12
T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD T UESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Volume CXLII, No. 104 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891 www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island News tips: [email protected] INSIDE: WATERFIRE DOUSED? Private donations to WaterFire have recently slowed, forcing the city to chip in more money. METRO 5 OPINIONS 11 YURDIN A YEAR LATER This week marks a year since Seth Yurdin was elected to the city council from Ward 1. SPORTS 12 TAIWAN’S FUTURE Two guest columnists take up the debate over the fu- ture relationship between Taiwan and China. NEW YORK SWEEP The volleyball team blasted New York state’s Ivy League schools in two wins over the weekend METRO 3 Keeping the faith at Brown BY DEBBIE LEHMANN AND SCOTT LOWENSTEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITERS When University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson learned that this year’s Brown-Harvard football game — the first night game in Harvard Stadium’s history — was sched- uled to take place on the first night of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, she was disappointed. The “rude” scheduling, she said, sent a bad message to both Jewish students and the larger campus community about the importance of religion in university life. Ten years ago, she said, it’s unlikely that anything would have changed. But last fall, after Jewish alums and fans raised concerns about the scheduling, coaches from both schools agreed to move the game to the next day. “Now, people say, ‘That’s right, let’s fix that,’ — even people who aren’t religious,” Cooper Nelson said. “In 1990, what I’m saying might have prompted more argument.” It is this spirit of heightened awareness and dialogue that defines the campus religious environment today. “On some college campuses there is a lot of stigma involved in discussions about religion,” said Noor Najeeb ’09, president of the Muslim Students’ Association. “But we are on a different level here.” Though Brown has always been religiously tolerant since she arrived here 18 years ago, Cooper Nelson said she has seen an increase in religious knowledge, understand- ing and interfaith dialogue among students — a trend she said is “ver y uneven” on college campuses across the nation. Brown’s interfaith com- Surprise! Students prefer Mocha, UCS poll finds Chris Bennett / Herald Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler ‘81 spoke on his new book, about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the Watson Institute Monday afternoon. Center for Environmental Studies seeks new director BY SCOTT LOWENSTEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER With the future of the Urban Envi- ronmental Lab in jeopardy as the University moves forward with its physical expansion plans, the Center for Environmental Studies that has been housed in the UEL since 1981 is searching for a new director. Professor of Biology Osvaldo Sala announced he is leaving the post that he has held since 2005 . Sala said he plans to step down in July 2008, by which time the position should be filled. The CES includes Brown’s en- vironmental studies program and community environmental initia- tives, such as its community gar- Tai Ho Shin / Herald File Photo A search is underway for a new director of the Center for Environmental Studies, cur- rently housed in the Urban Environmental Lab on Angell Street. Ho ’01 on the myth of the ‘model minority’ BY JOANNA WOHLMUTH STAFF WRITER Entertaining the Salomon 101 audi- ence with instructions to “deface his face” on the event pamphlet and think of Southeast Asian win- ners of their favorite Bravo reality shows to consider Southeast Asian stereotypes, keynote speaker Lam Ho ’01 spoke Monday on “Defiance: The Struggle for Self-Definition” at the Southeast Asian Heritage Week Opening Convocation. Ho’s speech focused on the role defiance plays in overcoming obstacles. Economic and social problems that plague the South- east Asian community can only be solved if Southeast Asians seek to embrace their heritage and deny the “myth of the model minority,” which portrays Asians — particu- larly immigrants — as obedient and silent, Ho said. Southeast Asians must defy friends, family and cultural values in order to push beyond the roadblocks that hold them back. “We must remember the his- tory of struggle in summoning our collective voice,” said Ho, who was on the Third World Center staff while a Brown student. “We should speak loudly of the circumstances and experiences of how we and our families came to the United States.” Members of the Southeast Asian community in the United States faces extreme poverty, lack of edu- cational opportunities and violence. Domestic violence is common, but the rate of reporting incidents is ver y low compared to the national average, Ho said. Sexism, racism, classism and homophobia are also common within the community. Even though he now works to help abused women, Ho cited the shame he faces knowing that he did not help his mother when she was being abused by his father. He also mentioned the experiences of Lisa Ok, who spoke at the convocation earlier in the evening. Ok, a 16-year-old Cambodian- American high school senior and youth coordinator of the Providence Youth Student Movement, was the convocation’s Youth Activist Speak- Kessler ’81 critical of Rice BY GEORGE MILLER STAFF WRITER Washington Post diplomatic cor- respondent Glenn Kessler ’81 pre- sented a critical portrayal of Con- doleezza Rice’s tenure as national security adviser and secretary of state Monday afternoon in a lecture at the Watson Institute for Interna- tional Studies. The talk — part of Kessler’s tour to promote his new book, “The Con- fidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy” — at- tracted a crowd of about 30 to the Joukowsky Forum. Kessler drew heavily on anecdotes from covering diplomatic meetings and speaking to Rice and her aides to present his book’s main argument: Rice is “a smart, sophisticated diplomat,” he said, “but she lacks a strategic vision.” He detailed what he called Rice’s failures in Iran, North Korea and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how her actions as national security adviser during President Bush’s first term added to her problems as his secretar y of state in his second. Kessler argued that Rice has missed numerous diplomatic oppor- tunities during the past seven years, in refusing bilateral talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons pro- gram and in other situations. At the same time, he said, she has more power than her predecessor as secretary of state, Colin Powell, because diplomats are aware of her close relationship with the president. She also has the highest approval rating of any administration official, he said. Kessler recounted one story about Rice after another, including scenes illustrative of her struggles continued on page 7 continued on page 4 continued on page 6 FAITH ON CAMPUS first in a series on religious life at the University BY FRANKLIN KANIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER More than six months after the Banner registration and course directory system debuted, most students say they still prefer to use the student-created Web site, Mo- cha, according to a poll conducted last week by the Undergraduate Council of Students. The poll, which was available through MyCourses last week from Tuesday through Thursday, covered a range of topics includ- ing advising, student activities funding, University services and course registration. UCS Communications Chair Gabe Kussin ’09, who oversaw the poll, said he was surprised at the level of dissatisfaction with advis- ing among the poll’s respondents. “It’s something I hope we look at over the coming semester,” he said. Student responses about Ban- ner and Mocha use were also of interest, Kussin said. “Students are overwhelmingly in favor of Mocha and (in favor of) more sup- port when it comes to Banner,” he said. The majority of respondents, 74.1 percent, were “very satisfied” with Mocha, but only 11.3 percent of respondents were very satisfied with registration through Banner, according to the poll results. One question about Banner asked students what “most im- mediate change” to Banner they would want to see implemented. The choices were “standardiza- tion of course restriction override system,” “layout/design,” “elimi- nation of course restrictions,” “better accessibility to course descriptions,” “no opinion” or “no changes necessary.” Just over 29 percent of respondents said they would like more accessible course descriptions. continued on page 4 Interfaith groups and dialogue have taken root on College Hill continued on page 8

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

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Page 1: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Brown Daily heralDTuesday, November 6, 2007Volume CXLII, No. 104 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

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

INSIDE:

Waterfire doused?Private donations to WaterFire have recently slowed, forcing the city to chip in more money.

Metro

5oPiNioNs

11YurdiN a Year LaterThis week marks a year since Seth Yurdin was elected to the city council from Ward 1.

sPorts

12taiWaN’s futureTwo guest columnists take up the debate over the fu-ture relationship between Taiwan and China.

NeW York sWeePThe volleyball team blasted New York state’s Ivy League schools in two wins over the weekend

Metro

3

Keeping the faith at Brown

BY deBBie LehMaNN aNd scott LoWeNsteiNseNior sTaff WriTers

When University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson learned that this year’s Brown-Harvard football game — the first night game in Harvard Stadium’s history — was sched-uled to take place on the first night of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, she was disappointed. The “rude” scheduling, she said, sent a bad message to both Jewish students and the larger campus community about the importance of religion in

university life.Ten years ago, she said, it’s

unlikely that anything would have changed. But last fall, after Jewish alums and fans raised concerns about the scheduling, coaches from both schools agreed to move the game to the next day.

“Now, people say, ‘That’s right, let’s fix that,’ — even people who aren’t religious,” Cooper Nelson said. “In 1990, what I’m saying might have prompted more argument.”

It is this spirit of heightened awareness and dialogue that defines the campus religious environment today.

“On some college campuses there is a lot of stigma involved in discussions about religion,” said Noor Najeeb ’09, president of the Muslim Students’ Association. “But we are on a different level here.”

Though Brown has always been religiously tolerant since she arrived here 18 years ago, Cooper Nelson said she has seen an increase in religious knowledge, understand-ing and interfaith dialogue among students — a trend she said is “very uneven” on college campuses across the nation. Brown’s interfaith com-

Surprise! Students prefer Mocha, UCS poll finds

Chris Bennett / Herald

Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler ‘81 spoke on his new book, about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the Watson Institute Monday afternoon.

Center for Environmental Studies seeks new directorBY scott LoWeNsteiNseNior sTaff WriTer

With the future of the Urban Envi-ronmental Lab in jeopardy as the University moves forward with its physical expansion plans, the Center for Environmental Studies that has been housed in the UEL since 1981 is searching for a new director.

Professor of Biology Osvaldo Sala

announced he is leaving the post that he has held since 2005 . Sala said he plans to step down in July 2008, by which time the position should be filled.

The CES includes Brown’s en-vironmental studies program and community environmental initia-tives, such as its community gar-

Tai Ho Shin / Herald File Photo

A search is underway for a new director of the Center for Environmental Studies, cur-rently housed in the Urban Environmental Lab on Angell Street.

Ho ’01 on the myth of the ‘model minority’ BY JoaNNa WohLMuthsTaff WriTer

Entertaining the Salomon 101 audi-ence with instructions to “deface his face” on the event pamphlet and think of Southeast Asian win-ners of their favorite Bravo reality shows to consider Southeast Asian stereotypes, keynote speaker Lam Ho ’01 spoke Monday on “Defiance: The Struggle for Self-Definition” at the Southeast Asian Heritage Week Opening Convocation.

Ho’s speech focused on the role defiance plays in overcoming obstacles. Economic and social problems that plague the South-east Asian community can only be solved if Southeast Asians seek to embrace their heritage and deny

the “myth of the model minority,” which portrays Asians — particu-larly immigrants — as obedient and silent, Ho said. Southeast Asians must defy friends, family and cultural values in order to push beyond the roadblocks that hold them back.

“We must remember the his-tory of struggle in summoning our collective voice,” said Ho, who was on the Third World Center staff while a Brown student. “We should speak loudly of the circumstances and experiences of how we and our families came to the United States.”

Members of the Southeast Asian community in the United States faces extreme poverty, lack of edu-cational opportunities and violence.

Domestic violence is common, but the rate of reporting incidents is very low compared to the national average, Ho said. Sexism, racism, classism and homophobia are also common within the community.

Even though he now works to help abused women, Ho cited the shame he faces knowing that he did not help his mother when she was being abused by his father. He also mentioned the experiences of Lisa Ok, who spoke at the convocation earlier in the evening.

Ok, a 16-year-old Cambodian-American high school senior and youth coordinator of the Providence Youth Student Movement, was the convocation’s Youth Activist Speak-

Kessler ’81 critical of RiceBY GeorGe MiLLersTaff WriTer

Washington Post diplomatic cor-respondent Glenn Kessler ’81 pre-sented a critical portrayal of Con-doleezza Rice’s tenure as national security adviser and secretary of state Monday afternoon in a lecture at the Watson Institute for Interna-tional Studies.

The talk — part of Kessler’s tour to promote his new book, “The Con-fidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy” — at-tracted a crowd of about 30 to the Joukowsky Forum. Kessler drew heavily on anecdotes from covering diplomatic meetings and speaking to Rice and her aides to present his book’s main argument: Rice is “a smart, sophisticated diplomat,” he said, “but she lacks a strategic vision.”

He detailed what he called Rice’s

failures in Iran, North Korea and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how her actions as national security adviser during President Bush’s first term added to her problems as his secretary of state in his second.

Kessler argued that Rice has missed numerous diplomatic oppor-tunities during the past seven years, in refusing bilateral talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons pro-gram and in other situations.

At the same time, he said, she has more power than her predecessor as secretary of state, Colin Powell, because diplomats are aware of her close relationship with the president. She also has the highest approval rating of any administration official, he said.

Kessler recounted one story about Rice after another, including scenes illustrative of her struggles

continued on page 7

continued on page 4

continued on page 6

FAITH ON CAMPUSfirst in a series on

religious life at the University

BY fraNkLiN kaNiNseNior sTaff WriTer

More than six months after the Banner registration and course directory system debuted, most students say they still prefer to use the student-created Web site, Mo-cha, according to a poll conducted last week by the Undergraduate Council of Students.

The poll, which was available through MyCourses last week from Tuesday through Thursday, covered a range of topics includ-ing advising, student activities funding, University services and course registration.

UCS Communications Chair Gabe Kussin ’09, who oversaw the poll, said he was surprised at the level of dissatisfaction with advis-ing among the poll’s respondents. “It’s something I hope we look at over the coming semester,” he said.

Student responses about Ban-

ner and Mocha use were also of interest, Kussin said. “Students are overwhelmingly in favor of Mocha and (in favor of) more sup-port when it comes to Banner,” he said. The majority of respondents, 74.1 percent, were “very satisfied” with Mocha, but only 11.3 percent of respondents were very satisfied with registration through Banner, according to the poll results.

One question about Banner asked students what “most im-mediate change” to Banner they would want to see implemented. The choices were “standardiza-tion of course restriction override system,” “layout/design,” “elimi-nation of course restrictions,” “better accessibility to course descriptions,” “no opinion” or “no changes necessary.” Just over 29 percent of respondents said they would like more accessible course descriptions.

continued on page 4

Interfaith groups and dialogue have taken root on College Hill

continued on page 8

Page 2: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

ToDay

The Brown Daily heralD

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

Eric Beck, President

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President

Mandeep Gill, Treasurer

Dan DeNorch, Secretary

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

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and

once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. 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 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

ACROSS1 Freight train

stowaway5 Old Testament’s

Queen of __10 Scottish family14 Shrink’s

concerns15 Strutter on a

runway16 Nevada

gambling mecca17 Blunders18 Gladiator’s

battlefield19 “For __ us a

child is born ...”20 Hospitable

wreath21 Uninteresting

Arizonaattraction?

23 Seasonal songs25 Esoteric26 Molten materials28 Make very

thirsty30 Weaker team’s

win31 Australian port

city32 High muck-a-

muck35 Glimpsed36 “Divine Comedy”

author37 Expressed, as

farewell38 Time worth

remembering39 Lovely, like a

lassie40 Indian coin41 Waterlogged42 Story told in

episodes43 Christmas drink46 Use the

checkbook47 Uninteresting

New Yorkwaterway?

50 Busy pro in Apr.53 Ending with

movie or theater54 Less carpeted55 Watch face56 Vaulted church

part57 First sign of the

zodiac58 Sicilian volcano59 Stalk in a marsh60 Driving-toward-

the-sun problem

61 Hurricanecenters

DOWN1 Toe’s opposite2 Fairy tale

monster3 Uninteresting

North Pacificarea?

4 CIA’s ancestor5 T-shirt sizes6 Wedding dances7 Utopia8 Flex9 Priced

individually, onmenus

10 Abs exercise11 Lotte of “From

Russia withLove”

12 DramatistChekhov

13 Nary a soul21 Rhythm22 St. Louis

landmark24 Presage26 Meditate27 Mimic28 Word after “take

a” or “leave a,” atthe register

29 Culturallypretentious

31 Sharp feeling32 Uninteresting

South Dakotamunicipality?

33 “I’ve got an __!”34 Orange cover36 Restaurant after-

dinnerconvenience

37 Make, as a CDcopy

39 Barbarian40 Virginia __41 Caught in a trap

42 Thinly distributed43 Award named for

Poe44 Search blindly45 Sixth-day-of-

Christmas gift46 Contemptuous

look48 Astronomer

Sagan49 Opera highlight51 Window division52 Distressed cry55 Sandra or Ruby

By Frances Burton(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 11/6/07

11/6/07

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, November 6, 2007

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

[email protected]

C r o s s W o r d

s u d o k u

W e a T h e r

m e N u

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

© Puzzles by Pappocom

rain56 / 38

sunny52 / 34

sharPe refectorY

LuNch — Spinach Enchiladas, Vegan Rice and Jalapeños, Zucchini Pie, Ital-ian Sausages, Chicken Fajitas, Marble Squares, M&M Cookies

diNNer — Tomato Quiche, Rice and Orzo Pilaf, Squash Rolls, Pork Loin with Green Apple Dressing, Tortellini Angelica, Chocolate Cream Pie

VerNeY-WooLLeY diNiNG haLL

LuNch — Chinese Chicken Wings, Linguini with Tomatoes and Basil, Sticky Rice, Baked Potato Bar, Chicken Noodle Soup, M&M Cookies

diNNer — Meat Tortellini with Sauce, Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Parsley Potatoes, Squash Rolls, Stir Fry Station, Chocolate Cream Pie

TODAY T O M O R R O W

PAGE 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

But seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

classic deo | Daniel Perez

octopus on hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le

classic deep-fried kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

Page 3: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

BY Patrick coreYsTaff WriTer

As homegrown international sen-sation WaterFire closes up for another winter — the final lighting of the season was on Oct. 27 — preparations are already being made and proposals drafted for next year’s program. Though the WaterFire season starts in May and ends in October, the behind-the-scenes work never ends, said Barnaby Evans ’75, the creator of the phenomenon.

WaterFire has been a fixture of downtown Providence in the summer since regular lightings began in 1997. Described on its Web site as a “sculpture,” it con-sists of 100 bonfires that dot the Providence River and lead to Wa-terplace Park.

Evans created Waterfire’s fore-runner, First Fire, in 1994 for a 10-year anniversary celebration of First Night Providence, accord-ing to the WaterFire Web site. Reception for the event was so positive that two years later, Ev-ans created Second Fire for the June 1996 International Sculpture Conference. WaterFire became a permanent downtown fixture in 1997, attracting 350,000 people to 13 lightings of the 42 braziers used that year, Evans said.

WaterFire has grown rapidly in the decade since then. One production now takes two solid weeks of preparation, as wood is boated out to 100 braziers, streets are closed, garbage cans emp-tied and speakers set in place, Evans said. Twelve people man up to five boats during the week before an event, working every night to prepare each of the 100 bonfires. On the day of a light-ing, 150 people work to set up, perform and eventually clean up and close down.

Jenny Filipetti ’09, who vol-unteered for WaterFire last sum-mer, said the camaraderie among volunteers makes setting up Wa-terFire enjoyable. Volunteers are asked for their job preferences, she added, and can usually choose from jobs such as feeding the fires from the boats, helping with audio equipment and manning “ambas-sador stations” that provide infor-mation to visitors.

Filipetti called volunteering for WaterFire “a good way to give back” to an event from which she took much delight during her first two years at Brown. Participat-ing in the program offers “a re-ally good way to be a part of the greater Providence community,” she said, and events such as pot-lucks keep the volunteers in con-tact during the off-season.

Filipetti said she has gotten to know a number of regular Wa-terFire visitors, remembering a particular group of three elderly women who meet once a year to attend WaterFire together. Fili-petti said stories such as this are the essence of WaterFire.

If nothing else, she said, “it’s great to have an event that takes people away from the TV and com-puter and into the city.”

While enjoyable, WaterFire preparations are laborious, which means Waterfire officials must plan well in advance for the light-ings. Each year, WaterFire orga-nizers must submit a proposal — complete with a performance schedule — to be approved by the

Providence Tourism Council, a quasi-public agency that is affili-ated with the city.

The proposal is basically the same every year, Evans said, but the city needs to make sure that the dates do not conflict with any other large events. The city council usually grants WaterFire between $50,000 and $70,000, but contributed $100,000 this year due to what Lynne McCormack, di-rector of the Providence Depart-ment of Arts, Culture and Tour-ism, called WaterFire’s “financial issues.”

Specifically, private donations have not been as great recently as they have been in past years, McCormack said. Providence has

more arts organizations per capita than Boston, which puts a seri-ous strain on organizations that rely on individual giving, she said. “(Providence has) almost more products than the economy can handle,” she said.

In the past five years, arts orga-nizations have increasingly been passed over for other charitable causes, such as homelessness, McCormack added. Additionally, Rhode Island ranks almost last in the nation in terms of rates of philanthropic giving in general, according to a 2005 study by the Center on Wealth and Philanthro-py at Boston College.

MeTroTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 3

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

WaterFire has been a city tradition since its first incarnation as First Fire in 1994.

Though strapped for cash, WaterFire to continue Students meet Clinton at East Greenwich fundraiserBY Noura choudhurYCoNTribuTiNg WriTer

Outside a packed fundraiser attend-ed by U.S. senators and represen-tatives in East Greenwich Friday night, members of Brown Students for Hillary met Sen. Hillary Clin-ton, D-N.Y., as they demonstrated their support for her presidential campaign.

Fifteen members of the orga-nization — founded last February after Clinton announced her candi-dacy — traveled to East Greenwich to enthusiastically wave Hillary signs, distribute campaign buttons and greet guests at the fundraiser, hosted at a local supporter’s home. The members were rewarded for their efforts, as Clinton stopped while walking to the fundraiser and thanked the students for their ef-forts, said Jared Stein ’10, a mem-ber of Students for Hillary.

“It was absolutely incredible. We were all really excited — I was practically jumping up and down when the car pulled up,” Stein said. A native of New York, Stein said he was especially honored to meet the his home state’s senator after hearing her speak in high school but never before getting to meet her in person.

Clinton personally shook the hands of ever y student, Stein said, and spent about five minutes talking with them about her own college experiences, Brown’s stu-dent organization and the students themselves.

“She was incredibly genuine,” said Carly Rush ’08. “I’ve never really interacted with her in that close of a setting. She was definitely interested in us and was asking us what our concentrations were and that sort of thing.”

Clinton later sent one of her campaign staff members to the Students for Hillary campaign bus

to answer questions about organiz-ing student outreach efforts, Rush said.

Rush recently volunteered with the Clinton campaign and had a role in organizing the trip to the fundraiser. She was able to get the Brown group involved at the fundraiser event through the cam-paign’s youth outreach director, Emily Hawkins.

Rush described the encounter with Clinton at the fundraising event as a way for the presidential candidate to “thank Brown students for the efforts that we’ve all been putting in.”

Clinton also mentioned Brown students’ efforts in her speech at her alma mater, Wellesley College, on Thursday. The event launched Clinton’s student group, Hillblaz-ers, and its Web site went live later that day. Some Students for Hillary members also attended the event at Wellesley, said Craig Auster ’08, one of the group’s leaders.

Auster said Clinton spoke about student activism and her own role as an undergraduate on controver-sial issues at the Wellesley event. He said he felt the event’s energy expanded students’ interests in the Clinton campaign.

“Everyone that went with us came away with us really interested and excited about her campaign and the role that young people are go-ing to have in helping her become the next president,” Auster said.

Though Rhode Island’s votes may not play a key role in the nomi-nation process, Clinton has been highly successful at fundraising and campaigning in the state, the Providence Journal article reported Nov. 3. Four hundred people — in-cluding Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and former Rhode Island Gov. Bruce Sundlun — attended Friday’s fund-raiser, which raised $300,000, the Journal reported.continued on page 9

Page 4: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

as a black woman in diplomacy. He told how Rice — in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to speak on greater freedom for women in the Middle East — received a gift from Saudi Arabia’s then-crown prince: An abaya, the full-length covering that Saudi Ara-bian women are required to wear in public.

“His anecdotes were great,” said attendee Patrick Cook-Deegan ’08. “It was good to get an insider’s ac-count” of Rice’s diplomatic struggles, he added.

Kessler’s speech was “very bal-anced,” said former Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute. Speaking of Rice’s failures as recounted by Kessler, Chafee asked, “Is it pos-sible for anybody to make so many mistakes?”

Kessler told The Herald he knew he wanted to be a reporter in the fifth grade.

“I liked being a witness to his-tory,” he said. But he took a round-about route to his current job report-ing on foreign affairs, first covering subjects like Wall Street, airline safety and economic policy. While at Brown, he took sports photos for The Herald but did not write.

“Why should I do it when I’m in college when it’s going to be my life?” he recalled thinking at the time, though he said he later real-ized he had made a mistake when he went job-hunting and had no writing samples.

So he started writing for the Wall Street Letter, a weekly financial tip sheet, after getting his master’s de-gree in international affairs from Columbia University. He became editor of the newsletter within three months. Since then, he has written for Newsday and the Post and was part of teams at Newsday that won Pulitzer Prizes in 1992 and 1997, for reporting on a subway crash and the TWA Flight 800 crash, which killed 230 people.

Kessler’s new book has received positive reviews from the left and the right, he said. Publisher interest was also high — his is only one of three recent books on Rice, which he said is unusual for a sitting sec-retary of state.

“She’s a diplomatic rock star,” he explained.

Five hours of interviews with Rice went into researching the book, along with interviews with her aides and other diplomats, through which he reconstructed scenes which took place behind closed doors, Kessler said. Though he gave Rice a copy of the book three weeks before its release, Kessler said, she has said she did not read it — but, naturally, told him she disagreed with its con-clusions.

He traveled with Rice to over 50 countries, he said, and found her to be “very charming.” He said her aides were very cooperative in scheduling interviews.

“I don’t know if they regret it now,” he said.

continued from page 1

Kessler ’81 on Rice and reportingEliminating course restrictions

was the second most popular choice, selected by 22.8 percent of poll respondents. When asked “which of the following optional, Banner restrictions used by pro-fessors concerns you most?” 49.7 percent of respondents expressed concern about course capping dur-ing registration.

With regards to registration, 68.4 percent of students who responded to the poll said they would like to see a printed course announcement bulletin, whereas 22 percent said they would not be interested in one.

Though there were originally 39 questions, two questions were thrown out and not counted in the official results due to “typographi-cal errors or omission of certain answers,” Kussin said.

One of the discarded questions asked students to indicate whether they receive e-mail on their phone. “By accident I left out the ‘no’ op-tion,” he said.

The other trashed question per-tained to the student activities fee. It was supposed to ask, “Do you believe the Undergraduate Council

of Students should assess the stu-dent activities fee?” but it instead asked if the council should access the fee.

While that question specifically concerning the student activities fee was ultimately rejected, a question asking “Would you support a por-tion of this year’s tuition increase being put toward student activities?” prompted 61.9 percent of respon-dents to reply they would support it, whereas 22.4 percent said they would not.

The poll also asked students if they felt student activities were adequately funded, 43.9 percent re-sponded they did not think student activities were adequately funded, 29.1 said that they think there is sufficient funding and 21.5 percent had no opinion on the matter.

Kussin said he is pleased with how the poll turned out. “We worked very hard on it as an e-board and as UCS,” he said.

The UCS poll was unscientific — all undergraduates had access to the survey on MyCourses, and 978 of them completed the survey. Last spring, 1,327 students com-pleted UCS’ online poll. UCS did not release any information about the demographic breakdown of the sample population.

continued from page 1

UCS poll finds support for CAB

don’t forget to register

Page 5: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

BY soPhia LaMBertseNsTaff WriTer

Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin was elected to office in November 2006 on a three-issue campaign platform — he promised to focus on the environment, education and the quality of life of his constituents in light of the city’s development. Now, a year later, he is making progress in these areas for Ward 1 — which includes Fox Point and most of Brown’s campus — and has plans to continue these efforts in the future.

Environmentally, Yurdin has con-tinued support for projects begun by his predecessor, David Segal, now a state representative for District 2. Yurdin, like Segal, advocated for full implementation of the city’s Renew-able Energy Ordinance, which man-dates that 20 percent of Providence’s energy be renewable by 2010.

Segal, who backed Yurdin in last year’s election, told The Herald he is pleased with Yurdin’s continu-ing support for the project. “The fact that the ordinance exists in its own right doesn’t provide any as-surance that the goal will actually be achieved, but you need activists and I think (Yurdin has) done a really good job of achieving that,” Segal said.

The city’s greenhouse gas pro-duction and its role in global warm-ing are also concerns for Yurdin. “It’s a big task, but it has benefits in a number of ways,” Yurdin said, adding that not only is a reduction of greenhouse gases good for the environment, but also that an in-creased energy efficiency will save the city money.

Yurdin has created a volunteer task force on environmental issues, which he said is made up of council members, environmentalists and academics. “There hasn’t been a nucleus structure in the city to take on these issues, so I thought it was important to create a place where that could happen,” Yurdin said. “There needs to be a much broader discussion to get anything done.”

This committee-based approach to city problems extends beyond environmental issues for Yurdin — he serves as chairman of the Spe-cial Committee on State Legislation, which makes recommendations con-

cerning decisions made on the state level. Yurdin said the committee is particularly useful when it focuses on public education.

Generally the problems with edu-cation in Providence stem from a lack of state funding, Yurdin said. “Rhode Island is one of the three worst states in the country in the percentage of aid that the state pro-vides to the cities for education,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question that we don’t have enough funding.”

Segal similarly noted that the city has very little control over its education budget and that the city’s only means of raising funds for education is the property tax. If state funding for Providence schools is insufficient, the city must make up the difference using property taxes. This model, which is repeated across Rhode Island, puts an un-fair burden on poorer families and poorer cities, Segal said.

But Yurdin is doing a “good job of trying to make the city focus better on pushing back against the state,” Segal added.

Providence has had some suc-cesses in education this year. Vartan Gregorian Elementary School in Fox Point, for example, has al-most finished a project to restore a 100-year-old building adjacent to the school to be used as a library. The space currently housing the library will be devoted to resources for special education, Yurdin said. This project has been completed with a mix of city and state funds, he added.

Yurdin has also advocated for neighborhood planning and out-reach as a part of citywide planning and building development.

Under state law, cities in Rhode Island are required, every 10 years, to adopt a comprehensive plan, which encompasses building, zon-ing, subdivisions and planning for the city as a whole. The city first looks at individual neighborhood plans and must consider them when formulating the final comprehensive plan. The most recent plan was ad-opted by the Providence City Coun-cil last Thursday night.

“This has presented a real op-portunity to make sure the neigh-borhood voices are heard,” Yurdin said.

However, this year the city pro-posed making changes to zoning ordinances prior to the completion of neighborhood planning. Yurdin said he negotiated with the planning department to make sure that noth-ing changes while neighborhood plans are being completed.

“The outcome is important, but the process is just as important,” Yurdin said. “I try to do as much as I can to preserve the process and make sure people can really weigh in.”

One issue that has especially af-fected Yurdin’s constituents is the relocation of the I-195 highway. To prevent too much construction, one of Yurdin’s first actions on the coun-cil was to place a temporary mora-torium on large building projects around the new location of I-195.

“I was concerned that while the comprehensive plan was going on, someone might take advantage of the chaos, might push for a big project before the planning was fin-ished,” Yurdin said. His moratorium froze large construction for a year, giving the city a chance to adopt a plan for construction within the changing area.

Segal, who said he talks to Yur-din “a few times a week,” said he admired this sort of concern for Yur-din’s ward and constituents. “He has developed a reputation for being his own man, thinking things through and refusing to say yes to people just for the sake of going along,” Segal said. “He’s very earnest about the work that’s in front of him.”

MeTroTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 5

City approves development plan despite protestersBY NaNdiNi JaYakrishNaseNior sTaff WriTer

Ignoring the disapproving signs, slogans and frowns from represen-tatives of neighborhood associa-tions and waterfront businesses last Thursday night, the Providence City Council approved an amended comprehensive plan to guide the city’s future development.

After a public hearing on the city’s plan, held in early October, the council’s ordinance committee and the city’s Department of Plan-ning and Development amended the plan to specify that it will not make changes to existing zoning codes in various neighborhoods, said Linda Painter, deputy direc-tor of the department’s Planning Division.

The plan, which passed by a vote of 10 to 3, provides general guidelines to address issues of eco-nomic expansion, the environment, affordable housing, land use and the waterfront.

Before voting began, speakers from many neighborhood associa-tions said the council should not approve the plan until all the neigh-borhood charrettes — week-long forums where residents discuss the plan’s impact on their neighbor-hoods — are completed. Charrettes

have already taken place but most are slated for next year, according to the planning department’s Web site.

The comprehensive plan is a broad document that does not discuss specific changes to indi-vidual neighborhoods, Painter said. The planning department will continue working on drafts of individual neighborhood plans that will address issues raised in the charrettes.

Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin, who voted in favor of the plan, said “the plan has to be fleshed out more.”

“There’s no possible way that any plan can please everybody,” said Yurdin, whose ward includes Fox Point and parts of Brown’s campus.

He said that the comprehensive plan will be further amended “to reflect people’s opinions” gathered during the charrettes.

But Norman Ospina, a member of the Olneyville Neighborhood As-sociation, said making changes to the plan becomes more difficult once it has been adopted.

During the meeting, Ospina and other members of the Olneyville as-sociation held signs reading “Noth-

Courtesy of providenceri.com

Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin

After one year in office, Yurdin still focused

continued on page 8

Page 6: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

munity even drew a Public Broad-casting Service camera crew to campus several weeks ago to film a segment for the show “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly.”

“Compared to when I got here, it’s easier for students to identify religiously and know that, across the spectrum, you’ll understand,” Cooper Nelson said. “People are beginning to be more aware that there are a variety of traditions within traditions.”

Even Brown students who are not religious “might understand very well the importance of being literate in religion,” she said.

Indeed, more and more students

are pursuing an academic approach to religion. Mark Cladis, professor of religious studies and chair of the department, said he thinks the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and inter-sections of religion and politics, such as the rise of the so-called Religious Right, have brought more students to religious studies classes.

“When there is a particular world event, often a crisis, that pertains to religion, I start seeing some new students in the classroom asking questions that show that in part they are trying to understand aspects of their lives and the world around them,” Cladis said. “In part because of 9/11 and interest in Islamic societ-ies, the perception at least for some of these societies is that there is not

a distinction between religion and politics, and (students) extend those questions to their own society.”

In recent years, interfaith activi-ties have sprung up on campus, and several religious communities have seen growing student participation and interest.

Brown’s Multi-Faith Council, which seeks to engage the broader Brown community in religious ac-tivities, includes student represen-tatives from a number of religious traditions, and Cooper Nelson hosts an interfaith dinner — a tradition in its 41st year — every Thursday at her home. In just the first two months of this academic year, re-ligious student groups have orga-nized a number of interfaith events, including a dessert night at Hillel for Jewish students celebrating Sukkot and Muslim students celebrating Ramadan.

Even religious events not adver-tised as interfaith activities have at-tracted a diverse group of students. A Ramadan fast-a-thon sponsored by the MSA raised $3,200 and at-tracted 150 participants, at least 100 of whom were not Muslim, Najeed said.

“Even since I was a freshman,

there’s a renewed sense of getting to know each other better and (build-ing) bridges,” Najeeb said.“I even had people coming up to me saying, ‘Happy end of Ramadan.’ It shows increased awareness.”

Even within the Christian com-munity, the eight Christian groups that, until recently, “have not had that much to do with each other” are increasingly working together, said Joses Ho ’09, a member of the evangelical Christian group Col-lege Hill for Christ. Roughly half of those students at Brown who identify with a religious affiliation do so as Christian.

Though the various Christian groups may have theological dif-ferences, Ho said they are “all on the same page” when it comes to the role religion should play in campus life.

Associate University Chaplain for the Jewish Community Serena Eisenberg ’87, who has been execu-tive director of Hillel on campus for the past two years, said she thinks dialogue comes easily to Brown stu-dents because of the community’s diversity. Though current statistics are not available, Cooper Nelson said the campus’ religious demo-

graphics have remained relatively constant. Cooper Nelson estimates that 70 percent of students identify with some religious belief, whether they specify a particular religion or denomination or consider them-selves atheist or agnostic.

Among those students that spec-ify, around 20 percent are Jewish, 25 percent are Catholic and 25 percent are Protestant, Cooper Nelson said. Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims each constitute about three percent of the student body. The remaining 20 percent of students Cooper Nel-son classified as “other,” a category that includes atheists, agnostics, Wiccans, Sikhs and Baha’i.

Brown is also one of the only uni-versities with a fully staffed Office of Religious Life, Cooper Nelson said. The five religious leaders who work for the office are not sponsored by religious groups, but instead are on campus“because Brown pays the bill for us to be here,” she said.

Since the Office of Religious Life re-examined its structure in 1998, adding staff to expand beyond its three chaplains, religious life has become more visible on campus.For example, before Rumee Ahmed, as-sociate University chaplain for the Muslim community, came to Brown two years ago, “We never had 70 people together for Ramadan,” Coo-per Nelson said.

Eisenberg said Hillel has also grown since she was a student at Brown 20 years ago, saying there were holiday programs and Israeli folk dancing, but “very little com-pared to what we have now.”

The revitalized religious commu-nities on campus have fed a desire to learn about different faiths, and religious groups themselves have taken more initiatives to increase dialogue, Najeeb said.

“People are interested in learn-ing about different faiths because for a lot of people faith is a big part of life,” Najeeb said, adding that the MSA has developed a number of programs giving people an oppor-tunity to learn about Islam.

Oddly enough, real estate con-tributes to Brown’s strong interfaith dialogue, Cooper Nelson said. Many universities have ornate chapels with endowments for organs or re-ligious leaders, but Brown’s chapel is “just a meeting place” with no iconography, making it a religious venue for no one specific faith.

“Around the country, endow-ments, chapels and all that make it difficult for institutions to change with the times,” Cooper Nelson said. “Thank God we don’t have endowments or real estate that lock universities in ways people never meant to.”

For many students, that freedom and interfaith dialogue are an im-portant part of their Brown experi-ence. At a recent Thursday night interfaith supper, Ashley Tuccero ’11, who was raised Christian but also practices Wicca, talked about her religious experience at Brown over pasta and garlic bread.

“As somebody whose faith isn’t completely represented, it’s nice to have a group of people I can be comfortable around with no funny looks,” Tuccero said.

For Tuccero, learning from those of different faiths provides a welcome contrast to her religious experience before Brown.

“I grew up in a town where ev-erybody was Catholic or Protestant, and I didn’t have exposure to any-thing beyond that,” Tuccero said. “Coming here is very enriching, and I’m glad I’m at a place where people can speak openly about stuff like that.”

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

continued from page 1

Religious organizations on campus bring wide array of faiths together

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BY BLair hickMaNCoNTribuTiNg WriTer

Theresa Gonzalez of the office of the New York Times College Schol-arship Program knows Ayana Mo-rales ’06 MD’10, Lily Wu ’06 MD’10 and Angelika Garcia ’10 well. The three girls, all currently at Brown, won the Times scholarship.

“I just talked to them last week,” she said. She reminded the girls to RSVP to an event celebrating the New York Times’ new building and expressed her hope to see them there.

The New York Times College Scholarship program, established in 1999, recognizes 20 New York City high school seniors who dem-onstrate academic excellence and community involvement despite personal hardship. Whether they grew up with absent parents, in a homeless shelter or overcoming language barriers, winners are indi-viduals who excel despite obstacles that often force them to assume the responsibility and maturity of adults.

Recipients receive up to $30,000, a laptop, an internship at the New York Times, help finding paid em-ployment each summer and a men-tor to guide them throughout their college years. Funds come from the New York Times Company Founda-tion, the Starr Foundation and other private contributions.

Though the current Brown stu-dents declined to comment, pro-gram alum Julissa Mejia ’06 said Gonzalez’s care for the scholars is the cornerstone of the program. “You don’t feel like it’s money and a goodbye,” she said.

Mejia was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the Bronx when she was seven. Her neighbor-hood was “typical New York City,” she said, with “lots of blacks, Lati-nos and Asians.”

“Brown was kind of a shock,” she said.

Without the scholarship pro-gram, Mejia said, she may not have landed at Brown or at her current job at JPMorgan Chase.

“The people who work with the scholarship definitely influenced where I ended up,” Mejia said. “They didn’t necessarily influence the field I’m in, but they influenced my drive and were always there for support — like a family.”

It’s this dynamic that makes the New York Times Scholarship Pro-gram so unique. Last year, Brown students received upwards of $2.6 million from outside scholarship agencies, according to Director of Financial Aid James Tilton. The new College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which aims to increase national grants for students, should increase the availability of outside aid. But not all of these funds provide their scholarship winners with the sur-rogate family that comes with win-ning a New York Times College Scholarship.

“There are so many wonderful kids in New York who have enor-mous adversity in their lives and who somehow manage to survive in brilliant fashion,” program di-rector Soma Golden Behr told the New York Times in 2006. “What we want to do is help give those remarkable young people a helping hand, a boost over the fence.”

The program guides winners

through college, beginning with an internship at the Times, which most students serve the summer after high school. Mejia worked in public relations at the newspaper.

“They brought us in and took us through the office, introducing us to everyone,” she said. “They wanted to make sure we weren’t just at the Times twiddling our fingers.”

Throughout college, scholars attend a variety of social events, like holiday parties and trips to Broad-way shows. The program stays in close contact with winners, check-ing in at least once a semester, if not more often.

As a result, winners form rela-tionships that play an important role in their lives. Mejia now knows Arthur Gelb, former managing edi-tor of the Times, and says that she wouldn’t be nearly as close with

her three best friends, who also graduated in 2006, if it weren’t for their participation in the scholar-ship program. The group’s specific sponsor through the Times, who lived in Providence, even regularly had them over for dinner.

The scholarship program holds special significance in the lives of winners, and many continue to be involved post-graduation. Mejia now represents her class and serves as a type of social coordinator, “making sure everyone stays in touch and bringing younger and older scholars together.”

The hope is that these relation-ships will provide scholarship win-ners with opportunities throughout their lives. “I probably couldn’t have afforded Brown without the scholar-ship,” Mejia said. “But the relation-ships are what’s important.”

New York Times scholarship grants students funds, internship and family

CaMpus newsTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7

den. The center is looking for “a distinguished scholar with broad interdisciplinary interests in envi-ronmental issues” to coordinate the center’s education and research programs and better integrate the CES into the broader Brown community, among other things, according to the CES Web site.

“We are looking for someone to work with the legacy of the CES and carry it forward in these ex-citing times,” wrote Professor of Geological Sciences Jack Mustard in an e-mail to The Herald. The search committee, he added, is “looking for someone with a strong environmental ethic, a record of scholarly achievement in the broad field of the environment and with experience in leading organiza-tions.”

Sala is leaving the post to fo-cus on his position as director of

Brown’s Environmental Change Initiative, which he described as “an interdisciplinary program de-signed to articulate the research and education at Brown in the area of the environment.”

“Brown is putting a lot of effort into the Environmental Change Initiative and it requires all of my attention,” Sala said. “It is a very exciting project.”

Though a new director will bring some changes to the CES, Sala said the center’s faculty — which includes ecologists, ge-ologists and biologists as well as Manager of Environmental Stew-ardship Initiatives Kurt Teichert, who advises the University on en-ergy use, and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Steven Hamburg, who consults corpora-tions such as Wal-Mart on energy efficiency issues — will remain the same. Thanks to the faculty, Sala said, “there is some continuity.”

continued from page 1

Search is on for CES director

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PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

Reil ’09: Patriots inciting opponents, inspiring fan base

but as we all know, that didn’t hap-pen.

The Patriots defeated the Colts 24-20 in what would be a bittersweet victory for me, and many other Pats fans, I’m sure. Sure, we are still undefeated, and we proved to the world that we are better than the Colts. But, we didn’t score on our opening drive, like we had in all our previous games, and we were un-able to run the score high enough to make Peyton Manning cry.

Now, I am not saying that the Pats aren’t unsportsmanlike, be-cause I totally agree that they are.

What I am saying is that, as a na-tion of Patriots fans, not only do we need to accept that our team is evil, we need to embrace it. We should brag incessantly. Wear our Pats jerseys everywhere. Remind every fan of the teams we systemati-cally dismantle, friend or foe, just how gruesome our victories were. This is our shining moment. As each day passes, sports fans around the nation are wishing harder and harder that they could be us. Let’s enjoy it.

Shane Reil ’09 hates Luke Skywalk-er and Chewbacca.

continued from page 12

ing about us without us is for us” and “Just call them charades,” referring to the charrettes.

The plan recommends convert-ing industrial properties along the waterfront into a mix of residen-tial, recreational and commercial spaces.

Businesses along Allens Avenue will be ousted from the area if it is opened to mixed-use development, said Ward 3 City Councilman Kev-in Jackson, who voted against the plan.

“We cannot afford to lose any more good jobs,” he told the coun-cil.

Oscar Lemus, an Olneyville busi-nessman, said the council should not have passed the plan until “everyone is included in the process.”

“The only thing they see is the dollar sign and the developers,” he said. “They think about the people that are coming in — not about the

people that are here.”Two months ago, about 15

waterfront businesses formed the Working Waterfront Alliance, which advocates preserving water-dependent heavy industries along the waterfront.

The alliance was formed partly because it seemed the council would adopt the plan before all charrettes took place, said Joel Cohen, chair-man of the alliance and vice presi-dent of Promet Marine Services, a company on Allens Avenue that repairs ships.

If condominiums are built, noisy machinery used by many waterfront businesses would disturb residents, Cohen said.

Painter said the planning depart-ment has “specifically said” the city must “find ways to protect heavy industries.”

She said those who choose to live in the condominiums along the waterfront would be warned that “they are entering a heavy industry

area.”“There will be some type of deed

so people know they’re going to have noise, fumes and vibrations,” she said, adding that some people don’t mind living in such areas.

But Cohen did not agree.“No condominium owner would

agree to (such a deed),” Cohen said, calling the protection Painter spoke of “a bit of a sham.”

Cohen said he is open to the idea of mixed use development but that he would have preferred to wait for discussions about it in the charrette.

“They want to cut our legs from underneath us,” he said after Thurs-day’s meeting, where the council adopted the plan. The waterfront charrette is slated for January.

“We have to get prepared for the charrette,” Cohen said. “And be pre-pared to go to court if need be.”

The approved plan has been sent to the City Plan Commission for review.

City approves development plan despite protesterscontinued from page 5

er. She shared her experiences as a child growing up in “the hood” in the south side of Providence and the deterioration of her family as her parents became involved in gambling and drugs.

Ok, who has testified before the Providence Public School District and organized other meetings to speak about her work with the Youth Student Movement, told The Herald that her experience at the convocation was “breathtaking, because I spoke from the heart.”

“I hope Brown University, an Ivy League School, reaches out more because I am not the only one with potential,” Ok said.

Ho, who is in his final year at Harvard Law School, said the legal system occasionally fails in provid-ing social justice, and he said his goal after graduating law school is to found institutions that cause systematic change in poverty-re-lated issues, through support and resources in addition to legal aid. These centers, which will particu-larly be aimed at helping poor chil-dren and their families, cannot be

called organizations because they must be “connected to the com-munity and entrenched in the lives of the people (they are) helping,” Ho said. “They must be through the community, not for the com-munity.”

Ho recounted his first loss in two years of providing legal aid to underprivileged people. A women who had been abused was working toward certification as a nursing assistant. A judged ruled Monday morning that her alimony will now be reduced, forcing her to get a minimum-wage job and discontinue her education

Catherine Nguyen ’11, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, was the convocation’s Freshman Expectations speaker. She dis-cussed her experience as a member of the Asian majority in her home-town of Monterey Park, Calif.

“I didn’t know if I could talk about discrimination. ... Everyone looked like me,” Nguyen said. “I realized that I wanted to get in touch and learn about (the South East Asian community) while at Brown.”

Kathleen “K” Zafra ’08, the eve-ning’s Senior Reflections speaker, was the only Filipino and Asian-American student at her high school. Filipino Alliance and the Third World community were cen-tral to her college experience, she said. Beginning with her participa-tion in the Third World Transition Program, she “learned the true beauty in harmony and diversity.” In her spoken word performance, she described the Southeast Asian community at Brown as her family, support and fuel.

“It’s the people you’ll remember (after college),” Zafra said.

Among the week’s other events, “Journey From the Fall,” a film about a Vietnamese family’s struggle as refugees after the fall of Saigon, will be shown and fol-lowed with a discussion in Salomon 001 Nov. 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. The following day, Minnesotan artist Cy Thao’s collection of paintings detailing the history of the Hmong people will be shown in List Art 120 from 7 to 9 p.m. Legends of the SEA, the annual performance event that showcases the diversity of Southeast Asia through song, dance and folklore, will take place in Salomon 101 on Nov. 10 from 7-9 PM.

Additional event information can be found on the TWC Web site.

Ho ’01 highlights Southeast Asian week convocationcontinued from page 1

Page 9: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

This combination — the high number of arts organizations, the decline in donations to the arts and low giving rate of Rhode Island residents — leaves each individu-al art organization with a smaller slice of the economic pie. But “this isn’t WaterFire’s problem, because they have great corporate support,” McCormack said, adding that the Tourism Council decided to in-crease WaterFire’s grant because “we felt that it was so important for the tourism economy of the summer to have the event up and running.”

McCormack reiterated that the city had “no issue” supporting Wa-terFire, assuring The Herald that WaterFire was not “about to close shop.” McCormack said Provi-dence and organizers of WaterFire are “partners in this event” and added that Mayor David Cicilline ’83 was interested in formalizing a relationship between the city and WaterFire soon.

WaterFire has become a sym-bol of Providence’s renaissance over the past decade, and has also contributed to the city’s rebirth. The economic impact of the 2004 WaterFire season was studied by Acadia Consulting Group and for-mer University of Rhode Island professor Timothy Tyrrell — their report, commissioned by Water-Fire’s organizers, claims WaterFire

had a $33.2 million impact in gross revenues and contributions in 2004, according to a March 2005 article in the Providence Journal.

WaterFire is nonprofit organiza-tion and most of its budget comes from donations from individuals, though some comes from corpo-rate sponsorships and about 20 per-cent comes from the city and state. WaterFire’s board of directors is made up of representatives from the Providence arts and business communities, volunteers, donors and officials from several univer-sities. Brown does not currently have a representative on the board — the last University official to serve was Constance Gee, a former assistant professor of public policy and education and now-ex-wife of then-President Gordon Gee.

In addition to the $100,000 that WaterFire received from the Providence Tourism Council for its past season, the state offered help as well. A $300,000 legislative grant to the Rhode Island Council of the Arts also went to support WaterFire this year, wrote Barbara Trainor, media coordinator in the governor’s office, in an e-mail to The Herald.

Despite the financial issues ref-erenced by McCormack, WaterFire proceeded this year with a budget of $1.65 million. Elements of the budget include $600,000 for labor, $100,000 for insurance, $60,000 for firewood, $45,000 for the rights to

the WaterFire music and $30,000 for an annual audit.

Another issue looming in Wa-terFire’s future is the high level of silt at the bottom of the Providence River. Creator Evans said the silt causes WaterFire’s boats to run aground, increasing maintenance costs. The rivers are supposed to be dredged every five to eight years, Evans said, but the last time the Providence River was dredged was in 1998, for $1.7 million. Evans said WaterFire has notified the city of the situation, but that “they set their own priorities.”

According to McCormack, the Providence Foundation, the city and WaterFire are currently work-ing with the Maguire Group, an engineering firm that managed the Waterplace Park River Relocation Project, to create a proposal for federal assistance with dredging.

Evans described watching the growth of WaterFire, which he said has already been recreated in cities such as Houston and Kansas City, as “a gift.” The event has also gar-nered attention from international cities, notably Rome and Barce-lona, which both approached Evans about recreating the spectacle in their respective downtown rivers.

One mark of a good piece of art, Evans said, is that it touches a broad audience — and WaterFire has met this standard, serving as a “romantic,” “beautiful” and “spiri-tual” hub for millions of visitors.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

up Westfall inside the box. “They answered back pretty

quickly, which definitely swung the momentum back the other way,” Shapira said.

Yale’s goal snapped the scoreless streak of goalkeeper Steffi Yellin ’10 at 318 minutes and seven seconds.

The game remained knotted at one until the 59th minute, when Becky Brown scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal for Yale. She dribbled the ball near the end line on the left side, and her cross attempt went into the far cor-ner of the goal.

The Bulldogs didn’t stop there, adding a third goal in the 77th min-ute to put the game away. The score came after a set piece for Yale, which resulted in a loose ball in front of the goal that Hannah Smith headed into the net.

“It was a really tough loss,” Sha-pira said.

“It’s unfortunate to lose, but I’m not disappointed at all in the way our team played,” Carney added.

Yale out-shot the Bears 13-10 and held a 7-6 advantage in shots on goal. The teams had two corner kicks each.

Brown’s loss allowed Penn (5-1 Ivy) to clinch the Ivy League’s au-tomatic berth into the NCAA tour-nament, as it beat both Princeton (4-2 Ivy) and Yale (4-2 Ivy) in head-to-head match-ups. The Bears can still finish as high as third in the Ivy League if they win their final game against Dartmouth (2-3-1 Ivy) at Stevenson Field on Saturday at 7 p.m.

continued from page 12

W. soccer falls to Yale

WaterFire enters the winter off-seasoncontinued from page 3

thanks for reading

Page 10: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

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

J O E N A G L E

Don’t extinguish WaterFire“Beautiful” and “spiritual” are the words founder Barnaby Evans ’75 uses to describe WaterFire, the festival of bonfires that has appeared in and around the Providence River for over a decade.

Those adjectives might not be the first that come to mind when one thinks of the dramatic — and perhaps slightly bizarre — procession that overtakes downtown Providence on Saturday nights from May through October. But love it or not, WaterFire has become a veritable symbol of the city’s so-called renaissance, synonymous for many with Providence’s reputation for embracing and encouraging the arts.

And by some measurements, WaterFire itself has played a pivotal role in the city’s turnaround. The 2004 WaterFire season brought $40.5 million in goods and services to Providence, according to a report commissioned by WaterFire organizers and conducted by Acadia Consulting Group and a University of Rhode Island professor. Mayor David Cicilline ’83 has supposedly expressed intentions to formalize Providence’s relationship with WaterFire.

To that end, it’s surprising that the city has typically only granted between $50,000 and $70,000 to the festival each year. Even this year, though Lynne McCormack, the city’s director of arts, culture and tour-ism, noted WaterFire’s “financial issues,” the city provided just $100,000 of the festival’s $1.65 million budget.

Coupled with a $300,000 state grant to the Rhode Island Council of the Arts, state and city funding accounted for just a fifth of WaterFire’s operat-ing costs. Sponsorships from corporations and local businesses make up the rest of the funds needed to keep the fires on the river lit each year. To be sure, without the support of city businesses the event would not be possible. But the city should not let the remaining responsibility of funding the festival fall so heavily on individual philanthropy. It’s a surefire way to keep the organization’s future in limbo as WaterFire competes with other civic causes and events for the same funds.

To start, the city could help by dredging the Providence River. Silt ac-cumulated at the bottom of the river has been damaging WaterFire’s boats and increasing the festival’s maintenance costs. It’s time the mayor’s office moves it to the top of the priority list, with or without federal aid.

As a smaller city, Providence has relatively few attractions to showcase to out-of-town visitors and residents of southeastern New England who might just keep driving up I-95 to Boston. Gentrified shopping and impres-sive restaurants populate every city. But no other city has WaterFire.

Believe it or not, WaterFire has become something of an international attraction. In fact, on summer Saturdays, many people choose to shop and eat in Providence simply because of WaterFire. Surely, that’s economic incentive enough for the city to step up and support WaterFire so that the “renaissance city” can continue to lay claim to its nickname.

senior staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Isabel Gottlieb, Nandini Jayakrishna, Franklin Kanin, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, Michael Skocpol, Nick Werlestaff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Caitlin Browne, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Chaz Kelsh, Jessica Kerry, Sophia Lambertson, Cameron Lee, Sophia Li, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, George Miller, Anna Millman, Sonia Saraiya, Andrea Savdie, Marielle Segarra, Gaurie Tilak, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese, Joanna Wohlmuthsports staff Writers Andrew Braca, Whitney Clarke, Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina StubbeBusiness staff Diogo Alves, Emilie Aries, Beth Berger, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Alexander Hughes, Claire Kiely, Soobin Kim, Katelyn Koh, Darren Kong, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Ingrid Pangandoyon, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiongdesign staff Brianna Barzola, Chaz Kelsh,Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti, Wudan YanPhoto staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Meara Sharma, Tai Ho Shin, Min Wucopy editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ben Mercer, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Sara Slama, Jenna Stark, Laura Straub, Meha Verghese, Elena Weissman

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eDiTorial & leTTersPAGE 10 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

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The Herald’s coverage oversimplified the TFA debate

Keep the Center for Environmental Studies in the UEL

to the editor:

As the campus campaign coordinators for Teach For America at Brown, we were disappointed by The Her-ald’s coverage of the recent panel discussion, “The Teach For America Debate” (“Panel questions impact of Teach For America,” Nov. 2). In our extensive com-munications with Brown students regarding TFA, we have encountered important criticisms of the program and its philosophy. Thursday’s panel did an excellent job of acknowledging and addressing students’ con-cerns about TFA while delving into the deeper issue of educational inequality and reform.

We feel that the article didn’t fully capture the complexity of the debate and the panelists’ opinions, and in trying to summarize each panelists’ main point, it oversimplified the nuance of their statements. We were struck by University Chaplain Janet Cooper-Nelson’s emphasis on TFA’s role in bringing integrity to the field of education. She recalled her experience training educators and acknowledged that traditional training does not necessarily produce teachers more prepared than those in the TFA corps. The Herald’s article also overlooked Cooper-Nelson’s enthusiasm about TFA’s ability to place motivated and energetic educators in our nation’s classrooms.

The article doesn’t adequately summarize the opin-ions of other panelists. The Herald wrote, “Sigler and

Campbell emphasized that TFA is a short-term solu-tion,” but this statement inaccurately captures both panelists’ main points. Sigler, who describes herself as a “critical friend” of TFA, questions the program’s corporate partnerships and lack of incentives to re-main in the classroom, but she ultimately contends that corps members are having a positive influence in classrooms across the country. Campbell, chair of Brown’s University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, emphasized the possible ideological problems implicit in TFA’s methodology. Still, he warned against students’ tendency to over-intellectualize the problem with the consequence of inaction. Someone reading the article, however, might falsely conclude that Campbell’s stance on TFA was entirely negative.

While we were happy to see the important events on Thursday covered by The Herald, we wanted to make sure that the complex criticisms offered by students and panelists were represented. We also thought that the ultimate tone and outcome of the event needed to be conveyed: at the end of the night, Petteruti Lounge was buzzing with enthusiasm for Teach For America.

Vani kilakkathi ‘08stefan Lallinger ‘08

ariel Werner ‘09Nov. 3

to the editor:

As a recent graduate and environmental science con-centrator, I was shocked to learn that the University plans to destroy the building that housed my depart-ment, the Urban Environmental Lab, to make way for the Mind, Brain and Behavior building.

In a century in which “carbon” has become part of our every day vocabulary, the Center for Environ-mental Studies at Brown deserves to stand alone in its own building.

The UEL is one of the only spaces of its kind remain-ing on campus. It’s old, it’s quirky and it’s certainly not perfect, which is precisely why it is so important to preserve. The atmosphere within the UEL fostered an environment of intellectual discussion where I knew my professors by their first names. It was this

atmosphere that represented all that made my Brown experience both worthwhile and enjoyable, and its destruction represents a short-sighted and, dare I say, stupid decision on the part of the University. The 100-year-old refurbished carriage house not only has passive solar design, a greenhouse and a kitchen, but an environment that facilitates the exchange of ideas and grassroots activism that represents CES and the larger Brown community. I hear that spaces such as the UEL are slated for destruction because they do not represent efficient uses of space in terms of quantita-tive measurements. However, is it truly efficient to confine students to spaces that inhibit creativity and stifle discussion?

Laura Genello ’07Nov. 1

Page 11: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

At its narrowest point, only 100 miles of the South China Sea separates the People’s Re-public of China from Taiwan. 100 miles, of course, is not that far in the grand scheme of things. Two Rhode Islands stacked on top of one another would measure up just short of 100 miles. And the throngs of Brown se-niors trekking off College Hill these days for interviews on Wall Street travel a full 1.5 times that distance. Indeed, in the 21st century, people, information, goods and diplomatic communiques can cross 100 miles at incred-ible speeds. This is just as true in the Taiwan Strait as anywhere else.

Despite the tense relationship between the PRC and Taiwan, these two entities have been drawn together by the magnetism of globalization. Taiwan exports more goods to the PRC than to any other nation. And so far this year, the total value of these foreign exports makes Taiwan the PRC’s third larg-est source of imports worldwide. Social and personal ties between the two are also strong and improving. Tourism between the two entities is riding high on the possibility of regular cross-strait commercial flights, and artistic and educational exchanges are on the rise. For example, this summer audiences in Beijing enjoyed performances by Taiwan’s renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theater while schoolchildren in Taipei saw a touring exhibi-tion showcasing the famed terracotta warriors of China’s Xi’an province. Though neither artifacts nor exports can deliver a solution to the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, the very fact that the exchanges take place — and that

they were beyond imagining only 30 years ago — has two significant implications.

First, there is a greater chance for peace between the PRC and Taiwan than ever before owing to the broad and deep ties between communities on both sides. Second, the costs of a return to hostilities are astronomically high. The PRC and Taiwan are no longer iso-lated from one another, and a conflict between them would throw East Asia into political and economic turmoil while simultaneously

dissolving any good will and hope that these two peoples share.

For the reasons outlined above, it is abundantly clear to the wider world that the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan must pursue a peaceful settlement of their dispute. However, questions remain about how the parties can do so most effectively. For its part, the PRC too often takes an apocalyptic tack

toward its relations with Taiwan. The PRC’s inflammatory insistence that any peace with Taiwan must enshrine the oneness of China and sideline all “separatists” is a dangerous and unhelpful way to approach this delicate issue. The PRC’s hard-line approach only serves to galvanize pro-independence advo-cates on the other side of the strait (especially the ruling Democratic People’s Party), who use these statements to convince Taiwanese that full sovereignty and separation is the only

alternative to communist rule. Unfortunately, during its recent congress,

the Communist Party of China made no indi-cation that it would alter its approach to the Taiwan question. This is especially disap-pointing because the Taiwanese are not the only ones hoping Beijing will take a more reasonable approach to this issue. Though the PRC’s rise to prominence in the interna-

tional community brings forth the opportunity to secure unprecedented prosperity for its people and become a major stakeholder in the international system, it must remember that undue aggression towards Taiwan will not bode well for its campaign for global lead-ership and respect.

Beijing’s all-or-nothing attitude will only embolden pundits around the world who warn that the West should fear the PRC’s ascendance to global power. For them, the PRC’s refusal to compromise on Taiwan is indicative of a regime that will do anything to get its way, whether that means going to war over a questionable matter of sover-eignty or befriending the world’s most brutal regimes (Sudan, DPRK, Myanmar) to make a quick buck. In short, the PRC’s present approach to Taiwan must be re-evaluated if President Hu Jintao and his team expect the international community to buy into “China’s Peaceful Rise.”

The PRC and Taiwan should both be ap-plauded for narrowing the political, economic, and social distances between them in recent years. Such a trend bodes well for peace in Asia and throughout the world. However, Beijing must reign in its rhetoric if it expects to win support from the Taiwanese people and the larger community of nations.

President Hu should continue to reach across the Taiwan Strait in the spirit of dia-logue — it is, after all, not too far a reach to make. But he must remember that polemics and stubbornness from Beijing will carry a heavy price both locally and internationally. We must hope that he and his leadership team will have so much foresight.

Michael Boyce ‘08 isn’t the droids you’re looking for.

Taiwan is a Part of China. Period.The 17th National Congress of the Com-

munist Party of China concluded last month with an intra-party reshuffle and a vigorous reaffirmation of Party policy as conducted the ascent of the Fourth Generation leadership under Hu Jintao. Not surprisingly, the main-stream Western media generally ignored the import of the occasion— to the detriment of informed public discourse — and an opportu-nity was lost which might have provided some deeper insight into the policy positions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Contrary to the assertions of alarmist pro-vocateurs invoking some sort of renewed Yellow Peril, the reality is that the PRC’s perspective remains focused on domestic is-sues — unlike certain other world powers, its priorities and ambitions are at home, not abroad. This was made quite clear in Hu Jin-tao’s lengthy work report, in which the only “foreign” matter he discussed in any great detail was one which the PRC in fact regards as an internal affair; namely, the status of the province of Taiwan.

Clearly, the Taiwan issue will remain a source of controversy owing to the intense feelings involved, but that it should be a source of conflict is hardly inevitable. For its part the PRC has committed itself to maintaining the status quo and thereby preserving peace — provided that no attempts to alter the current political arrangements are made, the PRC will continue to pursue diplomacy and negotiation. This stance has been consistently reiterated by the Chinese government — even right here at Brown just last semester during the

visit by Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong — and there is no reason to doubt that such a course is the preferred form of resolution, and even-tual reunification, especially considering the growing economic ties between the two sides of the strait.

Given the PRC’s comparatively conciliatory manner, it is unfortunate that the current government in Taiwan, led by Chen Shui-bian

and the Democratic Progressive Party, has adopted a provocative approach toward the island’s relationship with the mainland, one that has placed Taiwan in an increasingly con-frontational position. Especially since the pas-sage of the 2003 referendum law, which some interpreted as paving the way towards a dec-laration of independence, Chen has persisted in antagonizing Beijing, whether in the form of vehement rhetoric or symbolic gestures. And such acts have only intensified recently, as evident in Taiwan’s failed September bid for UN membership, and the ostentatious military

parade- the first in over fifteen years- which accompanied the brash pronouncements of Chen’s National Day speech.

Yet beyond such displays of defiance, what has this course of action actually ac-complished? Ultimately, since Taiwan already enjoys de facto independence, which the PRC has tacitly conceded by endorsing the status quo, aggravating Beijing in the name

of a formality only intensifies the supposed mainland threat. Paradoxically, by advocat-ing Taiwanese independence, Chen and his supporters are contributing to the creation of the danger they wish to avert. Moreover, since their confidence in doing so rests ultimately on guarantees and assurances from outside powers — i.e. the United States and Japan — this brinkmanship demonstrates a failure to appreciate the realities of the contemporary geopolitical scene. Admittedly, half a century ago this kind of belligerent posturing may have produced some results. Then, the PRC was

less relevant to the global community; today, however, as the PRC assumes an ever more important role, the world simply cannot afford any conflict over Taiwan.

That said, Taiwan will only find itself iso-lated if it persists in pressing the independence issue. For instance, Taiwan remains outside the regional trend of greater cooperation with the PRC, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations made clear its stance this past August when former Secretary-General Rod-olfo Severino warned Taiwan against de jure independence. Meanwhile, it is doubtful that Taiwan’s patron, the United States, would permit its grand strategy in international af-fairs, in which cooperation with the PRC is of crucial significance, to be held hostage by a Taiwanese conflict of choice. For despite all the vociferations of junior U.S. congressmen out to make their name blustering over an issue like defending Taiwanese democracy, inevitably all U.S. presidents have come to terms by constructively engaging with the PRC. Of course, there is always the possibility that the United States should decide to support the project for Taiwanese independence. In this case, it is probably fair to say that regard-less of who prevails, Taiwan would bear the brunt of the confrontation. Put bluntly, the zealous drive for independence would end only in self-destruction.

The Taiwan question must therefore re-main an internal affair, the resolution of which must be determined only by negotiation be-tween the PRC and the government in Taiwan, within the existing political framework. The movement for independence can lead only to conflict, which the world does not desire and which Taiwan itself can ill afford.

Eric Demafeliz ’08.5 is no spoon.

BY ERIC DEMAFELIZguesT ColumNisT

The classes of enemies

Taiwanese leader must step away from the brink

The PRC’s perspective remains focused

on domestic issues — unlike certain other

world powers, its priorities and ambitions

are at home, not abroad.

opinionsTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 11

The PRC’s present approach to Taiwan

must be re-evaluated if President

Hu Jintao and his team expect the

international community to buy into

‘China’s Peaceful Rise.’

BY MICHAEL BOYCEguesT ColumNisT

Page 12: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

BY aMY ehrhartassisTaNT sporTs ediTor

After beating Cornell to break a seven-year losing record at the Big Red’s home gym, the volleyball team cruised to another victory over Co-lumbia this weekend to complete a sweep on the road. The two wins completed a season sweep of the New York Ivy League schools and bumped the Bears’ record in the Ivies to 5-6 (7-14 overall).

Cornell pushed Bruno to five games for the second time this sea-son, but the Bears pulled through in crucial pressure situations, winning 28-30, 30-19, 33-31, 23-30, 15-11. Against Columbia, Brown asserted itself from the beginning and brought down the Lions, 30-26, 30-28, 27-30, 30-27. It was Brown’s fifth win in its last six matches.

“We’re really young. It took us a while to get going this season, but we’ve been playing really well,” said setter Natalie Meyers ’09, who put up 118 assists and 22 digs this weekend. “We’re playing with a lot more confidence ... which is really good for next year.”

Brown posted one of its highest hitting percentages of the year — .243 — against Columbia and bet-tered both teams in total kills and digs each match.

“They were good wins for our seniors on their last away trip,” said Lyndse Yess ’09, who totaled 32 kills and 32 digs in the two matches.

No senior played better than the team’s captain Katie Lapinski ’08, who had 54 digs and three aces this weekend to lead the team de-

fensively. She accomplished this de-spite having an asthma attack after the Cornell game. It was a difficult situation for the four-year starter, but Friday night the team kept the bus warm and an oxygen mask on Lapinski to help her recover. She started the Columbia match the fol-lowing night.

“We were all really scared,” Yess said.

Prior to that incident, however, Lapinski was all over the court helping to hold down the back row against Cornell. Against the Big Red, Meyers had no problem distribut-

ing the ball to Brown’s potent front line.

Megan Toman ’11 posted 22 kills and a .327 hitting percentage against Cornell. She led the team in hitting with 19 kills and a .277 percentage against Columbia. Toman also led Brown in total kills for the weekend with 41.

“I had a lot of adrenaline in me, and I didn’t want to lose to Cornell,” Toman said of the game. Toman had a bit of extra motivation, as she said Cornell was a school she considered attending. Toman had kills for three of the last four points in the fifth

game against the Big Red.“We’re just keeping the offense

really spread as much as possible, and we can do that because we haven’t had to depend on just one person (hitting),” Meyers said.

Right-side hitter Lillie Cohn ’09 stepped up big this weekend as well, hitting .444 for nine kills against the Big Red and .323 for 15 kills against Columbia, giving Meyers another threat to set to.

“(Cohn) played outstanding — you can set her the ball, and it would be a kill every time,” Yess said. “Ev-eryone was hitting very well.”

Brown has three home matches remaining in its season, including two this weekend against Princ-eton on Friday and the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, both at 4 p.m. The Bears’ final game pits them against Yale on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Seniors Lapinski, Lizzie Laundy ’08, Rachel Lipman ’08 and Julie Mandolini-Trummel ’08 will be honored on Saturday night.

Brown is currently fifth in the Ivy League standings, but could finish as high as third with wins in the final three matches.

Though the Bears have not beaten any of these teams yet this season, they are optimistic because of recent successes.

“It will definitely be a tough weekend. With the way we’re play-ing, though, we can beat both of them, especially as it’s our senior weekend,” Meyers said. “We had zero confidence when we played them (earlier this season). Having confidence from winning will be a big factor.”

BY eriN fraueNhofersporTs ediTor

The men’s hockey team posted two ties over the weekend to open its ECACHL season. On Friday, the Bears tied Union College 2-2, and they recorded the same score against No. 17 Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute on Saturday.

The Dutchmen took a brief lead early in the first period of Friday’s game, when Mario Val-ery-Trabucco scored at 7:29 from the left side of the crease. But the Bears fired back three minutes later with a goal by Paul Baier ’08. Devin Timberlake ’10 and Matt Vokes ’09 recorded assists on the goal.

Both teams remained score-less for the rest of the first period, but 41 seconds into the second pe-riod, Sean McMonagle ’10 scored off a pass from Jeff Prough ’08 to give the Bears a 2-1 lead. Union answered with a goal of its own at 13:22 when a shot from Luke Cain sailed past goaltender Dan Rosen ’10.

Neither team was able to score for the remainder of the game, and though the Bears outshot the Dutchmen 3-2 during overtime, the game ended in a deadlock. Rosen tallied 33 saves for the day.

On Saturday, Brown again al-lowed its opponent to take the first lead. After a scoreless first period, the Engineers climbed ahead 6:19 into the second period with a goal from Andrew Lord, and RPI extended its lead to 2-0 when Jonathan Ornelas scored at 14:18.

But the Bears battled back. They finally responded at 8:49 in the third period when Vokes fired a shot from the right face-off cir-cle to beat Engineers’ goaltender Jordan Alford. The goal snapped Alford’s scoreless streak at 172:01. Sean Hurley ’08 and Matt Palmer ’09 recorded assists on the goal.

Though the Bears continued to trail for the rest of the period, they finally buried the equalizer with 42 seconds remaining when Prough scored off assists from Ryan Garbutt ’09 and Chris Poli

’08 to send the game into over-time.

During overtime play, Brown outshot RPI, 12-2, but both teams failed to capitalize on scoring op-portunities, leaving the final score tied again at 2-2. Rosen recorded a total of 20 saves in that game.

This weekend, the Bears will host their only home games of the fall semester, facing off against Colgate University on Friday and Cornell on Saturday. Both games will begin at 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium.

sporTs TuesDayPAGE 12 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007

Title dreams dead after w. soccer’s loss to BulldogsBY eVaN kaNtorsporTs sTaff WriTer

The women’s soccer team struck first Saturday but fell victim to three unanswered goals by Yale, as the Bears saw their chances for an Ivy League title slip away. The Bears had a three-game winning streak heading into the weekend’s matchup and needed to win each of their last two games to have a shot at catching the University of Pennsylvania atop the Ivy League.

The Bears (6-9-1, 3-3 Ivy) start-ed the game strong and got on the board when Bridget Ballard ’10 scored her first goal of the season in the 24th minute. “We dominated the first 25 minutes,” said co-captain Kerrilynn Carney ’08.

Co-captain Julia Shapira ’08 add-ed, “The team was clicking.”

The scoring play developed when Lindsay Cunningham ’09 dribbled down the left flank into the corner. She then beat the Bulldog defender and crossed the ball toward the back post. Ballard finished with a running header into the lower right corner of the goal from 10 yards out.

The Bulldogs (10-6, 4-2 Ivy) coun-tered quickly, with Maggie Westfal scoring less than three minutes later. Leslie Perez took the ball down the left flank and crossed it in, setting

Pats aren’t playing favorites in 2007All the years I spent watching the New York Yankees, I always just as-sumed I hated them. After all, they

were the “Evil Em-pire.” However, af-ter the second Red Sox World Series title in four years, and with the collec-tive ire of an entire nation of football fans being directed at my beloved New

England Patriots, I finally realize how wrong I was.

It wasn’t hate I felt — it was envy. All this time I was as green as a green crayon hoping that some day I would be able to feel what Yankee fans felt (big emphasis on that — felt). Now I do.

The first time it really hit me was a few weeks ago, when I was watching the Pats face the Miami Dolphins. With the Pats up 28-7, Tom Brady heaved up a prayer to Randy Moss in double coverage. Not only did Moss catch the pass for a touchdown, but Miami safety Renaldo Hill also hurt his right knee trying to cover him. The color commentators were speechless. I couldn’t stop smiling. I felt like such a villain, but I loved it.

For me, this was the defining moment of the Patriots’ transfor-mation. Facing the worst team in the league who was already riddled with injury, the Patriots were cel-ebrating a 35-7, second quarter lead with the Dolphins’ best healthy defensive back writhing in pain in the end zone. This made George Steinbrenner’s formerly evil New York Yankees look like tiny little bunnies nibbling on flower petals in a sunny field.

Later, Belichick finally decided to put backup quarterback Matt Cassel into the game, which had been well out of reach since the end of the first quarter, only to pull him after throwing an interception. I was fine with this. When I play Madden I never take Brady out — I break records.

Fast forward one week, to a game many misguided media pun-dits were saying the Pats might actually lose. Brady and Co. are leading the Washington Redskins 38-0, facing a 4th-and-1 on Wash-ington’s 7-yard line, and they go for it. Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs appeared dumbfounded on the sidelines, shaking his head and frowning like he just pooped his pants. The Pats converted and ended up getting a touchdown on the drive, which made Redskins linebacker Randall Godfrey sad. Godfrey complained that the Patri-ots were unsportsmanlike, which has since been the hot topic around the NFL.

It’s no wonder, then, this week-end’s game against the Indianapolis Colts was touted by many as Good vs. Evil. Tom Brady was your pro-totypical arrogant jerk, and Peyton Manning the exemplar of humble sportsmanship. (One ESPN colum-nist even went so far as to make it a moral issue, essentially Brady evil because he’s had a few hot girl-friends, Manning good because he is happily married.) The Colts were supposed to be the team that would finally stop Belichick’s evil hordes,

M. icers post two draws in ECACHL

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

The men’s hockey team opened its ECACHL season with two ties thanks in part to Matt Vokes ’09 who recorded his first assist and goal of the year.

No problems in New York as volleyball sweeps two

shane reilAre You For Reil?

Ashley Hess / Herald File PhotoLyndse Yess ’09 rang up 32 kills in the volleyball team’s two victories in New York this weekend.

continued on page 8continued on page 9