Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 62 | Thursday, September 2, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Grant to At Convocation, an appeal to common humanity

fund math By Ana Alvarez
Senior Staff Writer

institute In his keynote address to the mem-

By Nicole Boucher
Senior Staff Writer
Brown received a $15.5 million
grant from the National Science
Foundation on Aug. 4 to fund a
mathematics institute that will
focus on the connection between
mathematics and computational
research.
The Institute for Compu-
tational and Experimental Re-
search in Mathematics is the
first of its kind funded by the
National Science Foundation in
New England, according to the
press release announcing the
award.  It will bring top-level
researchers to Providence and
will make Brown one of the most
esteemed math research hubs in
the country, Senior Vice Presi-
bers of the Class of 2014, Professor
of Africana Studies Barr ymore
Bogues urged students to consider
all people foremost as fellow hu-
man beings.
Braving the unusually hot Sep-
tember weather, incoming first-
years joined graduate and medical
students to process through the
Van Wickle Gates after a long day
of shopping classes. Upperclass-
men also sat on the Main Green’s
shady patches to listen to Bogues
and President Ruth Simmons wel-
come the new class.
A leading intellectual in Afri-
cana histor y and political theor y,
Bogues focused on the notion of
“the human” and warned students
against classifying people as the
Stephanie London / Herald
continued on page 4 Freshmen were welcomed on the first day of classes following their walk through the Van Wickle Gates.

Bru-‘No’: U. tells Cicilline not to use logo Provost’s

dent of Research Clyde Briant
wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
“The role of the institute is
to create the right environment
— from the scientific vision and
the setting of priorities to the
infrastructure and computa-
tional tools — which supports
the vital research projects of its
participating scholars as well as
the training and mentoring of the
next generation of mathemati-
cians,” wrote Professor of Math-
ematics Jill Pipher, who will lead
the institute, in an e-mail to The
Herald. A variety of programs
will be established to achieve
these goals.
continued on page 3
maya oh maya
By Bradley Silverman
Staff Writer
Congressional candidate Mayor
David Cicilline ’83 has come under
fire for using Brown’s logo in a fun-
draising appeal for Rhode Island’s
1st District race.
Anthony Gemma, one of Cicil-
line’s rivals for the Democratic
nomination to succeed retiring Rep.
Patrick Kennedy, has accused Cicil-
line of knowingly and illegally using
the University’s corporate logo in a
fundraising appeal.
The mailer — sent to alums —
shows a picture of Cicilline above
the Brown logo. The text reads,
“Can you believe there’s only one
Brown alum” ­— Dan Maffei ’90,
D-N.Y. — “in the entire U.S. Con-
gress? Let’s change that.” On the
mailer, the Cicilline campaign logo
METRO
does not appear with his custom-
ary red and blue letters on a white
background, instead using white
words on a red background —
Brown colors.
Gemma first brought attention
to the mailer in an Aug. 23 press
release, denouncing what he called
Metcalf renovations move
Cicilline’s “cheap and deceitful cam-
paign tactic” and charging that the
mayor had endangered Brown’s
tax-exempt status by implying that
the University had endorsed him.
Federal law prohibits Brown, as an
educational institution, from partici-
pating in political campaigns.
“Anybody in politics knows that
you do not put 501(c)(3)s in jeop-
ardy by putting their resources at
risk,” said Dan Mercer, Gemma’s
campaign manager.
In a statement, the University
wrote, “Brown University does not
continued on page 6
office down
one deputy
By Ben Noble
Staff Writer
Deputy Provost Vincent Tompkins
’84 left the University July 1 to lead
a private school in New York City.
He had served as deputy pro-
vost since 2005. A search to find
his replacement began over the
summer, Provost David Kertzer ’69
P’95 P’98 told The Herald.
“He is a huge loss for us,”
Kertzer said. “He just had a terrific
ability to have very high standards
for Brown, yet be able to deal with
people in a way that made them feel

profs to Wayland Square

By Lindor Qunaj
Senior Staff Writer
Professors in the Department of
Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychologi-
cal Sciences moved into a temporary
home at 229 Waterman St. over the
summer.
The relocation to Wayland
Square was caused by the long-
term construction taking place in
the Metcalf Lab, scheduled to be
fully renovated by fall 2011.
James Morgan, a professor in the
department who has been involved
in building plans for the Metcalf Lab
since 1995, said the renovation was
Courtesy of Arturo Godoy much needed. The building was “in
Professor of Anthropology Stephen Houston and a team excavated the worst condition on campus,” he
a Maya king’s tomb this summer, finding the king’s remains and said.
those of human sacrifices. See page 2.
The new Metcalf Lab will have an
inside
updated and wheelchair-accessible
auditorium, a new roof and energy-
efficient windows, The Herald re-
ported in July.
As for the temporary building in
Wayland Square, Morgan said it was
“quite nice and clean.”The problems
that plagued the old Metcalf space
are not an issue in the new site, he
said: “Things work; we don’t have
flooding and paint isn’t peeling.”
Nick Varone ’12, who has worked
in Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic
and Psychological Sciences William
Warren’s Virtual Environment Navi-
gation lab since his freshman year,
also had good things to say about the
lab space on Waterman Street. “It’s a
lot more modern, and everything is
continued on page 3
good and comfortable.”
Tompkins will serve as head-
master of Saint Ann’s School, a
private school in Brooklyn offering
prekindergarten through twelfth
grade. The school is known for its
academics and unique approach
to grading — students receive
teacher-written reports instead of
grades.
“Students here derive their
motivation from things that have
a deeper meaning than getting a
good grade,” Tompkins told the
Wall Street Journal in May. “What
St. Ann’s is doing is working pow-
erfully, and I am going to figure out
a way to sustain that and hopefully
even make it better.”
In a statement on its website,
the school announced, “Vince has
demonstrated throughout his ca-
continued on page 2

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Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Thursday, September 2, 2010

C ampus N EWS Hear Prof. Houston talk about his team’s discovery
Watch the video at browndailyherald.com

Prof. unearths Maya king’s ‘sinister’ tomb in Guatemala

By Sarah Julian
Staff Writer
In what he termed a “colossally im-
portant find,” Professor of Anthropol-
ogy Stephen Houston and his team
of experts discovered the tomb of an
ancient Maya king this summer. Lo-
cated in Guatemala, the tomb enclosed
the remains of the dead ruler, along
with extraordinarily well-preserved
examples of Maya pottery, paints
and sculpture, as well as “cremated,
butchered babies” and “human body
parts in ceramic vessels,” according
to Houston.
“For us, it was a sinister kind of
discovery,” Houston said. Within the
tomb and in surrounding “caches,”
the team found vessels containing the
remains of children.
Andrew Scherer, an assistant pro-
fessor of anthropology who analyzed
the human remains, said there were
four children around the ages of one
to two and two children around the
ages of four to five. Their remains
were found in vessels that appeared
to have been lit on fire, charring the
bodies of the children as a sacrifice for
the recently deceased king. According
to Scherer, this type of sacrifice for
funeral purposes was only found in
the case of kings or other very high-
status individuals.
“A lot of misery went into the con-
struction of the tomb,” Houston said.
This find has provided research-
ers with important information about
Maya civilization. Because of the tropi-
cal climate, wood carvings almost
never survive to be examined by ar-
chaeologists. This discovery, however,
included wooden artifacts that were
preserved within the stone-and-mud-
sealed tomb.
Although many of the samples
were well-preserved by the tomb envi-
ronment, Houston said that it appeared
as if the king had been laid to rest on
a scaffold which subsequently col-
lapsed, smashing many of the objects.
Some items were in such fragile
condition that the team called in a
conservator, an expert skilled in pres-
ervation of ancient artifacts. Houston
said he wanted to be careful that the
team didn’t engage in an “organized
pillage,” much like the looters of the
’60s and ’70s who stripped bare many
ancient ruins.
The tomb also included pots that
Houston called “museum quality” and
that he expects will be on display in
museums in Guatemala. He called the
art “phenomenal.”
“Everything was a royal commis-
sion, so it is the highest quality of the
time,” he said. The king was dressed
as a dancer — the body had “clap-
pers” made of dog or cat teeth on the
arms and legs which would have let
out “quite a racket,” Houston said.
Previously, these had been depicted
in sculpture, but never seen.
They found examples of a trade
pigment that was considered a pre-
cious substance because it sparkles in
the sun. Houston said all the accumu-
lated treasure was “like a tyrant going
to the grave with heaps of Swiss gold.”
The archaeologists also found an
example of what Houston called “pri-
mordial bling.” The king’s teeth had
jade and pyrite inlays so that when the
king smiled, “you would see flashes
of color and brilliance.”
As Houston explained, learning
about the city of El Zotz where the
tomb was found would be like study-
ing Poland — a state on the margins
of major historical players. Learning
about these “shock zones” helps to
clarify the history of the area around
them, he said.
Morgan Ritter-Armour ’11 spent
July of this summer in Guatemala
documenting the artifacts found in
the tomb. Some artifacts need to be
sketched because all the details aren’t
visible in photographs, Ritter-Armour
wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Af-
ter learning “technical drawing tech-
niques and some of the archeological
techniques for drawing,” she said, she
worked with Rhode Island School of
Design graduate Kallista Angeloff,
drawing ceramic pottery pieces and
figurines. These drawings will be
retained as the artifacts are studied
further.
But many of the artifacts only
leave more questions. For Scherer,
the infant remains lead to questions
such as, “Why the young age? What
does this tell us?” Houston said that
upon opening the tomb he was “most
exhilarated” but also “dismayed” be-
cause of the time and budget neces-
sary. Scherer said the team cannot
yet be sure about the significance of
each discovery, but that “in light of
the preservation and very controlled
excavation … we will be looking at this
deposit for years to come.”

Former deputy provost now Simmons presents budget, stats to faculty

head of St. Ann’s in N.Y.
continued from page 1
reer as a teacher and administrator
how well he understands that the
rich and complex interplay between
outstanding faculty and students is
the backbone of any great educa-
tional institution.”
Kertzer said he is leading a
small, informal committee to find a
replacement for Tompkins. Associ-
ate Provost Nancy Dunbar is help-
ing coordinate the search, he said.
The University listed the job in the
Chronicle of Higher Education on
June 8, with applications due July 15.
sudoku
“We’ve already received a num-
ber of attractive applicants, and we’re
getting toward the final stages of the
search,” Kertzer said.
The deputy provost reports to
the provost and works closely with
senior administrators to coordinate
meetings with deans and depart-
ment chairs, Kertzer said. The job
also entails overseeing the Office of
Continuing Education, the Office of
Institutional Research and the Office
of the Registrar.
“Vince is a terrific person,” Kertz-
er said. “It’ll be hard for anybody to
follow in his footsteps.”
By Ashley Aydin
Senior Staff Writer
President Ruth Simmons touched
on the University’s budget and pro-
vided statistics for the class of 2014
at a special faculty meeting held
Wednesday. Provost David Kertzer
’69 P’95 P’98 and the chair of the
faculty also presented reports.
The final budget for this year is
not as tight as last year’s budget,
Simmons said, adding that she will
report more fully on the budget
later this fall.
“The state of the University is
excellent,” Simmons said. She said
that all distinguised universities
are pushing for ward and that all
committees should think together
about improvements. Simmons
also spoke optimistically about
the University’s fundraising ef-
forts. The Brown Annual Fund, the
University’s general fundraising
campaign, increased by 3 percent
over the last fiscal year, she said.
The results placed Brown third
among Ivy League schools.
The Parents Annual Fund is at
$7.1 million, and the University is
closing in on its $1.6 billion goal
for the Campaign for Academic En-
richment, which ends Dec. 31, Sim-
mons said. The campaign reached
$1.54 billion at the end of the fiscal
year ending June 30, surpassing
the original $1.4 billion goal.
Simmons also shared statistics
for the class of 2014. Twenty per-
cent were valedictorians, Simmons
said, adding that 93 percent were
in the top 10 percent of their class.
For ty-six percent are receiving
financial aid, which puts Brown
“closer to the profile of our peers,”
Simmons said. Fourteen percent of
the freshmen are first-generation
college students, while 61 percent
are from public secondary schools.
Ker tzer also presented his
report to the faculty. A search is
currently under way for a dean of
engineering for the School of En-
gineering, which was approved by
the Corporation in May, he said.
Kertzer said there are efforts to
form a faculty committee to dis-
cuss the needs for engineering and
other outlying sciences. There are
also efforts to find additional space
for the physical sciences, Kertzer
said.
The provost mentioned that, for
the last several years, there has
been work to develop a school of
public health rather than keep it
as its own department. The school
would “transform a single depart-
ment of community health to four
different academic departments,”
Kertzer said.
He also announced that a highly
anticipated report on graduate pro-
grams will be out later this month.
This will “affect the discussions of
the Corporation,” Brown’s highest
governing body, which will meet
next in October, he said.
Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor
of education and the new chair of
the Faculty Executive Committee,
proposed a report from the FEC
that included the finalization of a
faculty forum focused on issues
concerning tenure and tenure re-
view. Garcia Coll said the forum
will meet ever y month and deal
with one motion and amendment at
a time. Garcia Coll said that there
will be a change to voting in the
monthly faculty meetings, which
will involve faculty members vot-
ing with clickers. The first faculty
forum meeting will be held Sept.
21, she said..

Daily Herald
the Brown

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Thursday, September 2, 2010 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 3

C ampus N EWS “Rhode Island is like a scale model of a state.”

— J. Timmons Roberts, Center of Environmental Studies director

New math institute to

begin with federal money
continued from page 1
Starting in 2011, the institute
will begin two of its main pro-
grams ­— its “hot topics” con-
ference in the summer and its
semester-long research projects
in the fall.
The semester-long projects
will select mathematicians with
different levels of expertise to
“come in and work on themes
Max Monn / Herald
Metcalf construction — slated to be finished in 2011 — led to the relocation of several labs to Wayland Square. pertinent to the semester,” said
Jan Hesthaven, professor of ap-
board has also been formed to
assess ways to improve elemen-
tary and secondary education in
mathematics across the country,
Pipher wrote.
The research produced will
likely have ver y practical appli-
cations as well. Representatives
from Google, IBM and Microsoft
will ser ve on another advisor y
board, giving them the ability to
help with programs that direct
research towards fields such as
health care, finance and national

Metcalf Lab leaked, lacked parking

continued from page 1
carpeted,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a
maze and takes some getting used to,
but it definitely serves its purpose.”
According to Morgan, another
of the advantages the new site has
over Metcalf is space for parking,
a “perennial problem” for his lab.
Because his lab primarily researches
language acquisition in infants, he
must recruit families — many of
which come by car — from the local
community to come in for the stud-
ies. On campus, parking for these
participants was limited to part of
the parking lot behind Minden Hall,
but at the temporary site, there is a
parking lot right next to the building.
Morgan said his research fre-
quently requires participants to
return to the lab more than once,
which was made difficult by the lim-
ited parking space. “As far as parking
goes, this is paradise,” Morgan said
of the new Wayland Square location.
But one concern that both Morgan
and Varone addressed was the new
site’s distance from the main cam-
pus. Though it wasn’t a major con-
cern for Varone, who had a car to use
for the commute, he mentioned that
“during the semester, (the distance)
will be a lot more of a problem for
students.”
The virtual environment lab has
added an incentive to lure in par-
ticipants, who are mostly Brown stu-
dents — it is increasing the hourly
compensation for the studies by $5.
Varone said the moving process
itself was not too much of an issue for
the professors and students involved.
With the help of a moving company,
the relocation, which “could’ve been
very troublesome and problematic,”
was “only somewhat stressful,” he
said.
Morgan especially praised Lori
Rolf, the manager of his lab. “She’s
always done an outstanding job. She
took charge of the move and was
completely fantastic,” he said.
While Morgan said he was happy
to have an opportunity to get to know
the neighborhood around Wayland
Square a little better, he still said
that he is “looking forward to mov-
ing back to Metcalf and being back
on campus.” He said the move back
will likely take place early in 2012.
“And hopefully the parking situ-
ation will be fixed one way or an-
other,” he added.
plied mathematics and associate
director of the institute. Work-
shops and lectures will supple-
ment these research opportuni-
ties throughout the semester.
The institute will bring togeth-
er senior researchers, postdoctor-
al fellows and graduate students,
enabling the advanced partici-
pants to act as advisors and men-
tors to the grad students during
their stay, Pipher wrote. The fall
2011 semester will focus on “Ki-
netic Theory: Analysis and Com-
putation,” and the spring 2012
projects will focus on “Complex
and Arithmetic Dynamics,” ac-
cording to the institute’s website.
Several of the institute’s ini-
tiatives will focus on “the con-
nection-building and training of
future scientists,” Pipher wrote.
Beginning in summer of 2012, the
institute will host undergraduate
research programs. An advisory
security, according to the press
release.
It is expected that all of the
programs will be fully functional
in three years, with the 2010-11
academic year serving as a “ramp
up year,” Pipher wrote.
Planning the institute has been
several years in the making. A
team of five faculty members
began working on a proposal in
June 2008, with help from relat-
ed departments such as applied
mathematics and computer sci-
ence. “We believe that we had a
compelling proposal with a timely
theme, namely the interaction of
mathematics and the computer,”
Pipher wrote.
With the availability of Brown’s
supercomputer for these projects,
Briant wrote, the National Science
Foundation could feel “confident
that we had that necessary com-
putational power.”

Grad students’ climate change suggestions inspire legislation

By Mark Raymond
Senior Staff Writer
This summer, a University research
project was transformed into leg-
islation aiming to address the ef-
fects of climate change in Rhode
Island. The new law was supported
by Rep. David Segal, D-Providence
and East Providence, in the state
House of Representatives and Sen.
Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, in the
state Senate.
The piece of legislation — which
was passed by the Rhode Island
General Assembly in June and
became law — adopted three of
the 26 recommendations made by
students in the fall 2009 seminar,
ENVS 2010: “Special Topics in En-
vironmental Studies: Urban Adap-
tation to Climate Change,” taught
by J. Timmons Roberts, director
of the Center for Environmental
Studies and professor of sociology
and environmental studies.
Under the new law, the state will
establish a commission this fall to
determine how climate change will
affect Rhode Island and what can
be done to mitigate those effects.
The law also calls for climate provi-
sions in municipal planning, as well
as an emergency response system
for natural disasters.
One student who was particular-
ly involved in the project was Sara
Mersha GS. She pointed out that
though not every recommendation
made it into the bill, the creation
of a commission was a good start.
“We thought there should be
an institutional body in the state to
take this issue seriously,” Mersha
said. “It is our hope that the com-
mission acts as an incubator for
future pieces of legislation.”
Roberts said the combination
of the hard work his students put
into the project and the University’s
connections within the community
was key in making this legislation
a reality.
“There is an amazing connec-
tion between the Center for Envi-
ronmental Studies and state agen-
cies in Rhode Island,” Roberts said.
“It was clear when I arrived last fall
that there were decades of good
will built up by students and faculty
and Rhode Islanders.”
Clean Water Action was one of
the community groups that worked
with the students to turn their re-
port into a bill to present before
the General Assembly.
“We’re always open to work-
ing with students on projects like
these,” said the group’s Rhode
Island Director Sheila Dormody.
“We’ve worked with the Center for
Environmental Studies in the past
and we appreciate all the work they
do around this issue.”
Roberts pointed out that such
a project was uniquely placed to
succeed in Rhode Island, due in
part to the state’s small size and the
accessibility of community groups Rhode Island, and we know we’re commission as an important build-
and legislators. going to see even more extreme ing block to build the political will
“Rhode Island is like a scale weather,” Dormody said. “I see the to address this growing problem.”
model of a state,” Roberts said. “We
just had to convince a handful of
people that we needed a commis-
sion on climate change, and we
were able to make it happen.”
He also stated that although one
group of students started the proj-
ect, future students working with
the Center for Environmental Stud-
ies will be involved in the state’s
efforts to deal with climate change.
“This is a great example of prob-
lem-based learning,” Roberts said.
“I could see this being integrated
into student projects for the next
five to 10 years.”
Mersha said that although pre-
vious ef forts to combat climate
change often focused on reduc-
ing emissions, this new approach
to dealing with the effects of in-
creased temperatures is just begin-
ning to take form in the state.
“Rhode Island has thought
about climate change from the
perspective about reducing green-
house gas emissions, but the idea
of how we’re going to be affected
by it is new to many people,” Mer-
sha said.
Dormody said that the recent
flooding in Rhode Island was just
a sign of what is to come in the
future.
“We’re already seeing the ef-
fects of climate change here in
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Simmons urges first-years to embrace ‘blurring of boundaries’
continued from page 1
“other.” This flawed perspective, he
said, could lead students to forget
that “we are all humans after all.”
He recounted his recent visit to
Cape Town, South Africa, during
which he had watched a news clip
on labor strikes occurring in the
city. In the clip, Bogues said, he
saw a black female demonstrator
yell to a policeman, “Tell the min-
ister we are human too.”
Bogues also described a pho-
tography exhibition he had viewed
that showed pictures of inhabit-
ants of a “dump of technology” in
Ghana, where trash heaps are filled
with discarded electronics. Both
the exhibit and the demonstrator’s
cr y, he said, reflected human re-
sponse to being treated as dispos-
able objects.
Bogues, an expert in Caribbean
political theor y, read a quote from
a recent article that questioned
Haiti’s claim to exist as a countr y.
This article — which, according
to Bogues, represents Haitians as
the “other” — wrongfully assumes
that “they don’t have the capacity
to live as human beings.” up in studies,” Blun said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Thursday, September 2, 2010
“It is nice to have someone very distinguished welcome
you.” — Garret Johnson ’14
He concluded his address by
posing challenging questions that
incoming students should consider
during their studies at Brown and
urging them to “think about people
not as ‘others,’ but as ‘another’ —
­­
therefore, as humans.”
In her welcoming speech, Sim-
mons urged students to embrace
“the wonderful blurring of bound-
aries unusually present at Brown.”
This blurring, she said, will help
sharpen students’ insights during
their academic careers.
Simmons also promised the
first-years that Brown is continu-
ing to improve resources for them
“even in these troubling times.”
Garret Johnson ’14 said after-
ward that he appreciated being ad-
dressed by a figure as prominent
as Bogues.
“Coming from a public high
school,” Johnson said, “it is nice to
have someone ver y distinguished
welcome you.”
James Blun ’14 valued Bogues’
message, he said.
“He reminded us to focus on
the people and the interactions we
Stephanie London / Herald
have when it’s easy to get caught President Ruth Simmons welcomed freshmen at the 247th Convocation ceremony.
Metro
The Brown Daily Herald
Local marijuana-growing
class to start this month
By Rebecca Ballhaus
Senior Staff Writer
When medical marijuana became
legal in Rhode Island in June 2007,
Luis Hernandez figured it would
only be a matter of time until a
school teaching proper grow-
ing techniques sprang up. As he
watched years go by, nobody took
action, and he decided to take mat-
ters into his own hands. His school,
the New England School of Alter-
native Horticultural Studies, will
conduct its first class Sept. 25 in
Barrington.
“There’s a right way to do it,
and there’s a wrong way to do it,”
Hernandez said of the process.
“Here’s how you do it safely with-
out electrocuting yourself, without
burning the house down — and
if you really want to get good re-
sults.”
Hernandez has studied the
process for over seven years in
California, where medical mari-
juana has been legal since 1996.
He spent those years “going back
and forth (between) working with
legal caregivers and loaning and
trading. That’s something I have a
personal interest in,” he said. The
school, he said, is the perfect way
to blend his passion and his skills.
Rhode Island’s medical mari-
juana law currently allows care-
givers to have up to 12 plants in
their possession, or 2.5 ounces
of “usable” marijuana. Medical
marijuana is regulated on a state-
by-state basis, and Hernandez said
Rhode Island has some of the most
stringent laws.
“I’ve been into the subject mat-
ter for quite a number of years now,
but obviously there’s the question
of legality. … There are a lot of
folks like myself who (learned) a
lot from books before you could
do anything live,” said Hernan-
dez. And even now that medical
marijuana has been legalized in
Rhode Island, he added, “I can see
how easy it would be to fall into
a situation where you would be
breaking the law.”
He cited cloning — a process
in which exact replicas of an ideal
plant are created — as an example.
“A lot of times, clones don’t come
out 100 percent,” he explained.
“Maybe all five of them will root,
and maybe they’ll all die.” Gener-
ally, he said, growers should make
twice as many clones as they need
— but if they don’t take into ac-
count their legal limit, they can
run into trouble. “A clone may not
be rooted and, for you, not really
be a plant, but if the law comes in,
he won’t be able to tell the differ-
ence,” he said.
Another challenge for Her-
nandez has been the legality of
teaching someone who may not
have a caregiver’s license from the
state. A caregiver is anyone over 18
who is willing to help a patient for
whom a doctor has recommended
medical marijuana, he said. “We
“This is the first time we’ve heard of this.”
— Annemarie Beardsworth, Department of Health spokeswoman
Thursday, September 2, 2010 | Page 5
Caprio, Chafee ’75 vie for 1st in gov. race
By Claire Peracchio
Senior Staff Writer
ballot, Caprio leads 40 percent to
Chafee’s 33 percent. Moffitt gar-
ners 17 percent, while 2 percent
Democrat Frank Caprio has taken favor some other candidate and 7
are working with lawyers to make a slight lead against his top op- percent are unsure.
sure we don’t break the law — af- ponent, independent candidate The survey of 750 likely voters
ter all, one of the classes is how Lincoln Chafee ’75, in the latest also finds Caprio favored among
to stay within the law.” poll in the Rhode Island race for both Republicans and Democrats
It is this legal awareness, as governor. and Chafee slightly ahead with
well as the physical process of The poll comes nearly a month unaffiliated voters. According to
growing, that Hernandez is aim- after state Attorney General Patrick the poll, Chafee is viewed “favor-
ing to teach in the two-day classes Lynch’s July 15 decision to exit the ably” by 54 percent of voters and
his school will offer. contest for the Democratic nomina- “unfavorably” by 40 percent, while
Rhode Island’s law does not tion, a move that made Caprio — 66 percent are favorable of Caprio
mention the legality of medical the current state treasurer — the and 20 percent unfavorable.
marijuana schools one way or an- Democrats’ de facto nominee and The August Rasmussen poll is
other. For this reason, State Sena- allowed him to pivot to campaign- the most recent in a close race that
tor David Bates, R-Barrington and ing against Chafee, a former Re- has seen Caprio steadily chip away
Bristol, though he had not heard of publican U.S. senator and ex-mayor at Chafee’s early advantage. An
Hernandez’s school, said, “I would of Warwick. Aug. 6 Brown survey found Caprio
tread ver y, ver y carefully with it.” Released Aug. 19, the new Ras- and Chafee in a statistical tie and
So far, Hernandez said, there mussen Reports poll shows Caprio more than 30 percent of voters un-
has been a “huge amount” of inter- either six or seven points ahead of decided. The previous Rasmussen
Julien Ouellet / Herald; Rasmussen
est — more than 50 percent of the Chafee, depending on whether the poll, released in late July, found Reports
tickets for his first class, which he Republican candidate is John Rob- Chafee leading Caprio by either
will teach, have already been sold, itaille or Victor Moffitt, which will three or seven points, depending Democrat Frank Caprio leads the
and he is working on putting to- be decided by the Sept. 14 primary. on the Republican in the race. race for Rhode Island governor in
gether a schedule for the next few With Robitaille as the G.O.P. The Chafee campaign has con- a recent Rasmussen Reports poll.
months, for a variety of locations. contender, the poll shows Caprio tended a push-poll by Caprio sup-
As for the curriculum, Her- picking up 38 percent of the vote porters could have influenced the negative view of Chafee, includ-
nandez chose not to visit similar to Chafee’s 32 percent. This leaves new survey’s results, according to ing queries comparing Caprio’s
schools located on the west coast. Robitaille trailing at 20 percent, an Aug. 21 Providence Journal ar- budget-trimming credentials to
“The last thing I want to do is go to with 2 percent favoring some other ticle. The telephone effort purport- Chafee’s proposed sales tax in-
some other school and be looked candidate and 8 percent undecided. edly involved callers asking voters
at as someone who went some- If Moffitt is the Republican on the questions intended to impress a continued on page 6
where and learned something
and basically regurgitated it all
over again,” he said. Depending
on how smoothly the class runs,
he plans to change the curriculum.
“It depends on the student body —
who’s going to show up? We may
be able to breeze through a lot of
things and we may not. We may
even find that we don’t get through
all the material in one weekend,”
he said.
Hernandez envisions a school
not just where people can learn
how to properly grow marijuana,
but also where he can educate
the community about the idea of
medical marijuana — “where city
officials who will eventually be cast
with the job of making laws for the
community can come to be a little
more informed about what they
should be addressing in policy.” Ul-
timately, he said, “I want the school
to be a place where people can
come and learn in an unbiased”
environment.
Hernandez said he understands
the argument that there are people
who will abuse the drug’s medical
aspect in order to get marijuana.
But there are “really debilitated
folks who need this,” he said. The
“true question,” he said, is whether
it is “worth it to keep it out of the
hands of those who are going to
do it recreationally but take it away
from people who need it.”
“This is the first time we’ve
heard of this,” said Annemarie
Beardsworth, a spokeswoman for
the state Department of Health.
“From the Health Department’s
point of view, our one concern is
that accurate information is pre-
sented, not only about what the
law permits in terms of growing Letters, please!
(marijuana) but about the rules
and regulations for caregivers and letters@browndailyherald.com
patients.”
Page 6
M etro
U.: Cicilline’s use of Brown logo ‘inappropriate’ Caprio
continued from page 1
allow the use of its name, seal or
other insignia to appear on any
stationery or other material used
or intended for political purposes.
... This rule applies to all faculty,
staff, students, alumni and other
interested par ties. Any use of
the University’s name or marks
without the University’s express
permission is strictly prohibited.”
Marisa Quinn, vice president
for public affairs and University
relations, said the University told
the Cicilline campaign to cease and
desist use of the Brown logo, call-
ing it “completely inappropriate.”
University Hall is not currently
considering taking any further
steps on the matter, she said.
In a statement, the Cicilline
campaign expressed regret over
the letter: “In a recent mailing to
alumni, the Brown University logo
was used in error. Brown Univer-
sity, as a not-for-profit organization,
cannot make endorsements. We
apologize for any confusion this
may have caused.”
The campaign also apologized
to the University.
Richard Luchette, communi-
cations director for the Cicilline
campaign, said use of the logo
was “a mistake,” but denied that
the campaign had broken federal
campaign law.
Eric Hyers, Cicilline’s campaign
manager, said he approved the
mailer before it went out, but no
attorney vetted it.
“Should I have looked better,
for longer? Perhaps,” he said, but
Got something to say? Leave a comment online!
Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.
ahead in
gov. race
Brown told Mayor David Cicilline ’83 that he was not allowed to use the
University’s logo in his campaign materials.
denied that the mailing violated the
law. Hyers also said the campaign
sent a follow-up letter to those who
had received the original mailer,
clarifying that Brown cannot offer
political endorsements.
The Cicilline campaign obtained
its list of Brown alumni through its
own original research, Hyers said,
not from the University.
A Gemma supporter who is a
Brown alum first made the Gemma
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
campaign aware of the mailer’s
existence, according to Mercer,
who also said that the supporter
had initially thought Brown had
endorsed Cicilline’s congressio-
nal bid. Since then, Mercer said,
other Brown alums have contacted
the campaign saying they had re-
ceived the Cicilline mailer, and he
dismissed the notion that it could
have been an innocent mistake by
the Cicilline campaign.
“They knew what they were
doing, and they didn’t think they
would get caught,” he said.
The Gemma campaign has
filed a complaint with the Federal
Election Commission, Mercer said,
though the Commission has not
yet responded. The complaint al-
leges both that Cicilline’s “clear
and prominent” use of Brown’s
logo “unequivocally constitutes
the improper acceptance of an il-
legal corporate contribution by the
Cicilline Committee” and that it
“misleadingly implies to the public
an improper corporate endorse-
ment of David Cicilline by Brown
University.”
Mercer said this incident con-
stitutes part of a larger pattern of
dishonest behavior by the mayor
and criticized Cicilline’s practice of
asking supporters to let him move
previously donated money between
different campaign accounts.
State Rep. David Segal, D-Prov-
idence, another Democratic candi-
date, recently accused Cicilline of
taking credit for a jobs initiative
that as mayor he had originally
refused to implement. Segal, then
a city councilman, filed a lawsuit
that compelled the city to carr y
out the program.
A poll conducted in late July
by the Taubman Center for Pub-
lic Policy found Cicilline ahead in
the Democratic primary with 32
percent. Former State Democratic
Party Chairman Bill Lynch was in
second place with 15 percent, with
Gemma in third at 11 percent and
Segal at 5 percent.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
continued from page 5
crease.
The Caprio campaign declined
to comment on the allegations to
The Herald.
Caprio spokesman Nick Hemond
said the campaign is “encouraged”
by the poll results and attributed the
candidate’s gains to the resonance
of his message of “putting the wind
at the backs of small businesses.”
The new numbers are likely an
imperfect indicator of the race’s
outcome this far in advance of the
November election, according to
Associate Professor of Political Sci-
ence Wendy Schiller.
“I think at this point, it’s still real-
ly unstable,” Schiller said. “Once the
candidates start spending money
on television after Labor Day, then
I think the polls get more accurate.”
Last week, both Chafee and
Caprio unveiled advertisements
touting themes that each has em-
phasized in the race, with Chafee
aligning himself with Rhode Island’s
“tradition of independence” and
Caprio stressing his commitment to
helping the state’s small businesses.
Neither advertisement mentions the
opposing candidates.
“There’s no question that Lin-
coln Chafee had to start spending
on advertising now,” Schiller said,
citing Chafee’s need to maintain
his visibility in the race in light of
the poll’s results, regardless of the
survey’s reliability.
The recent polls represent the
normal fluctuations in voter opinion
during an election cycle, according
to Chafee campaign manager J.R.
Pagliarini.
“We are totally unfazed by the
numbers,” he said. “Often, you’re
going to have a little slip, and it’s
best to have a little slip in August,
of course, than it is in late October.”
For the Robitaille campaign, the
poll results highlight the impor-
tance of continuing to build name
recognition, according to spokes-
man Michael Napolitano. Robitaille,
the endorsed GOP candidate, was a
communications adviser to current
Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65,
who is not running due to term limit.
Carcieri’s first bid for governor
shows a November surprise in the
Republicans’ favor should not be
discounted, Napolitano said.
“This isn’t the first time this has
happened with Republicans running
for governor,” he said, citing Carci-
eri’s experience overcoming a large
late-summer polling deficit to defeat
Democrat Myrth York in 2002.
“We feel strongly that when we
get our candidate and our message
out, we’ll be able to move numbers
in the polls,” Napolitano said.
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Page 8
w orld & Nation
At one Florida dorm,
student pets welcome
By Luis Zaragoza
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — Jasmine Par-
ham’s new college roommate is a
dear friend from back home.
The roomie responds to “Leo”
and never goes to class, but can
perform some neat tricks.
Leonora, a frisky border collie,
and her owner, Parham, are among
the first residents of the first pet-
friendly dorm at Stetson University
in DeLand, Fla.
About 20 students and their
pets — dogs, cats and a few caged
gerbils and rats — are taking up
residence at Nemec Hall, an estab-
lished dorm, as the fall semester
begins this week.
Stetson is not the first college
to have a pet-friendly dorm, but it’s
among the relatively few schools
— perhaps a dozen or so across
the country — that have formal
policies and accommodations. Stet-
son officials say the dorms could
become a recruitment tool that
helps set the school apart, just as
big schools such as the University
of Central Florida entice students
with football stadiums, basketball
arenas and trendy eateries.
The idea behind the dorm is
to give students — freshmen, in
particular — a familiar presence as
they make the sometimes stressful
transition from home to campus.
“What better way to do that
than to have a family friend there
to greet you when you get out of
class?” said Justin Williams, the
university’s director of housing
and residential life.
Having a pet along for the col-
lege journey makes a dorm “a
home away from home,” he said.
Parham, a freshman from Palm
Coast, Fla., agrees.
“I love having my best friend
here with me,” Parham said.
Eckerd College, a private
school in St. Petersburg, Fla., has
had pet-friendly dorms for years.
So has Stephens College, a private
school in Missouri that was the
previous home of current Stetson
President Wendy Libby.
Libby brought the pet-friendly-
dorm concept with her to Stetson
a year ago. Stetson staff members
visited Eckerd and Stephens to
get ideas on how to set up similar
living arrangements.
Although small, independent
colleges such as Stetson dominate
the list of pet-friendly schools, pow-
erhouses Caltech and the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology
allow certain small pets in some
campus dorms.
Many schools, especially public
ones, may shy from pet-friendly
dorms because of liability wor-
ries connected to animal attacks
or building maintenance, Stetson
officials said. Students sign an
agreement that sets out terms.
Obedience training is required for
dogs. Aggressive or noisy animals
can be sent home.
In establishing policy at Stet-
son, the welfare of the animal was a
priority. So inspections will be held
to make sure students are caring
for their pets properly.
Students pay a $400-a-year sur-
charge to get a pet-friendly dorm
room, with $200 of that refundable
if the room is kept in shape. Part
of the fee goes toward pet-related
costs, such as establishment of a
fenced dog walk near Nemec Hall.
The rooms designated for pets are
singles instead of standard double-
occupancy rooms to avoid having
cats and dogs as roomies.
Not all animals are allowed.
Dogs 30 pounds and less are OK,
as are cats and caged rodents
such as rats, gerbils and hamsters.
Small fish and turtles that can re-
side comfortably in small water
tanks are fine, too. Because of
potential odor issues, birds, most
reptiles and rabbits are not on the
approved list. Depending on how
things go this year, however, the
list may be expanded and the dog-
weight limitation could be relaxed.
It’s too soon to tell whether
Stetson’s pet-friendly-dorm ex-
periment will expand. Nemec
Hall can accommodate up to 34
students with pets. Two additional
rooms for resident staff also are
pet-friendly.
Arthur DeFilippo, a residential-
life coordinator on staff who lives
in Nemec Hall with his wife, came
to work at Stetson in part because
of the pet-friendly living accom-
modations.
There was no way the couple
was going to give up Elphie, their
pet puggle — a canine mix of pug
and beagle.
“For a lot of people, pets are like
members of the family,” DeFilippo
said. “It’s about quality of life.”
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Earl prompts warnings along N.C. coast
By Ken Kaye
Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — While
Hurricane Earl intensified back to
Category 4 power, Tropical Storm
Gaston emerged in the Eastern At-
lantic on Wednesday afternoon.
Under the initial forecast, subject
to large errors, Gaston is expected
to aim generally west toward the
Lesser Antilles and strengthen into a
hurricane within the next five days.
At 5 p.m. EDT, Gaston, the sev-
enth named storm of the season,
was 895 miles southwest of the Cape
Verde Islands, moving west at 15
mph with sustained winds of 40 mph.
Earl, meanwhile, continued
churning toward North Carolina
on a course that would brush the
Outer Banks late on Thursday or
early on Friday.
Although it is forecast to weaken
to a Category 3 system with sus-
tained winds of 115 mph at that
point, it still would be a dangerous
storm.
Watches and warnings have been
Health law may affect student policies
By Julie Appleby
Kaiser Health News
WASHINGTON — Colleges and
universities say that some rules in
the new health law could keep them
from offering low-cost, limited-ben-
efit student insurance policies, and
they’re seeking federal authority to
continue offering them.
Their request drew fire from crit-
ics, however, who say that student
health plans should be held to the
same standards that other insurance
is.
Among other things, the colleges
want clarification that they won’t have
to offer the policies to non-students.
Without a number of changes, it
may be impossible to continue to offer
student health plans, says a letter that
the American Council on Education
sent Aug. 12 to Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,
signed by 12 other trade associations
that represent colleges.
Additionally, the colleges say that
some provisions of the law don’t apply
to their policies, including those that
require insurers to spend at least 80
percent of their revenue on medical
care and that bar them from setting
annual coverage caps.
Many of the provisions at issue
don’t go into effect until 2014, but the
colleges say they need clarity soon
because they’re negotiating long-term
contracts with insurers now.
HHS spokeswoman Jessica San-
tillo said Sebelius had received the
letter and “looks forward to sending
a response.” Santillo added that the
health care law allows many young
adults to stay on parents’ policies until
age 26.
The request comes amid contin-
ued scrutiny of student health plans,
including an ongoing investigation by
New York Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo, who said in April that some
of the plans left students “at risk while
providing massive profits for insur-
ance companies.”
posted for much of the mid-Atlantic
and Northeast coastlines.
At 5 p.m., Earl was about 630
miles southeast of Cape Hatteras,
N.C., moving northwest at 17 mph
with sustained winds of 135 mph.
It was about 450 miles due east of
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tourists on a North Carolina va-
cation destination island were pre-
paring to board ferries and head for
the mainland.
After departing the mid-Atlantic,
Earl is forecast to turn northeast,
parallel the U.S. coastline on a path
that could endanger Cape Cod.
Along the way, it is expected to
steadily weaken, yet remain a hur-
ricane as it passes within 250 miles
of New York City.
Considering the system’s tropi-
cal force winds extend 200 miles
from its core, much of the North-
east shoreline likely will feel rough
weather, forecasters said.
Earl is forecast to remain well
clear of Florida’s coastline as it
churns north. It is producing large
swells, strong rip currents and
More than half of colleges nation-
wide offer student insurance plans,
according to a March 2008 study
by the Government Accountability
Office. While 80 percent of college
students were insured, often through
their parents’ coverage, only 7 per-
cent bought their own policies or pur-
chased school-based plans, according
to the GAO.
Starting in 2014, the new health
law bars annual caps such as those
in student health plans. Starting this
year, insurers must offer at least
$750,000 in coverage per year, al-
though insurers or employers can
apply for waivers from that restriction.
Colleges say their plans don’t fall
under the annual cap requirement
because they’re considered “limited
duration” policies, meaning they ex-
pire after a certain number of months,
generally the school year.
They also say that such limited
duration policies don’t have to meet
rules that require insurers to spend
an average of at least 80 percent of
revenue on direct medical care, rather
than administrative costs or profits, or
issue rebates to policyholders.
Law professor Bryan Liang dis-
agrees.
“That sounds like wishful thinking
on their part,” said Liang, a critic of
student health plans who’s the execu-
tive director of the Institute of Health
Law Studies at California Western
School of Law in San Diego. Even if
the plans are considered limited du-
ration policies, he said, such policies
are regulated by states, which can set
similar spending rules.
Many student plans would flunk
the spending test. A recent report by
Massachusetts state officials, for ex-
ample, found that spending on medi-
cal care among the 13 insurers that
offer student plans in the state ranged
from 46 percent to 89 percent, with
the average at 69 percent.
Requiring them to meet even some
of the new rules could drive up pre-
miums, colleges say. Premiums could
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Earl update
According to an
announcement on
its website Thursday
morning, Brown
is monitoring the
hurricane and will
provide updates “in
the unlikely event of an
urgent emergency.”
breezy conditions along the state’s
coastline.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fio-
na has strengthened but still is not
expected to grow into a hurricane.
At 5 p.m., it was in the Atlantic
about 140 miles north of Anquilla in
the Leeward Islands, racing north-
west at 20 mph with sustained winds
of 60 mph.
It is forecast to turn north and
aim generally toward Bermuda. It
also was expected to deflate to a
depression by the time it arrives in
the vicinity of the small island nation.
increase, for example, if regulators
determine that student health plans
are considered “individual” policies
rather than group plans, which often
get a better rate, said Steven Bloom,
the assistant director of federal re-
lations at the American Council on
Education.
Additionally, the colleges fear that
they’d be required to offer the plans
to anyone who applied for one, even if
the applicant wasn’t a student, Bloom
said.
Liang, the law professor, doubts
that colleges would be forced to offer
insurance to anyone who walked into
a campus health center.
“That’s like saying I, as a non-IBM
employee, could go to IBM and say,
‘You need to give me insurance,’ ” said
Liang, who sent a letter Aug. 17 to
Sebelius in response to the education
council’s request.
He doesn’t think that school plans
should be offered any special protec-
tion in the regulations that are being
developed to implement the health
care law.
The school-based policies “finan-
cially benefit the school and their in-
surance company partners over the
student ... are poor in coverage and
may violate consumer protection law
and public policy,” his letter says.
In another letter sent to Sebelius
last week, a grass-roots group made
up of college health directors, doctors
and others involved with student in-
surance say that the secretary should
require poor-quality plans to improve
their benefits.
Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for
the Lookout Mountain Group, said
that its members agreed with some
of the education council’s requests,
including its concern that colleges
not be required to offer coverage to
non-students. The group disagrees,
however, with the council’s position
that student health plans are exempt
from some rules that go into effect
this year, including the restriction on
annual limits.
Editorial & Letters
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Hardly a waste
Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation recently came generally appears to be dragging its feet in address-
under fire from a watchdog group for their support ing the serious threats posed by Earth’s warming
of an earmark that would fund research at Brown. temperature.
The attack came from Citizens Against Government In addition to research on carbon sequestration, the
Waste, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization whose funding will also support a number of investigations,
mission is to “eliminate waste, mismanagement, and all related to energy science, Weber told the board.
inefficiency in the federal government.” The group Researchers are trying to create more efficient fuel
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d criticized an earmark, sponsored by Democratic Reps. cells and develop other methods for capturing car-
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors Patrick Kennedy and Jim Langevin, that will give bon dioxide using bacteria. All of these projects aim
George Miller Chaz Kelsh Emmy Liss Ben Hyman Brown $1.2 million to conduct research on energy to lessen the environmental damage caused by the
Joanna Wohlmuth Seth Motel science and technology. world’s heavy use of fossil fuels. We’re disappointed
editorial Business
In its “Pork Alert” on the House of Representatives’ to hear these research projects dismissed as a waste
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager version of the Energy and Water Development Ap- of government funding.
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor Claire Kiely Shawn Reilly propriations Act, the group also claimed that Brown’s Moreover, the size of Brown’s endowment is unre-
Sara Luxenberg Features Editor Katie Koh
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor endowment should be sufficient to fund research lated to the amount of research funding the University
Directors
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor Kelly Wess Sales projects. We believe these criticisms are misguided. has at its disposal. Income from the endowment is
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor Matthew Burrows Finance
The claim that research funding constitutes pork spent in accordance with the wishes of donors, Execu-
Sydney Ember News Editor Margaret Watson Client Relations
Zack Bahr Sports Editor Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations would be true if the project only benefitted local in- tive Vice President for Finance and Administration
Tony Bakshi Sports Editor terests. However, unlike other instances of politicians Beppie Huidekoper wrote in an e-mail to the board.
Ashley McDonnell Asst. Sports Editor Managers
Erika Mueller Asst. Sports Editor Arjun Vaidya Local Sales
looking simply to bring home the bacon, this research While things like faculty salaries and financial aid are
Marco deLeon National Sales has the potential to provide solutions to the most supported by the endowment, funding for graduate
Graphics & Photos Aditi Bhatia University Sales
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor pressing global environmental issues. students and lab necessities often has to come from
Jared Davis University Sales
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales The project targeted in the group’s report seeks other sources.
Stephanie London Photo Editor Maximilian Barrows Business Operations
Max Monn Photo Editor
to find novel methods of carbon sequestration, the In fact, Brown regularly receives grants from gov-
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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
Questionable democracy in the classroom
BY YUE WANG
Opinions Columnist
The beginning of a new semester is always
marked by the frenzied course shopping sea-
son that lasts for a couple of weeks. Each
shopper usually asks herself: Does this class
conflict with my overall schedule? Does it re-
ally interest me? And increasingly, whether
we like the way the professor, or sometimes
the teaching assistant, teaches the course
shapes our decision. Student evaluations of
professors and TAs have thus become an im-
portant tool to help students decide which
class in which to enroll.
By the end of each semester, it is always a
routine for Brown students to fill out different
evaluation forms, one run by each academic
department and one by the Dean of the Col-
lege. However, when she goes around shop-
ping for courses, a Brown student is more
likely to turn to the Critical Review, which is
published by Brown undergraduate students.
In one outside and perhaps slightly more ir-
reverent source, ratemyprofessors.com, stu-
dents give red peppers to those professors
they consider hot! Despite the careful design
and lengthy seriousness of “official” evalua-
tions, the underground sources still appeal to
students more.
Clarity of lectures, relevance of readings
and assignments and the fairness of exams
are often included in evaluations and ratings.
In addition, it is reasonable to argue that pro-
fessors are becoming more accessible to un-
dergraduate students because the awareness
that they are being rated could compel them,
especially those professors at major research
High or low, youth turnout could offer valuable insights
BY DAN DAVIDSON
Opinions Columnist
When the votes are counted after Novem-
ber’s midterm elections, don’t expect to hear
much about how voters under the age of 30
influenced the results. Despite a presidential
election that saw large numbers of young
people take to the polls, politicos aren’t won-
dering if all of these voters will return in
2010 — it’s a foregone conclusion that turn-
out will be significantly lower. The only ques-
tion is by how much.
It’s no secret that fewer of our peers vote
than people our parents’ or grandparents’
age. In the 2006 midterm, 25.5 percent of
18- to 29-year-old citizens voted. The turnout
rate for citizens 30 years old and above was
53.7 percent.
These statistics should disappoint any
young person hoping for political action on
the issues that matter most to us, no matter
one’s party affiliation or ideology. Problems
that overwhelmingly affect younger people,
like the skyrocketing cost of college, are
unlikely to be seriously addressed by poli-
ticians if they don’t feel that the youth vote
could make or break their future campaigns.
Advocates for youth engagement will
point to encouraging signs, like the three
percent increase in 18- to 29-year-old turn-
out between the 2002 and 2006 elections,
as evidence that politicians should clamor
for the youth vote leading up to November.
But since the 2008 election, we haven’t given
candidates much reason to court our votes.
The 2009 gubernatorial elections in Vir-
institutions like Brown, to find a healthy bal-
ance between research and teaching.
While student evaluations might help
make college life easier, especially during the
hustle and bustle of the shopping period, to
be able to evaluate professors’ teaching per-
formance is a disproportionately huge pow-
er granted to students that is unnecessarily
complicating the dynamic between teachers
and students and negatively influencing the
quality of higher education.
To be able to evaluate professors’ teaching
performance is a disproportionately huge
power granted to students that is unnecessarily
complicating the dynamic between teachers and
students and negatively influencing
the quality of higher education.
The other side of the story could tell you
why. Since student evaluations have become
an increasingly important part of assess-
ment of the performance of professors, they
would be more or less pressured to avoid too
many negative student reviews. They have to
pay attention to student feedbacks and take
measures to improve their ratings. Profes-
sors may now have to come up with more
diverse methods to cater to students’ habits
of study than are allowed by the academic
and pedagogical disciplines with which they
were trained and have observed for most of
their lives. If most students expressed aver-
sion to group work in the evaluation, for ex-
ample, the professor would probably assign a
ginia and New Jersey brought out 18- to
29-year-old voters at rates of only 17 and 19
percent, respectively. A mere 15 percent of
18- to 29-year-olds voted in the special elec-
tion to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
Young people still represent an elector-
al gold mine waiting to be fully tapped. As
of 2006, 18- to 29-year-olds represented 21
percent of the voting-eligible population.
Youth voting advocates Thomas Goldstein
and Thomas Bates wrote in an Aug. 16 Se-
attle Times op-ed that Millennials (defined
as those born after 1980) will constitute one-
third of all eligible voters by 2015.
Young people still represent an electoral gold
mine waiting to be fully tapped.
But if it were easy to harness young peo-
ple’s voting potential, I wouldn’t be writing
this column.
Why don’t we vote? Perhaps voter regis-
tration laws depress turnout. The Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learn-
ing and Engagement (CIRCLE) finds that
“election day registration seems to have
the strongest and most widespread impact”
on increasing youth turnout, yet only nine
states offered it in 2008. CIRCLE also argues
that expanding absentee voting and length-
ening voting hours at polling places would
Thursday, September 2, 2010 | Page 11
smaller number of group assignments, even
if working with other people is an essential
skill to be developed in that course.
And though the more formal and official
evaluation takes place only at the end of the
semester and is purposely timed to avoid
more direct interference with professors’
teaching plans in the middle of the semester,
it doesn’t stop the rapid “democratization” of
the classroom. I personally witnessed two
such “democratic” incidents last year, and
both, I believe, eventually diminished the ef-
fectiveness of both teaching and learning in
the classroom. In one lecture, the professor
held a vote to decide whether we were going
to have a midterm. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t
have one for that course. Yet our triumphant
feeling soon turned into regret when we pre-
pared for the final exam, because we then
realized that midterms are perfect tools to
refresh our memories and provide early cor-
rection to mistakes.
The second incident involved a TA who
was similarly responsive to students’ de-
mands: After a daunting midterm, almost ev-
ery student in my section expressed wishes
that the section be more test-oriented. Subse-
encourage greater participation.
Yet even among states with election day
registration, youth turnout varies widely.
CIRCLE is quick to point out that “turnout
… cannot be solely explained by state elec-
tion laws.” Certainly no matter how aggres-
sively states try to increase turnout, candi-
dates also need to persuade younger voters
to cast a ballot. But courting older voters is
a more efficient use of campaign resources
than chasing less reliable youth votes.
Mail campaigns are difficult, if not impos-
sible, to direct at young people. We are also
hard to contact by telephone, with many of
us only using cell phones. The Internet of-
fers all sorts of new opportunities for candi-
dates to reach us, but the science of online
campaigning remains limited. Traditional
campaign tools, like lists built through years
of door-to-door canvassing and phone-bank-
ing, provide more reliable information on
who is likely to vote and which candidates
he or she favors. It’s no surprise that a can-
didate would rather court a voter with a long
history of voting for the party than someone
who may have only voted once, if at all — the
effort is more likely to be rewarded.
quent sections almost devolved into a guess-
ing game about what questions may pop up
in the final when time could have been spent
on covering lecture material that is less like-
ly to be included in the exam, but is part of
a curriculum meticulously designed by the
professor. Grateful as we were that those
sessions turned out to be helpful in the final
exam, it is deplorable that the TA was pres-
sured to let students set the academic goals
for the class — and it is deplorable that giv-
en that power to set the goals, the students
clearly abused that power and didn’t use it to
serve their own best interests.
One teacher’s opinion on student evalua-
tions published in the New York Times was
both curt and yet to the point: “Sorry kids…
Education is not business. You are not my
customer... You do not get to ‘have it your
way.’” In the final analysis, students’ evaluat-
ing professors opens a back door for the for-
mer to design and tailor their own education.
But could students, yet to be educated, cor-
rectly choose the way they are going to be
taught? One fears that this unreasonable and
radical autonomy that is granted to students
would eventually result in the erosion of aca-
demic discipline, and therefore endanger the
quality of education. The bittersweet mean-
ing of autonomy is indeed that students, not
the professors, must suffer the consequenc-
es of the misuse and abuse of student evalu-
ations.
Yue Wang ’12 is a political science and
German studies concentrator from
Shanghai. She can be contacted at
yue_wang@brown.edu.
For people studying the youth vote, Nov.
2 will still provide plenty of reasons to pay
close attention. With a large proportion of
Senate and House races likely to come down
to the wire, campaigns that successfully get
out the youth vote — or, more accurately,
keep the youth turnout from taking a post-
Obama swan dive — could swing the deci-
sion in their favor. The results could help an-
swer some important questions about cam-
paigning for our demographic.
Can campaigns get younger voters ex-
cited without a candidate that seems to
break the mold of a typical elected official,
like Barack Obama in 2008? Will even com-
petitive races featuring such candidates —
for example, the Kentucky Senate race pit-
ting 47-year-old Republican (with a promi-
nent libertarian streak) Rand Paul against
41-year-old Jack Conway, or the Florida Sen-
ate battle featuring newly-Independent Char-
lie Crist, 39-year-old Hispanic Marco Rubio,
and 43-year-old African-American Kendrick
Meek — bring young people to the polls?
Will the inclusion of Proposition 19 — which
would legalize marijuana — on the Califor-
nia ballot boost the youth vote in ways the
candidates for Senate and governor can’t?
I hope that young people defy the expec-
tations and turn out in droves this Novem-
ber. Short of that, we can at least hope the
results yield valuable information for future
campaigns looking to strike electoral gold.
Dan Davidson ’11.5 is a political science
concentrator from Atlanta, GA. He can be
reached at daniel_davidson@brown.edu.
 Today
The Brown Daily Herald
1 2
c a l e n da r
Today, September 2
12:00 P.M. — Africana Studies Open
House, Churchill House
4:00 P.M. — Timelines and Resources
for Seniors: Organize your Job Search
in 30 Minutes, Career Development
Center
menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Chicken Pot Pie, Zucchini
and Parmesan Sandwich, Vegan Tofu
Pups, Rice Krispie Treats
Dinner — Spice Rubbed Pork Chops,
Cheese Tomato Strata, Oven Browned
Potatoes, Frosted Brownies
crossword
2 Maya tomb unearthed to day to m o r r o w
Caprio leads in race for governor
5 92 / 68
Thursday, September 2, 2010
79 / 67
Page 12
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
comics
tomorrow, September 3 Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz
3:00 P.M. — Open House and Forum:
Service and Community - Finding
Both at Brown, Swearer Center
3:00 P.M. — Slavic Studies Open
House, Marston Hall
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
Lunch — BLT Sandwich,
Rosemary Portobello Sub Sandwich,
Butterscotch Cookies
Dinner — Chicken Tikka, Vegetable
Stuffed Peppers, Basmati Rice Pilaf,
Jelly Cake Roll
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin
Dr. Bear | Mat Becker