one area

that we need to think through

more careully, Wong said.

F k b b

continued frompage 1

begin in about a year, said Ste-

phen Maiorisi, vice president or

acilities management. It would

take approximately 18 months to

complete, he said.

But combining the acilities

would require scaling back some

ambitions or the tness center.

The biggest change in the unied

project is that plans to include three

indoor basketball courts would be

scrapped, Maiorisi said.

We will have to compromise

a bit on the program, Spies said,

emphasizing that the core plans or

each project would remain intact.

At its February meeting, the

Corporation recommended that

the University look to complete its

capital projects within the limits o

unds already raised, Spies said.Its not quite true to say weve

already got the $40 million to pay

or a combined building, Spies said.

But i the current lead donors

maintain their relationship with

the eort, we assume we can get

there pretty quickly.

That the number o donors or

each project is not huge makes

compromise easier to achieve, he

added.

The new aquatics center, wheth-

er built as a separate project or as

part o a combined tness center,

will house Browns rst permanent

pool since str uctural decienciesunexpectedly orced the Smith

Swim Center to close in December

2006. The structure was demol-

ished a year later.

Peter Brown, head coach o the

mens swimming and diving team,

said he thought the developments

in plans or a new building were a

positive sign.

Theres no question its great

or Brown, he said. Its great or

athletics. Its great or the aquatics

program.

Since January 2008, Browns

swimming, diving and water polo

teams have been competing o

campus and practicing in a tem-

porary indoor pool built behind

the Olney-Margolies Athletics

Center.

You dont really have a true

home until you have your own

pool, Brown said. Youre in a little

bit o (a) vagabond mode.

The new tness center which

has been in the works since 2004

but was ocially put on hold by the

Corporation in February was

originally to eature a gymnasium,

ve dance and tness studios and

a 11,900-square-oot space or car-

diovascular and weight-training

equipment.

continued frompage 1

F , b b

Hera Fie Photo

The nexpecte conemnation of the Smith Swim Center in 2007 has compicate pans for a new fitness center.

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

3/8

CAPS wSTuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009 THE bROWN dAIly HERAld PAgE 3

brown is not oin oa. brown is oa. Matthew gtmann, vice presient for internationa affairs

By anita mathewS

CoNtributiNg writer

Sit at a desk in your last class? Con-

sider yoursel ortunate.

Many sections are experienc-

ing overcrowding this semester, so

much so that students must sit on

the foor and, in some cases, win-

dowsills during lectures.

Enrollment in these congested

classes ranges rom the 28 students

o GNSS 1960B: Health and Healing

in American History, crowded in a

Wilson Hall classroom, to the whop-

ping 261 in a single section o ENGN

0090: Management o Industrial andNonprot Organizations in a Barus

and Holley auditorium.

Classroom scheduling is usually

based on an estimated 120 percent

o pre-registration numbers, Michael

Pesta, the University registrar, wrote

in an e-mail to The Herald. Once

classes begin, however, enroll-

ments can fuctuate unpredictably,

he added.

Anthony Adams, a visiting assis-

tant proessor o english, requested

that his 53-student class, ENGL

1210: History o the English Lan-

guage, be moved rom Wilson Hall

205, which has a maximum capacity

o 42, to a larger room in an eort toretain interested students.

Riley Blanton 09.5, a member

o the class, said he thought some

students may have dropped the class

during shopping period because o

the crowded space.

It got to the point that people

couldnt even open the door to get

in, Blanton said.

The class eventually moved to a

larger room in the Center or Inor-

mation Technology, but Adams said

the bigger space has cost the class

the campre quality it had beorethe move. He added that while he

was surprised by the turnout, he

preers teaching one large class to

two smaller sections.

In a big class, you eel like

youre on stage at a rock concert,

he said.

For some proessors, overfowing

sections are not unusual. Proessor

Emeritus o Engineering Barrett

Hazeltine oers three sections o

ENGN 0090, a perennial avorite

among students. Hazeltine acknowl-

edged that enrollment is up rom last

year, but he said enrollment num-

bers fuctuate rom year to year.He also said he polled the class

regarding a room change, but de-

spite the act that the 261 enrolled

students in one section ar exceed

the rooms capacity o 140, the

consensus was to stay. Now, with

students taking turns sitting on the

foor, Hazeltine says he thinks people

are more involved and engaged.

Though students like Blanton

described the overcrowding as dis-

tracting, he and others said they did

not think the tight space detracted

rom their education.

Colette DeJong 11, who takes

INTL 1280: Global Security ater

the Cold War, a weekly lecture classwith roughly 20 students more than

chairs, said the lack o seats in class

doesnt bother her too much.

Im always late, so Ive never had

a seat yet, she said. But that has not

hurt the level o student participa-

tion, she added.

Global Security may soon be

moved to a bigger room, but in the

meantime, DeJong said the seat

shortage might even be benecial.

It encourages people to get

there on time, she said.

S

Browns interdisciplinary scholar-

ship on Arica, has proposed to in-troduce a graduate program, an o-

ering that could galvanize Browns

academic reputation in the eld.

The proposal has been in the works

or more than two years, accord-

ing to Dean o the Graduate School

Sheila Bonde.

The proposal or an M.A./Ph.D.

program in Aricana studies has

been approved by the Graduate

School Council, Bonde wrote in an

e-mail to The Herald, and is slated

or review by the Academic Priori-

ties Committee on Oct. 20. I the

committee approves the proposal,

it will be reviewed next by the ac-ulty and then by the Corporation,

Bonde wrote.

The proposal is one o a host o

programs drawing attention to the

importance o Arica as a subject or

research, teaching and collabora-

tion. Last year eatured a Focus

on Arica, a series o events and

speakers sponsored by the Aricana

studies department that was similar

to the current Year o India, said

Bogues, who directed the series.

Bogues considers each years

ocus to be a part o the Universitys

commitment to internationalization

and to providing understudied

regions such as Arica and Latin

America, which enjoyed a similar

year o attention two years ago, with

some kind o intellectual home at

Brown, he said.

Smith, the associate director o

Browns Population Studies and

Training Center, said the center

recently received renewed undingto recruit and train young scholars

rom the developing world and

will now ocus exclusively on sub-

Saharan Arica. The center provides

stipends and scholarships or pre-

and post-doctoral population scien-

tists, and plans to support Arican

scholars in their early careers so

that theyll actually be able to go

home and benet their places o

origin, Smith said.

The University also recently

created a scholarship und to sup-

port undergraduate students rom

Arica.

Such investments in academicsupport or Arican students aug-

ment a long history o academic

interest in Arica at Brown. Since

the mid-1960s, Proessor o Anthro-

pology Philip Leis has directed the

Arica Group, a loosely organized

network o aculty, undergradu-

ates, graduate students and outside

scholars that usually hosts events

on topics related to Arica.

But this year, Leis said, the

Watson Institute has not allocated

any money to the Arica Group, an

indicator o the Universitys tight

nancial situation.

Nor have urther plans to create

a center or teaching, research andcollaboration on Arica material-

ized, though the Universitys in-

ternationalization committee made

establishing such an institute one o

its central recommendations more

than two years ago.

Still, Leis said he thinks the

Universitys commitment to inter-nationalization, particularly as it

pertains to Arica, is not just lip

service.

With Gutmann and Kennedy still

new in their posts, the Universitys

road ahead is unclear. But Bogues

listed several speciic ways he

thinks Brown could improve teach-

ing about Arica: regularly oering

Arican languages or study, or hir-

ing aculty who can teach about the

political economy o Arica and who

specialize in the politics o Aricas

regions.

Bogues said he recognized the

limitations on how quickly Browncan build its international reputa-

tion. The process has begun, he

said, but you cant become a global

university in two years.

Ive been on the job or our

weeks, and in our weeks I have

not set policy on everything, Gut-

mann said.

Calling Browns work in Arica

extremely important, he added

that we plan to build on the suc-

cessul work we have in South A-

rica, Tanzania, Ghana, many other

places, and build these into signa-

ture programs or Brown.

Gutmann emphasized that

Brown aculty and students are al-ready doing important work in A-

rica. Its not a question o starting

rom scratch, he said. Brown is not

going global. Brown is global.

P b A continued frompage 1

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

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etroThe brown dai Hera

TuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009 | PAgE 4

Its ovios reat for s.Michae McCormick, asst. vice presient of pannin, on streetcar project

S f, By Sydney emBer

seNiorstaffwriter

Leaves arent the only things allingin Providence.

According to a poll released

Thursday by Browns Taubman

Center or Public Policy, Providence

residents have become increasingly

rustrated with both their citys poor

economy and with Mayor David Ci-

cillines 83 job perormance. More

than hal the 480 registered voters

polled also reported their amilies

were worse o nancially than they

were a year ago.

The poll conducted Sept. 16

through 19 ound that 87 percent

o respondents said they thought

the citys economy was not sogood or poor. Only 23 percent

o respondents thought the citys

uture would bring continuous

good times, down rom 64 percent

in 2006, the last time a similar poll

was conducted.

More than 53 percent o re-

spondents thought the American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act o

2009, which the survey reerred

to as the economic stimulus pro-

gram, has not made a dierence

or Providence, and nearly 70 per-

cent thought the ederal stimulus

unds have not helped their per-

sonal nancial situation.Forty percent o respondents

rated Cicillines job perormance ex-

cellent or good, while 45 percent

rated it as only air or poor. And

despite Cicillines 2002 campaign

promise to have a City Hall ree o

cronyism and corruption, 43 percent

o respondents said they thought he

had not lived up to his pledge.

But the poll also was marked by

a signicant number o dont know

and no answer responses across

the board 14 percent o respon-

dents chose not to rate Cicillines

job perormance and nearly 27 per-

cent did not know or had no answerregarding the results o Cicillines

promise to clean up City Hall.

Taubman Center Director

Marion Orr, proessor o political

science, said he attributed the declin-

ing approval ratings to the major

challenges the city is acing, such

as the huge number o oreclosed

properties that he said indicate that

the national housing crisis has hit the

city particularly hard.

But Orr added he was surprised

by the high percentage o respon-

dents who were dissatised with the

citys economy.

Cicilline could not be reached orcomment, but wrote in an e-mail to

the Providence Journal or an Oct. 2

article that these poll results refect

the very serious economic challeng-

es were acing in Providence, as well

as some important improvements

made in city services.

Last time the Taubman Cen-

ter administered a similar poll, 67

percent o respondents approved

o Cicillines job perormance, Orr

said, adding that the decline could

be a product o citywide pessimism

caused by the recession.

Generally speaking, its just re-

ally the uncertainty o the stateseconomy, he said o the polls un-

avorable responses.

Attention in the local media has

ocused mostly on state and national

policy issues, such as health care,

which Orr said could be the reason

there were so many dont know

and no response answers in the

poll.

The coverage o the mayor and

the city are not as extensive as it

used to be, he said.

onstrate a greater commitment to

economic development than RIP-

TAs traditional bus ser vice, said

Michael McCormick, Browns as-

sistant vice president or planning

design and construction in Facilities

Management.

Local developers recognize this

commitment and are more likely to

invest in the community, Tim Mc-

Cormick said. He pointed to Port-

land, Ore., one o the rst American

cities to establish a major modern

streetcar system. Between 2001,

when that system was rst built,and the spring o 2008, $3.5 billion

was invested in the area within two

blocks o the streetcar tracks, ac-

cording a report by Portland Street-

car Inc.

The city will most probably look

to ederal unding or the estimated

$66-$86 million initial cost to con-

struct the system and buy street-

cars. But RIPTA might ask private

sources including Brown to

cover the systems annual operating

budget, estimated at approximately

$2-$3.5 million, Pettine said.

RIPTAs current operating bud-

get is unded by the states gasoline

tax.

Brown pays RIPTA about

$360,000 a year to allow students,

aculty and sta to ride or ree,

according to Elizabeth Gentry, as-

sistant vice president or adminis-

trative and nancial services.

Institutions and individuals along

the route will have an economic

incentive to und the budget, Pet-

tine said. The streetcars will cater

largely to University community

members traveling rom College

Hill to the medical school and hos-

pitals.

An exact path or streetcar re-

mains to be nalized, but the most

recent Metro Transit Study drat

report shows two interlinked routes

serving Downcity and the Jewelry

District connecting Rhode Island

Hospital and Providence station

with College Hill via the existing

bus tunnel.

The project would include ap-

proximately 2.1 miles o rail along

existing paved streets traversed by

ve electrically powered streetcars,

which would be powered by over-

head catenary lines. Cars would

run every 7 to 15 minutes or at

least 14 hours a day, according to

the studys Web site.

Browns plans to establish agreater presence in the Jewelry Dis-

trict represent a key opportunity or

Providence, Tim McCormick said.

You might call it the only thing

going on in terms o a major invest-

ment in the city, he said.

Its obviously great or us, said

Michael McCormick, who has rep-

resented the University in planning

discussions.

The streetcar project will be

closely related to planning or com-

munity and economic development

that city government, educational

and health centers are currently

undertaking.

As Brown expands its medical

school in the Jewelry District, it will

look to urther develop the area.

Frances Halsband an architectur-

al consultant to the Corporation who

envisioned the Walk and has done

much o Browns recent long-term

physical planning will present a

report to the Corporation when it

meets next week detailing potential

developments in the area. Included

in the report are recommendations

to restore historic streetscapes

widening sidewalks, allowing or

corner caes and planting greenery

along parts o the streetcar route,

Halsband said.

C -

continued frompage 1

Cortes of Transit2020.or

A propose streetcar sstem wo have two ines whose terminas areshown aove. The wo interest at Kenne Paza.

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

5/8

TuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009THE bROWN dAIly HERAldPAgE 5

I am itter towar that. It wasnt rea fair. Kristina getis, Thaers Co Stone Creamer owner, on the openin of a riva near f, b k

By Zung nguyen vu

CoNtributiNgwriter

The month-long stando between

Governor Donald Carcieri 65 and

state employee unions over his plan

to meet budget cut requirements

may soon be over.

Ater weeks o negotiations,

union members have begun to vote

on a proposal to save $36 million by

making all public employees work

without pay or eight days this yearand our days next year. The plan

under consideration would also de-

lay a promised 3 percent pay raise

or six months.

In return, no layos will be made

or the next two years. Workers will

be compensated at retirement and

receive additional leave days.

When Carcieris original plan

to send nonessential state workers

home or 12 days o the year without

pay was put on hold by the state

Supreme Court last month, Carcieri

threatened layos and began nego-

tiating a new plan with the unions.

The largest o the unions, Coun-

cil 94 o the American Federation

o State, County and Municipal Em-

ployees, expects to have members

votes in today, said Council Presi-

dent Michael Downey. Members o

the second largest union, the Rhode

Island Alliance o Social Service

Employees, Local 580, approved the

proposal by a 2-to-1 margin, accord-ing to the unions Web site.

The agreement represents a

major piece o Carcieris overall

plan to make $67.8 million in state

budget cuts in the ace o soaring

unemployment and declining tax

revenue.

The state o Rhode Island cur-

rently employs about 13,000 work-

ers, said Amy Kempe, a spokes-

woman or the governor.

Union leaders had to approve the

agreement beore other members

vote on it.

Initially, the unions thought they

could strike a better deal by pro-longing the negotiations, Downey

said. But ater the governor went

on TV to say there was no chance,

the union moved ahead with the

vote, he said.

I the proposal is passed, it

will be implemented immediately,

Kempe said.

Both Downey and Joseph Peck-

ham, acting executive director o

Council 94, support the plan but

declined to predict how the unions

members would vote.

The unions sta has been work-

ing hard or the last ew days to

provide members with sucient

inormation on the proposal, Peck-ham said.

As a democratic organization,

we elt that the union members had

the right to vote, Downey said. No

more layos, no more shut down

days. That is good to know in a

dicult economy.

Lk , By lauren Fedor

seNiorstaffwriter

Cold Stone Creamery on Thayer

Street closed its doors last week,

leaving College Hill ice cream-

lovers disappointed and a handul

o local students out o a job.

Kristina Gedutis, who co-

owned the Thayer Street ranchise

with her husband, Craig, or ive

years, said the stores sales were

down 30 percent rom 2008.

Though the locations rent

remained the same, dwindling

revenues made it diicult or the

owners to make payments, she

said.

Im not sure why sales weredown, she said. Everyone al-

ways blames the economy, but Im

sure there were other reasons.

Gedutis said she and her

husband decided to vacate the

location, though their lease guar-

anteed them use o the space

through this December.

The couple run another ice

cream parlor in Cranston, which

has not suered as drastic a de-

cline in sales, she said.

In Februar y, Cold Stone an

international chain o ice cream

parlors known or its trademark

mix-ins with more than 1,400

ranchised locations worldwide

ormed a partnership with Tim

Hortons, the Ontario-based res-

taurant chain. Gedutis said the

opening o a joint Tim Hortons-

Cold Stone location on Dorrance

Street downtown negatively a-

ected her Thayer Street parlors

business.

When we irst opened, busi-

ness was great we deinitely

had our ollowing, she said.

There wasnt another Cold Stone

in Providence, so we got most o

the areas business.

Gedutis said when the down-

town Cold Stone opened, she saw

revenue drop.

I am bitter toward that, she

said. It wasnt really air.

Nichoas Sinnott-Armstron / Hera

Thaer Streets Co Stone Creamer cose ast week in the face ofecinin revene.

b.c

Unions voting ongovernors new proposal

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

6/8

ditorial & LettersPage 6 | TuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009

The brown daiy Hera

F R A N N Y C H O I

S

C O R R E C T I ON S P O L I C Y

The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate inormation possible. Correc-

tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days ater publication.

C OMME NT A R Y P OLI C Y

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editorial

Last week, Dean o the College Katherine Bergeron

buried the uneral announcement or a Brown institu-tion in the middle o a seemingly innocuous e-mail.

While inorming the student body o the creation o

acilitated group study and academic coaching,

Bergeron casually slipped in a notice that individual

tutoring will also be available by application on a selec-

tive basis, seemingly providing notice o a new orm

o academic assistance. In actuality, students were

being notied o the termination o Browns ree and

widely available one-on-one tutoring program, which

Brown students were only inormed o in the next

days Herald.

This sort o duplicity by omission has characterized

the rollout o the new tutoring regime. As the head

CSCI0150: Intro to Object-Oriented Programming and

Computer Science TAs noted in a letter to the editor, no

notication was provided to the leaders o the course,which used individual tutors, and repeated requests

or inormation went unanswered. They had to wait or

a taped note on the tutoring oces door to nd out

that the service some o them had relied on would be

discontinued. And when we say relied on, we dont

mean guratively CSCI 0150 Proessor Andy van

Dam believes that individual tutoring is so essential

to his course, the introductory centerpiece o the

computer science program, that he was willing to pay

tutors out o pocket to make sure his students would

still have access to them. The new system, according

to Van Dam, will not be what I need.

He has a point. Students who use tutors count on

them to discover what their individual weaknesses are

and to help correct or those particular mistakes in

uture work. Such a relationship requires an intense

degree o one-on-one interaction that seems unlikely

to occur in a group setting where a tutor has up to ve

other students demanding her attention. Further, in

classes like CSCI0150 where collaborative work is

banned, no student could attend a study group without

violating course policy. Academic coaching is no moreuseul or substantive help, as its individual sessions

cover solely study habits and learning strategies.

Bergerons deense o her decision against such

attacks was unpersuasive. Tutoring doesnt work in

every case? Provide study groups as an alternative,

not a replacement. Tutors take advantage o lax over-

sight to over-repor t their hours? Then restrict tutor-

ing sessions to particular hours in specic locations

monitored by an electronic log-in system. The most

plausible justication she could have given budget

constraints was the only one she explicitly denied

was a actor in the decision.

The arguments provided by Yolanda Rome, director

o co-curricular advising and tutoring programs and a

supporter o the decision, were also specious. Rome

claimed that research has shown study groups to bemore pedagogically sound. This may be true, but

we sincerely doubt that necessarily broad academic

research is a better means o assessing the useulness

o tutoring in a specic course, such as CSCI0150, than

the judgment o that courses proessor.

Proessor o Chemistry David Canes testimony

regarding the eectiveness o study groups in his

department is good evidence that the University ought

to support a study group program. However, there is

no reason this must trade o with allowing Van Dam

to employ tutors i he believes that they are more

eective. This core ailure, taken together with the

opaque disclosure o the decision to eliminate tutors,

means that the University has made a number o

mistakes in its handling o the issue. We hope that the

tutoring program can be at least partially reinstated

to make up or it.

Editorials are written by The Heralds editorial page board.

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

7/8

TuESdAy, OCTObER 6, 2009 | PAgE 7

pinionsThe brown dai Hera

Its getting more and more dicult to attract

the attention o kids these days. Now col-

leges, too, must make the eort to keep up

with the times. The University o Pennsylva-

nia invited actor Kal Penn to teach, Brown is

adopting Tweeting in class and Harvard has

even tried putting out a clothing line.

A recent New York Times article report-

ed that MIT, Wellesley, Amherst, Yale and

numerous other colleges are beginning to

eature student-written blogs on their ocial

websites.I had hal-joked that it was unjust or Har-

vard rather than Brown, the most ashionable

Ivy League university, to have a clothing line,

and a rather ormulaic and poorly designed

one at that. Learning that weve been let be-

hind on the blogging trend as well seems an

even greater tragedy.

Given the technical troubles weve been

having with Banner, Mocha and other

school-related Web sites, perhaps our tardi-

ness is or good reason. Plus, with our repu-

tation as the pot-smoking hipster o the Ivy

League, blog links on our main Web site

could be seen as a bit too predictable.

However, technical impediments and ste-

reotype armations aside, student blogs

could actually be extremely helpul in bothenriching our schools image and ostering a

greater sense o community among the stu-

dent body.

Students narrowing down their college

choices these days do not want to rely mere-

ly on U.S. News rankings and the usual, im-personal laundry list o location, class size

and programs o study.

Studies show that about 60 percent o

high school-age students use the Internet

or education-related topics, including col-

lege planning. They want to see whats be-

hind all the smiling aces in glossy college

brochures, to know about the social scene,

surrounding college town, dorm conditions

and all the ups and downs o student lie that

arent obvious rom looking at a schools

main Web site.

The infuence o sites like College Con-

dential cannot be ignored. Students and

parents use these sites extensively to dis-

cuss insider inormation, which is a mix

o rumors and tips rom current college stu-

dents.

College visits can only help so much.

They can meld into a conusing blur and are

oten too short to allow students to orm anaccurate view o a school. The most honest

and personalized impressions they can get

beore they arrive are denitely rom stu-

dents on campus.

Student blogs are an accessible, reliable

resource or snapshots o campus lie andvaluable interactions among students. MIT

student blogs receive hundreds o com-

ments rom prospective students, and many

current students claim that the blogs were

an important infuence in their college deci-

sion.

As o now, it seems that the only Web ad-

dress or community interaction at Brown is

Facebook, and prospective students looking

to get an idea o what Brown is like have lim-

ited access to the network.

Although Brown does boast a wide ar-

ray o student-run newspapers and literary

journals, the inormation provided is scat-

tered across many dierent Web sites. The

curious will more oten than not be unable

to locate many o these sources o student

opinions.

Student blogs would not only aid prospec-

tive students but the community at Brown as

well. Inormation and opinions get postedinstantly, with no editing or approval nec-

essary and acilitating a rapid exchange o

ideas between bloggers and readers. Blog-

gers could write about whatever topics they

wish, whether they be serious screeds on

politics and school policies or more light-hearted ruminations about daily routines,

ashion trends on campus and where to nd

cheap, good meals on Thayer.

As Ive mentioned beore, there isnt re-

ally a central Internet space at which Brown

students can interact with each other. Not

many students requent Browns Daily Jolt

page, with useul postings mostly limited to

unwanted items or sale.

The time we spend on Facebook and Twit-

ter reading the same peoples eeds over and

over can easily be supplemented with some-

thing new. Many students would probably

jump at the chance to blog or Brown, and

Ill bet that quite a ew o us already have per-

sonal blogs.Im sure that the usual misgivings about

oensive or poorly-written postings will not

apply to us. We probably wont have to wor-

ry about students sel-censoring too much

either, given the many examples set by out-

spoken student groups on campus.

The Internet has become undeniably im-

portant to ostering communication and dis-

seminating inormation. Student blogs can

help us get to know people that we might

otherwise never meet. They can expand not

only our conceptions, but also those o pro-

spective students, parents, and anyone else

who wants to know about what students

think, eel, and care about here at Brown.

Iv Chan 10 ha to wak phi oth

was to fin ot aot coees ack in

her a. She can e reache at

iv_chan@rown.e.

b

Anyone who wandered through the Main

Green this past week was granted a rare op-

portunity to see some prooundly horriying

images: a seal being brutally clubbed to death

or its ur; an innocent piglet being castrated;

a poor cat being pinned down on a dissect-

ing table.

In a stunning juxtaposition o moral out-

rage and disgust-inducing tastelessness, the

Brown Animal Rights Club, in conjunction

with People or the Ethical Treatment o Ani-

mals, brought to our campus an exhibition o

the Animal Liberation Project. In a nutshell,

the ALP seeks to inorm the public in par-

ticular, the youth about the injustices that

human beings infict upon animals.

Armed with an arsenal o hyper-sentimen-tal quotes rom human rights leaders such

as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the

group has launched a campaign against soci-

etal tolerance o speciesism the belie that

other species are inerior to our own. The

campaign ashions itsel as a revival o older

liberation ronts, rom abolition to eminism.

But instead o boycotts, protest marches and

petitions, the Animal Liberation Project pro-

poses a decidedly unorthodox protest meth-

od: vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism? Are they trying to waste

our time?

To clariy, I have nothing against dietary

vegetarianism. Nutritionally speaking, veg-

etables are ar more valuable than animal

fesh as sources o ber, vitamins and miner-

als. Moral vegetarianism, on the other hand,

is not only a ailure as a or m o activism; its

a ailure as a liestyle choice.

Lets ocus on vegetarian activism or a

moment. Vegetarian activism operates onthe same principle as a boycott: activists re-

use to purchase a product or use a service

and urge others to do the same. To convince

others to make that sacrice, activists need

to make a statement about their cause. Un-

ortunately, swearing o meat isnt a particu-

larly powerul statement when other people

do it or selsh reasons, like improving their

diet or ullling their religious obligations.

Compare this with Mahatma Gandhi,

a vegetarian who went on several hunger

strikes to promote peaceul resistance to

British rule in India. Vegetarianism was his

liestyle, but sel-starvation was his protest

method. It brought the attention he wanted.

Ater all, apart rom the occasional anorexic

teenager, people generally dont star ve them-

selves unless they want to make a point.

Furthermore, vegetarianism constricts

the ocus o the animal-welare cause. I you

reuse to eat meat, any reasonable person

would assume that you protest the killing

o animals or their fesh, or the harvesting

o animal byproducts (e.g. eggs, milk and

honey) or ood. But in terms o cruelty, eat-ing animals is relatively mild compared to

other inhumane activities. Animals eat oth-

er animals lions eat antelope, eagles eat

rabbits, dolphins eat sh. Eating is a natural

process.

Humans, on the other hand, are exclu-

sively guilty o killing animals or reasons

other than eating. Remember that seal club-

ber? Hes going to leave the skinned seal car-

cass on the ice pack or some polar bear to

eat. Eating meat has nothing to do with the

ur industry, vivisection or animal abuse, be-

cause in those cases the animals do not end

up on your plate.

To be an e ective vegetarian activist, you

need to loudly proclaim to everyone within

earshot that a) you reuse to eat meat be-

cause its cruel, and b) you also strongly dis-

approve o ur coats, experimentation and

animal abuse. But would you believe me i I

told you that you also had to grow your own

ood?

Thats right: millions o rabbits, mice and

other rodents die each year when wheat

combines and other arm equipment har-vest the crops. The problem is that machines

do not pause to allow the vermin to escape.

Only handpicked ood is truly sae or ani-

mals, and that means nding a way to hire

millions o arm workers to gather, process

and package your dinner without orcing the

armers into bankruptcy.

But you could grow your own ood, right?

Subsistence gardening is extremely eco-

riendly, and you can harvest on your own

terms. Youll never have to kill another rabbit

again, unless you nd the little backstabbers

munching on your vegetables. For those

that remember Beatrix Potters The Tales

o Peter Rabbit Well, youll suddenly eel

a strong sympathetic connection with nasty

old Mr. McGregor as you chase the verminaway with a rake.

In terms o animal welare, moral vegetar-

ianism is an insucient response to animal

cruelty. It exists as a cheap alternative or

people who are too apathetic to participate

in a real protest against a real problem. Do

something productive with your time: pro-

test the seal clubbing, the experimentation

and the abuse and please pass me a steak

knie.

Michae Fitzpatrick 12 thinks that

Roots an Shoots sho e rename

The gitess gri. He can e contact-

e at michae_fitzpatrick@rown.e

T

Instea of ocotts, protest marches an

petitions, the Anima lieration Project proposes

a ecie northoox protest metho:

veetarianism.

Stent os are an accessie, reiae resorcefor snapshots of camps ife an vaae

interactions amon stents.

IVy CHANg

opinions coluMnist

MICHAEl

FITZPATRICK

opinions coluMnist

8/14/2019 October 6, 2009 Issue

8/8

tueSday, oCtoBer 6, 2009 page 8

Today5

7

Teaser text aot section of the a

Teaser text aot sports of the a

The brown daiy Hera

70 / 50

tueSday, oCtoBer 6

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8 pmMeet Israei Soiers: Wom-

en in the IdF, Saomon 101

wedneSday, oCtoBer 7

5:30 pm lectre: Re-inscriin

the Coonia diemma in a Conscript

of goa Moernity: ClR James an

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6 pm lecture: graphic Know-

ee: Creative Minin of Emoie

Experience, Orwi 315

ACROSS1 Washing machine

sequence6 Pirates booty

10 Twilight time14 Start of an old

Army slogan15 Rock groups trip16 In the past17 Jack of rhyme18 Against

19 Persia, now20 2005 MargaretPeterson Haddixchildrens thriller

23 1958 #1 hit sungin Italian

25 In error26 Hot tub27 Lyricist Gershwin28 Title holder31 Classic language,

and with 61-Across, hint tothe puzzle themefound at thestarts of 20-, 37-and 57-Across

33 Propertymeasure

35 Moray, e.g.36 Yak37 Accumulate

wealth42 On Soc. Sec.,

say

43 Simpson judge44 Schoolbook46 Beak for nose,

e.g.49 100 bucks51 __ the

ramparts ...52 Trip segment53 Thurman of Kill

Bill55 Fashionable57 Non-remunerative

athletics61 Cherish62 Aussie greeting63 Singer Baker66 Till bills67 Fish organ68 Prepare to

advance after afly ball

69 Computeradventure game

70 Oxen connection

71 Ed of Lou Grant

DOWN1 Network with an

eye2 Slangy assent3 Parking lot siren4 Andean beast5 Matadors foe6 Men-only party7 Refuses to

8 Writer9 Reaction topersonal loss

10 __ What ComesNaturlly

11 Pre-riot state12 Garlicky shrimp

dish13 Nairobi native21 Most recent22 Key above D23 By way of24 SeaWorld

attraction29 Teachers org.30 Fairylike32 Lie alongside34 Bring in36 Capris Blue __38 Transition to the

next subject39 Ear: Prefix

40 Las Vegas Stripfeature

41 Marked, as aballot

45 Sample46 Sinuous ski

race47 Tart, as a citrus

drink48 Mescal sources49 Aerobic exercise,

in gym-speak

50 List of mistakes54 Seriously humid56 Old lab burners58 Final grade

factor59 Polio vaccine

developer60 War journalist

Ernie64 Election Day:

Abbr.

65 Mo. for fools?

By Mike Peluso

(c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.10/06/09

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