Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 3
Tumor research could lead
to treatment breakthrough
By Natalie Villacorta
Senior Staff Writer
Researchers at the Alpert Medical
School made an important dis-
covery that may lead to changes
in the way brain tumors­are di-
agnosed and treated. Their find-
ings, published in the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute last
month, have generated a slew of
questions — not only about brain
tumors, but also cancer in general.
“This is a very big deal in brain
tumors,” said Professor of Com-
munity Health Karl Kelsey, one of
the paper’s senior authors.
Brown researchers collaborated
with researchers from the Univer-
sity of California at San Francisco
and several other universities.
Kelsey and UCSF Professor John
Wiencke — who have been friends
since high school — have teamed
up repeatedly over the last 25 years
on various scientific projects.
Innovative students pitch inventions, win in 90 secs.
By Jordan Hendricks
Contributing Writer
Two undergraduates made ef-
ficient use of their time — im-
pressing judges and winning cash
prizes in 90 seconds — Dec. 8 at
an elevator pitch contest held at
the Rhode Island Center for In-
novation and Entrepreneurship
Winter Wonderland
A particularly snowy season in Providence left the Main Green covered in
the white stuff.
news....................1-5
inside
Comics...................5
editorial..............6
Opinions...............7
feature...................8
Friday, January 28, 2011
The study originated from the
hypothesis that a relationship ex-
ists between mutations in tumors
and the methylation patterns
found in their genomes, Kelsey
said. Previous research had identi-
fied this connection in other types
of cancer, said Brock Christensen,
a Brown postdoctoral research as-
sociate in pathology and labora-
tory medicine and the first author
on the paper. He said he — along
with Kelsey and Ashley Smith
GS — set out to discover if this
relationship also existed in brain
tumors. There was an even greater
basis for the relationship than ex-
pected, Kelsey said.  Jan. 26 and ends Jan. 30, allows
Christensen said the mutation
in question exists in the IDH gene,
which codes for an enzyme in-
volved in glucose sensing, an as-
pect of metabolic processing. The
researchers found that tumors with
continued on page 2
in Providence.
At the contest, sponsored
by the Rhode Island Business
Plan Competition 2011, college
students and business veterans
alike described business ideas to
a panel — as if making a pitch to
a CEO who only has an elevator
ride’s worth of time to evaluate
a proposal.
Hilary Rosenthal / Herald
Opening up
Brown researcher gets Ethi-
opian teens to talk safe sex
Campus News, 3
Herald
Raffling Rooms
The first pick in the housing lottery was raffled off to students at last night’s
Housing Fair.
Theresa Raimondo ’11 won the
$300 first prize for her business
idea, a thermos that can heat or
cool beverages from 50 to 150
degrees Fahrenheit within 90 sec-
onds. Anshu Vaish ’12 received a
$50 prize for his pitch about Wa-
terWalla, an organization already
in existence and run by under-
graduates that brings clean water
Art exhibition features
diverse faculty artists
By Anna lillkung
Contributing Writer
Faculty Triennial 2010, a gallery
exhibition which includes the work
of 24 faculty members, is now on
display in the David Winton Bell
Gallery. The show provides an op-
portunity for viewers to experience
arts & culture
a mix of different art forms, as it
features faculty artists from the de-
partments of Visual Art, Modern
Culture and Media and Theatre
Arts and Performance Studies.
The inclusion of literary arts and
multimedia and electronic experi-
ments culminates in a unique and
varied blend of artistic work.
The exhibition has been on
display in the David Winton Bell
Gallery at List Art Center since
Dec. 3 and started with an “ex-
Racist care
Alum explores unconscious
biases in healthcare
Feature, 8
Nicholas Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
to urban slums around the world.
Raimondo entered the con-
test as part of her ENGN 1930G:
“Entrepreneurship I” class. She
and her team of classmates were
assigned the general task of im-
proving astronaut food with the
help of mentors from the National
continued on page 4
perimental performance” by Butch
Rovan and Lucky Leone, accord-
ing to a Brown press release. It has
now reopened after the break and
will be open until Feb. 13.
The exhibition features many
types of media, including digital
videos, oil paintings and photo-
graphs, providing an excellent
insight into the work of different
kinds of artists and the media they
choose to employ. But the variety
also leads to incoherence within
the exhibition. There seems to be
little communication between the
artists, resulting in a cacophony of
clashing voices.
Upon first entering the exhi-
bition, three photographs taken
by Postdoctoral Fellow in Music
Betsey Biggs at an abandoned
amusement park are on display.
In particular, one photograph of
continued on page 5
weather
Babbling
Sarah Rosenthal ’11
on student writing
Opinions, 7
Since 1891
Simmons
attends
Swiss
conference
By David Chung
Senior Staff Writer
This week, for the fourth year in
a row, President Ruth Simmons is
joining global leaders from busi-
ness, politics and other fields at
the annual meeting of the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Swit-
zerland. The event, which began
Simmons to develop relationships
with university presidents and so-
cial entrepreneurs, as well as brain-
storm initiatives that could bring
change to the academic scene, she
wrote from Davos in an e-mail to
The Herald.
The forum’s theme this year is
“Shared Norms for the New Real-
ity.”
Marisa Quinn, vice president for
public affairs and University rela-
tions, said the event and its theme
are applicable to the University’s
interest in being involved in current
global issues. “It is essential to be a
part of the conversation,” she said.
A number of university presi-
dents from around the world attend
the forum each year to participate
in the Global University Leaders
Forum, first organized in 2006.
“The opportunity to meet with
this diverse group to develop ideas
and foster international academic
partnerships is very worthwhile,”
Simmons wrote. Quinn added that
the forum provides a rare venue for
university leaders to initiate and
develop partnerships.
Simmons attended a meeting
Thursday morning hosted by Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology
faculty members, which focused
on MIT’s energy institute and
approaches to energy issues. The
discussion prompted her to think
about energy research at Brown,
she wrote.
Simmons is also hosting two
panels during her time in Davos.
The first, which has already taken
place, discussed of methods for
supporting emerging artists, and
she wrote she hopes to implement
in Providence some of the ideas that
emerged from the discussion. The
second panel will discuss the emer-
gence and decline of languages.
The event allows Simmons to
foster valuable connections with
non-profit leaders and social en-
trepreneurs, she wrote. “Discus-
continued on page 3
t o d ay tomorrow
28 / 21 34 / 18
2 Campus News The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011

calendar Profs find mutation, methylation link

Today January 28 Tomorrow January 29
continued from page 1 mutation aspect of the analysis, Kelsey said.
6:00 P.M. 1:00 p.M. and Christensen handled the epi- The study also found that pa-
“Intimate Lighting,” Faculty Triennial 2010, this mutation also have an associ- genetic side. A technique called tients with brain tumors carrying
Modern Culture and Media 101 List Art Building ated DNA methylation pattern. the Illumina GoldenGate meth- the IDH mutation survive longer
DNA methylation — when a ylation array was used to measure than those without the mutation,
6:30 P.M. 5:30 p.m.
methyl group is covalently bonded the amount of methylation in the but Kelsey said no one knows
West House Open Dinner, Brown Running Club Group Run, to a cytosine base followed by a tumors. The analysis revealed a why. Despite this finding, phar-
West House Sciences Library guanine base — is an epigenetic close link between the IDH muta- maceutical companies are trying
alternation to DNA, which changes tion and enhanced occurrence of to develop a drug to inhibit meth-
gene expression. All the cells in methylation, Kelsey said. ylation, which is counterintuitive,
menu the human body contain the same
genetic material, but each cell also
The reason for this link is un-
known, though research is already
Christensen said. The reasoning is
that by preventing the methyla-
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL contains a methylation pattern. underway to fill in the missing tion — and therefore reversing the
LUNCH Methylated DNA is a signal of gaps. But the Brown research silencing of genes — the cell will
Chicken with Raisins and Olives, BLT Chicken Fingers, Sticky Rice, Baked gene silencing, Kelsey said. In team is going to focus on more return to its normal state, Kelsey
Sandwich, Vegan Chana Masala, Vegan Nuggets, Enchilada Bar, the case of the brain tumors, the general tumor-related questions. said. “But first you have to realize
Butterscotch Cookies, Clam Bisque Butterscotch Cookies methylated regions marked genes “We study tumors and we study that everybody dies of this dis-
involved in metabolic processes, people, and the answers to the ease,” he added. The difference in
DINNER
which might explain the abnormal questions that we have posed are survival is a matter of months or
Chicken Tikka, Arabian Spinach, Texas Style Beef Brisket, Mexican behavior of tumor cells. best tackled by biochemists and a few years, he said.
Basmati Rice Pilaf, Vegetable Stuffed Cornbread Casserole, BBQ Grilled Smith was in charge of the the pharmaceutical industry,” But Christensen and Kelsey said
Peppers Asparagus they are hopeful that their research

Daily Herald
the Brown will contribute to changes in the
Sudoku way cancer is treated, moving
away from the nonspecific and
www.browndailyherald.com toxic removal of tissue to more
195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. personalized medicine. The imme-
Ben Schreckinger, President Matthew Burrows, Treasurer diate impact of the research is that
Sydney Ember, Vice President Isha Gulati, Secretary people may now measure for IDH
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the mutation clinically, Christensen
Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday said. “Just to tell people. Just to be
during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once dur- able to say you are maybe going to
ing Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for do a little bit better,” he said.
each member of the community.
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. “While there are gaps in the
Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. basic biology, we now have targets
Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. that clearly affect the character of
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The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011 Campus News 3
Prof obtains better data on sex habits In Davos, Simmons
By EMILY ROSEN
Staff Writer
bers at Jimma University were
closely involved in the research,
versities and health providers to
improve public health. This re- networks, hosts panels
and Lindstrom said he frequently search project also studies other
Using innovative nonverbal inter- travels to Ethiopia to run work- aspects of Ethiopian life, including continued from page 1 thew Gutmann, vice president for
viewing methods to protect the shops and work directly with native issues of sanitation, living habits, international affairs. Prospective
privacy of participants, Associ- Ethiopians. pest control and infectious disease. sions with this group are especially students, alums, donors and Cor-
ate Professor of Sociology David The Jimma University’s health Lindstrom said there are many important to us in university life.” poration members are expected to
Lindstrom has developed a method communication program has re- simple ways to improve public Simmons also recently learned attend. Though recruitment is not
for obtaining more honest answers cently produced radio broadcasts health without spending large sums of a project offering mini-loans to the main reason behind Simmons’
from Ethiopian adolescents to of the policy briefs. Lindstrom said of money. Lindstrom said he hopes artists, and she wrote she is excited trip to Switzerland, she wrote she
questions about their reproduc- he hopes the radio broadcasts will his research collaborators and oth- by the prospect of implementing occasionally meets young, moti-
tive health. be an effective way to communicate ers will continue this kind of re- the idea. vated individuals at the forum who
Lindstrom said this nonverbal the survey results to the general search in the future and expand And she will be holding a Uni- already stand among global figures.
response method makes for more populace. it to other regions of the world. versity event alongside Ronald The University always welcomes
accurate responses because the He said his group’s goal is to “We’re there to make a long-term Margolin, vice president for inter- outstanding individuals, Quinn
Ethiopian adolescents his group establish a dialogue between uni- contribution and impact,” he said. national advancement, and Mat- said.
interviews are not required to ver-
balize answers to personal ques-
tions about their sexual activity
and reproductive health. This in-
novative method could be used to
conduct health surveys in other
places, as it is an easy, economical
way to conduct research, he said.
For over nine years, Lindstrom
and researchers from Brown, Em-
ory University and two Ethiopian
universities have been studying
topics including sexual behavior
among adolescents, access to con-
traceptives, awareness of HIV and
the various issues young people
face during the transition from
adolescence to adulthood, Lind-
strom said.
Due to the personal nature and
sensitivity of the questions asked
during the interviews, Lindstrom
said it was important to ensure
participant privacy. The research-
ers also needed to find a nonverbal
interview technique for people who
may not be literate or know how to
use computers, he added.
To protect participants’ ano-
nymity, Lindstrom’s group devel-
oped a method to conduct inter-
views using response cards. A card
is placed between the interviewer
and the participant so that the in-
terviewer cannot see the partici-
pant’s side of the card. The par-
ticipant’s side contains a grid with
possible answers to questions, such
as the words “yes” and “no.” Each
possible answer then has a small
hole punched in the card directly
below it. To answer a question,
the participant sticks a small rod
through the hole corresponding to
his or her answer. The interviewer
records the hole that was chosen by
the participant without knowing
which hole corresponds to which
answer. A master key is then used
to decode the survey answers.
Lindstrom’s group interviews
Ethiopians between the ages of 15
and 25. Each individual is followed
for five years and is periodically
interviewed during those years.
Researchers then compile and
analyze data from the interviews,
and publish policy briefs to sum-
marize the findings, Lindstrom
said. The policy briefs are short
memos that contain data and sta-
tistics from the survey as well as
policy recommendations to im-
prove health and well-being.
Lindstrom said these policy
briefs include suggestions to health
service providers for improving re-
productive health.
Another major component of
the project was collaboration with
Ethiopian universities, including
Jimma University. Faculty mem-
4 Campus News
Entrepreneurs
struggle with brevity
continued from page 1
Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration. After research and inter-
views with astronauts, the team
discovered that neither hot nor
cold beverages are available in
space due to energy constraints.
This inspired the team to design
a thermos using portable ther-
moelectric technology.
Raimondo said the group did
not plan on actually marketing
the product at the beginning of
the semester, but the group’s win
in the contest might change that.
“We would consider it now,”
said Raimondo. “It’s gotten a lot
more recognition than we ex-
pected. We’re entering the Rhode
Island Business Plan Competi-
tion. If everything goes well, it’s
a definite possibility.” The group
will use their prize money toward
a prototype of the thermos as part
of this semester’s class.
Jason Beckman ’11, co-pres-
ident of the Brown Entrepre-
neurship Program, noted the
importance of being able to pitch
a complicated business idea in
a short amount of time. The
program — which offers men-
toring and networking services
to students with an interest in
beginning their own business
venture — offers its own annual
elevator pitch competition with a
cash reward of $1,000 to the best
45-second pitch.
“In terms of captivating an
Got something to say? Leave a comment online!
Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.
The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011
audience, a small dose is really
useful,” Beckman said. “To be
able to distill an idea down into
a minute’s length and sell the idea
they’re working on is an essential
skill.”
Raimondo said that this chal-
lenge of brevity was also one of
the more difficult aspects of the
competition.
“It’s challenging to give enough
information in 90 seconds that
you convince someone that your
idea is useful and worthwhile,”
she said. “Getting people inter-
ested quickly is a useful skill to
have.”
WaterWalla, Vaish’s group, be-
gan seven months ago and has
raised $17,000. Vaish said group
members felt an obligation to
use their resources — especially
a Brown education — to give back
to others in the form of better
health. The Hindi word “walla”
roughly translates to “provider
of.”
After assessing the needs of
different communities in India,
WaterWalla sells technological
solutions to local vendors at no
profit.
According to WaterWalla’s
website, diseases related to wa-
ter toxicity cause 90 percent of
the deaths of children in Dharavi,
the slum in Mumbai, India where
the project began.
“If all else fails, if we save the
life of just one child, it will all be
worth it,” Vaish said.
The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011
Music, video featured
in profs’ art exhibit
continued from page 1
a broken roller coaster called to
mind a cold ghost town and was
chillingly fascinating.
Biggs enhanced the viewing ex-
perience of her photos by includ-
ing audio tracks. One such track
repeatedly said, “Wat now” — the
words written on the ground in
one of the pictures — reinforcing
the supernatural sensation in a
haunting way. Biggs’ work was an
intriguing and distinct addition to
the show as a result.
Another interesting piece was
Professor of English Forrest Gan-
der’s “A Border History: Rattle-
snakes and Light,” an audio poem
accompanied by music and video
footage of the Chihuahuan Desert.
The natural beauty and wildlife of
the U.S.-Mexico border provided
a visual interpretation of Gander’s
poem. But the music was a strange
choice, with the Latin American
beats disrupting the illusion of
being in the calm atmosphere of
the desert.
A highlight of the exhibition
was Associate Professor of Music
Todd Winkler’s “Glint,” which in-
corporated audio, video and inter-
active software. This work leads
the viewer into a black room with
a three-screen video installment
that makes the walls look like
water shining in the sun. As the
Campus News 5
comics
BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden, Valerie Hsiung and Dan Ricker
participant steps into the room,
images of his or her body appear
on the wall in different colors and
forms. The room simultaneously
relaxes and awakens the curiosity
of the viewer.
Professor of Art Wendy Ed-
wards’ “Vase I” and “Vase II,”
as well as Assistant Professor
of Modern Culture and Media
Studies Mark Tribe’s “The New Cabernet Voltarie | Abe Pressman
Revolution,” were not particularly
striking. Edwards’ oil-on-board
paintings were overly simplistic,
with weak color schemes and
vague definition. Tribe’s piece
of art was a green screen paper,
which attempted to invite the
spectator to create his or her own
projects, but at the end of the day
appeared to be only a big green
piece of paper.
Faculty Triennial 2010 will
organize a second event Feb. 11 Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
with several live performances,
according to a Brown press re-
lease. The exhibition provides
visitors with a unique opportunity
to learn how Brown professors
express themselves artistically.
But ultimately, the exhibit’s lack
of cohesion is overwhelming and
detracts from the impact of the
individual pieces.
6 Editorial & Letter The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011

Editorial Editorial Comic

by erik stay ton and
evan donahue
Mental health on campus
after Tucson
The tragic events that took place just a few weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz.
— where 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on a crowd, killing
six and injuring 14 — raise questions about how colleges deal with
mental health issues. Records at Pima Community College show that
school officials were concerned about Loughner’s erratic and sometimes
menacing behavior. Indeed, Loughner was finally suspended this past
September and told he could only return if a mental health professional
cleared him to do so.
Looking back, it is easy to suggest that the college could have done
more to prevent Loughner’s actions. Pima administrators, for example,
were free to share their concerns with law enforcement, but chose not
to. Moving forward, however, we should avoid conflating a school’s
responsibility to provide mental health services to students with a duty
to prevent these horrific actions.
So far, documents released by the college reveal no breaches of
procedure or seriously flawed judgments by administrators. To the
contrary, safety experts told the Wall Street Journal that, by and large, the
school acted “diligently.” Administrators made their concerns known to
Loughner’s parents. And while the college did not approach police, the
Arizona Republic reported that “what may look like a psychotic spiral
in hindsight, likely would not have been enough to have (Loughner)
forced into psychiatric care, much less arrested.”
Putting the onus on colleges to outright prevent acts like Loughner’s
would likely require students to give up more of our liberties than we feel
comfortable with. Administrators are worried about liability. In a world
where we expect school officials to stop every single Jared Loughner
from acting, colleges would likely resort to mandatory leave and report
students’ troubles to law enforcement much more than they currently do.
Even Brown’s existing mandated medical leave policies have been
criticized by some students (“Psychological leave-takers miss U. contact,”
letter to the editor
Sept. 27). And if reporting troubled students to the authorities were to
become a standard response, it would undermine trust between the ACCRIP chair challenges Yale’s standard
for ethical investments
student body and administration. While preventative measures rooted
in restraint have their place, they should not become go-to solutions to
mental health problems.
Instead, the University should redouble its commitment to provid- To the Editor: two years by a committee made up of very thoughtful
ing students with psychological services that are both comprehensive faculty, student, staff and alumni members. Thus, I
and easily accessible. We should strive to be more attentive to our own Your recent article on the recommendation by the must qualify Professor Macey’s comment that Brown’s
mental health, as well as to that of our friends and classmates. Psycho- Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in decision “appears to be based on the existence of com-
logical Services offers many resources we can take advantage of. But we Investment Policies (ACCRIP) that the University plaints and allegations,” whereas a similar decision by
should not hesitate to seek out professional advice if we are concerned not reinvest in HEI Hotels and Resorts provides an Yale would have been based on “facts and evidence”
not just for ourselves, but for someone else. Belinda Johnson, director accurate account of the committee’s action. It also as unfortunate at best.
of psychological services, reminded us that staff are available “at any quotes Professor Jonathan Macey, chair of a similar We stand firmly by our recommendation and hope
time of the day or night” to offer support. committee at Yale, as having stated that, in contrast, the that the Brown Corporation will accept it at its next
Sadly, it is doubtful the events in Tucson will mark the last time a Yale committee had not found “sufficient evidence of meeting.
mentally ill college student turns to violence. While many voices in the violation of our ethical investment norms.” It is obvi-
media seem intent on finding one entity to blame — be it Loughner’s ous that the two universities have different standards Luiz Valente
parents, a culture of incivility or college administrators — the Tucson for what ethical investments are. ACCRIP chair and associate professor of
tragedy cannot be explained so simply. We hope that as the public dis- ACCRIP’s unanimous recommendation was based Portuguese and Brazilian studies
course regarding the shooting progresses, we hear less about who is at on long reflection and deliberations over a period of
fault, and more about what can be done to help prevent such horrors

quote of the day

in the future.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments

“If all else fails, if we save the life of just one child,
to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d
Editors-in-Chief
Sydney Ember
Deputy Managing Editors
Brigitta Greene
Senior Editors
Dan Alexander
it will all be worth it. ”
Ben Schreckinger Anne Speyer Nicole Friedman — Anshu Vaish ’12, on his non-profit business, which brings clean water to urban slums
Julien Ouellet
editorial Business
Kristina Fazzalaro Arts & Culture Editor General Managers Office Manager

Correction
Luisa Robledo Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Burrows Shawn Reilly
Talia Kagan Features Editor Isha Gulati
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Directors
Rebecca Ballhaus City & State Editor
Aditi Bhadia Sales
Claire Peracchio City & State Editor
Alex Bell News Editor
Danielle Marshak Finance An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Fundraising campaign complete,” Jan. 27, 2011) incorrectly stated that the
Margot Grinberg Alumni Relations
Nicole Boucher News Editor
Lisa Berlin Special Projects Brown Annual Fund raised $573 million throughout the course of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment.
Tony Bakshi Sports Editor
Ashley McDonnell Sports Editor Managers This figure refers to the total amount of current-use funds raised during the campaign. The Annual Fund
Anita Mathews Editorial Page Editor Hao Tran National Sales raised $247.9 million during the campaign. The Herald regrets the error.
Tyler Rosenbaum Editorial Page Editor Alec Kacew University Department Sales
Hunter Fast Opinions Editor Siena deLisser University Student Group Sales
Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Valery Scholem Recruiter Sales
C O R R E C T I O N S P olic y
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The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011
By Chris
Norris-LeBlanc
Opinions Columnist
After 18 years, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was
finally repealed by a Senate vote of 63 for
and 33 against. This historic legislation
marks the end of an almost two-decade
period when gay and lesbian members of
the armed forces had to face a dishonor-
able discharge if they divulged their sexu-
ality to their comrades, forcing them to live
in secrecy while trying to perform a highly
stressful and dangerous job.
The magnitude of this decision has
sent reverberations nationwide; however, I
would like to talk about how it has reached
us here on College Hill. In light of the re-
peal, President Simmons has decided to
form a committee tasked with reevaluating
the 1972 ban on all Reserve Officer Train-
ing Corps programs at Brown.
To once again allow ROTC on our cam-
pus would be to completely ignore the so-
cial, political and historical contexts of its
original expulsion. My personal feelings
about the military aside, the repeal of the
policy was a huge victory for human rights
and has set an important precedent for fu-
ture anti-discrimination laws; that being
said, discrimination against queer folks in
the military will not necessarily die with
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and ROTC divest-
ment was an act informed by the sum of
many other crimes against humanity per-
petrated by the United States military.
Officially, the University instituted the
ban on ROTC as a result of the program’s
Has Brown got the write stuff?
By Sarah Rosenthal
Guest Columnist
President Barack Obama’s recent State of
the Union address invited many pressing
questions. Who would sit next to whom?
When would John Boehner cry, and how
hard? And oh yeah, there was all that policy
stuff thrown in as well. Obama did an ad-
mirable job of focusing on education — the
need for teachers to get the kind of respect
they get in South Korea, the infeasibility of
getting by with just a high school degree in
a globalized world and, of course, the na-
tion’s slipping competitiveness in math and
science.
No one can deny that last point. Ac-
cording to the most recent Nation’s Report
Card, a Department of Education survey on
grade-level proficiency in various subjects,
only 21 percent of twelfth-graders nation-
wide were proficient in science in 2009 —
26 percent were proficient in math. These
findings are troubling to anyone who cares
about America’s ability to compete in a
post-industrial knowledge economy, and
they should be.
But did you know there are subjects oth-
er than math and science? I’ve already held
forth enough in this space on the impor-
tance of history — and literature and the
arts are equally vital (not to mention for-
eign languages, which were oddly left out in
all that talk about global competition). But
there is one skill that is at the root of suc-
cess in many disciplines, and in the world at
The ROTC Question
unwillingness to rescind its status as an
academic credit-bearing entity. Howev-
er, as we all know, the 1960s were a time
of significant student protest, especially
at schools like Brown. Starting as early as
1967, there was a “Brown Committee to
Abolish ROTC” taking action on campus.
To try and remove Brown’s expulsion
of ROTC in 1972 from the context of the
United States military’s violence in Viet-
nam and at Kent State University is akin to
taking any other action out of its historical
To once again allow ROTC on our campus would be to
completely ignore the social, political and historical
contexts of its original expulsion.
context. In order to truly achieve a coher-
ent analysis about the initial decision to re-
move ROTC, we must look at the cultural
position of the United States military be-
tween the years of 1967 and 1972.
By the official end of the Vietnam War
in 1975, an estimated one million members
of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet
Cong had died defending their country
from U.S. invasion. Women, although al-
lowed in the military in the 1960s and ’70s,
were not given the same job opportunities
as men, regardless of their ability or tech-
nical proficiency. On May 4, 1970, at Kent
State University, four students were killed
and nine others were injured at a rally pro-
large: writing.
Yes, writing. You can’t communicate the
importance of your scientific breakthrough
without it; chances are, you can’t even get
the funding for your important scientific
breakthrough unless you can convince a
benefactor, in writing, that it’s worthwhile.
Yet only 24 percent of twelfth-graders were
found to be proficient in writing — just the
cohort that will soon be heading off to col-
lege.
“But not to Brown, surely!” you say. I
certainly don’t mean to imply that only 24
percent of Brown students meet the nation-
al proficiency standards for writing; that
Even a school like Brown has a lot of embarrassingly
bad writing going on.
would be an absurd figure. I’m sure that 99
percent of Brown students are capable of
writing a paper. After all, isn’t Brown’s sole
requirement a demonstrated proficiency in
writing?
All true, but as someone who’s seen a lot
of student compositions, I have come to an
unfortunate conclusion: Even a school like
Brown has a lot of embarrassingly bad writ-
ing going on. Good writing doesn’t neces-
sarily have to be poetic or demonstrate the
author’s impressive vocabulary, but it does
need to get a message across in a clear, well-
Opinions 7
testing the United States military’s foreign
involvement.
Although this summary paints just a
small picture of the cultural milieu in the
’60s and ’70s, it helps us to reconstruct the
socio-political climate at the time ROTC
was expelled from our campus. So, where
do we stand now?
The United States military is current-
ly involved in many foreign conflicts, the
most prominent of which are taking place
in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, an esti-
mated 99,000-108,000 civilians have been
killed as a result of U.S. occupation. A 2003
survey of female veterans showed that 30
percent were victims of sexual assault while
serving in various branches of the military;
furthermore, a 2004 study of female veter-
ans seeking help for post-traumatic stress
disorder found that 71 percent had been
victims of sexual assault while in the ser-
vice. Meanwhile, the National Guard has
been called in on numerous occasions to
help suppress protests during G-8 and
G-20 meetings held all over the United
States. To add insult to injury, the starting
pay for a member of the Air Force, Navy,
Marines or Army is only 17,604 dollars per
organized fashion. This seems simple, yet
being capable of writing a paper isn’t the
same as being capable of writing a good pa-
per.
I’ve had the amazing privilege of seeing
the work of my peers in a lot of contexts: as
a Writing Fellow, a Herald Opinions editor,
a member of workshop classes in literary
arts, creative non-fiction and history and a
person to whom friends come with rough
drafts. I call it a privilege because students
have offered up their unvarnished work to
another student’s judgment, which can be a
scary and painful thing to do, and I’ve be-
come a better reader and writer for it. A lot
of their work has been truly excellent. Some
has needed work. And some has been pretty
atrocious.
It would be vicious and unnecessary to
give quoted examples of some of the bad
writing I have encountered over the years,
not to mention a breach of trust. I also rec-
ognize that almost everything I read is a
first draft and the final product is likely sig-
nificantly improved. But trust me when I
assure you that bad writing is out there.
I’m not talking about minor grammatical
errors here. I’m talking about a style of writ-
year — not very good compensation for
risking one’s life. Although officer positions
certainly pay more handsomely, they are
mostly available to students coming from
military colleges like West Point.
Given this comparison between the sit-
uation in the 1960s and that of the 2000s,
I see no reason why ROTC would be any
more welcome on our campus than it was
50 years ago. If we look at the two student
groups at Brown organizing around this
issue, Students for ROTC and The Brown
Coalition Against Special Privileges for
ROTC, our campus’s opinion on the issue
is fairly clear; the coalition has 173 petition
signatures (including students, faculty and
alums) and 10 student groups allied with
their position, while Students for ROTC
only has a handful of members and virtu-
ally no visible support.
In The Herald this week, Undergraduate
Council of Students President Diane Mo-
koro ’11 was quoted saying that in regards
to the committee members’ personal opin-
ions about ROTC, she wants “somebody
who’s relatively in the middle.” Although
our instinct at Brown is to always attempt
to create a level debate, I think it is critical-
ly important that whoever gets chosen for
this committee is both invested in the issue
and has opinions which reflect those of the
larger student body.
My suggestion: Tell Ruth we don’t want
a committee, and all hail community ref-
erenda.
Chris Norris-LeBlanc ’13 is from Rhode
Island. He can be contacted at
chris.norris.leblanc@gmail.com.
ing that actively impedes the reader’s abil-
ity to understand what the author is trying
to communicate. On the one hand, we have
babbling incoherence — pieces that switch
topics every other paragraph and are popu-
lated by fragments, non-sequiturs and truly
creative syntax. On the other hand, we have
academic incoherence — long, verbose sen-
tences strung together in hopes of obscur-
ing the fact that the author isn’t entirely
sure about what he or she is writing. Un-
fortunately, students at a school like Brown
sometimes learn the latter from their class
readings and even their own professors.
Good writing is hard to teach, but it can
also be extremely rewarding for students to
master, since it develops creativity, analyt-
ical skills and individual style. And as our
generation enters the workforce, employers
are not going to be impressed by our ability
to write in txt-speak. Would a little empha-
sis on writing in the nation’s schools be too
much to ask?
Maybe we should focus solely on math
education in a globalized world; as Cady
Heron poetically put it in Mean Girls:
“Math is the same in every country.” May-
be it doesn’t matter, since soon enough we’ll
all be writing in Chinese anyway. But even
then, the skills that we learn when we learn
how to write — clarity, organization and
the recognition of an audience that must be
persuaded — can stay with us throughout
our lives.
Former Herald Opinions editor Sarah
Rosenthal ’11 may have just
out-snobbed herself.
8 Feature
White III ’57 P’98 reveals racial bias in medicine and care
By Crystal vance guerra
Contributing Writer
Augustus White III ’57 P’98 is no
stranger to breaking down racial
barriers.
In 1961, White was one of only
four black graduate students at
Stanford University. He went on
to become Stanford’s first black
medical school graduate, as well
as Yale’s first black resident sur-
geon and the first black depart-
ment head at Harvard’s medical
teaching school.
Born and raised in Mem-
phis, Tenn. during the Jim Crow
era, White witnessed dramatic
changes in the nation’s attitudes
concerning race over the course
of his life.
He recently published a book
titled “Seeing Patients: Uncon-
scious Bias in Health Care.” The
book highlights inequalities in
the field of medicine that result
from conscious and unconscious
bias, he said. Part memoir, part
research, it is told through both
White’s personal story and the
lens of medicine, he added.
“One of the lessons I’ve
learned from medicine,” White
said, “is how common human-
ity is.”
Yet innumerable articles, re-
ports and personal stories reflect
discrimination in today’s medical
education, patient treatment and
workforce.
Certain minority popula-
tions are 50 percent less likely
than non-minorities to receive
pain medication after arm and
leg fractures, according to White.
“There is no sign that said,
‘Don’t give any black people any
medication if they come in with
a broken bone,’ ” White said, but
“there are still examples of re-
sidual bias.”
For White, much of his per-
spective relates to “how people re-
act to me as an African-American
male in certain settings.” Yet even
he was surprised by the “extent
and prevalence of the disparities
which affect so many people.”
“Doctors who really thought
they were not prejudiced … were
shocked to find out that they had
treated black people in a disparate
manner,” White said, referencing
the results of an implicit associa-
tion test.
Several other studies confirm
these disparities and reveal that
patient treatment is not the only
area still mired in racial biases.
U.S. physician demographics
do not reflect the country’s racial
composition, according to a 2010
Association of American Medi-
cal Colleges report. For example,
blacks make up 12.4 percent of
the country, but only 6.3 percent
of all physicians, according to the
report. For Latinos, the imbalance
is even greater — 15.8 percent
versus 5.5 percent.
Why the disparity?
One reason may be the long
history of systematic racial dis-
crimination in the medical field.
By the end of the 19th century,
two medical organizations had
emerged, reflecting the country’s
blatant racism: the exclusively
white American Medical Associa-
tion and the predominantly black
National Medical Association.
In 1910, a report commis-
sioned by the AMA recommend-
ed closing seven of nine black
medical schools, leaving even
fewer options for black medical
students, according to a 2008
Journal of the American Medi-
cal Association article.
As late as 1961, during the
black freedom movement, the
AMA refused to defend eight
black physicians who had been
arrested for requesting service
in the whites-only section of an
Atlanta hotel during a medical
society luncheon, according to
the Journal article. It was not until
1964 that higher education was
forced to desegregate, and not
until 1965 that segregated hos-
pitals were banned by law.
Although racial segregation is
no longer sanctioned by organiza-
tion or law, disparities continue to
exist. Only 7.5 percent of medical
school faculty are minorities, ac-
cording to a 2009 AAMC inves-
tigation.
Faculty positions for people of
color are “very, very rare,” White
said.
White highlighted the impor-
tance of mentorship in his own
success.
After serving as an army sur-
geon in Vietnam, White met Wil-
liam Montague Cobb, a physician
at Howard University, who was
also head of the NMA for over
10 years and chair of the board
of trustees of the National As-
sociation for the Advancement
of Colored People.
“Cobb thought it was impor-
tant to help others, to give op-
portunity to more African-Amer-
icans if you were in a position to
do that,” White said.
In 1986, White was in such a
The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, January 28, 2011
position at his own alma mater,
Brown, where he once studied
psychology.
White served on the Blue Rib-
bon Committee, an external re-
view of minority education and
student life at Brown. The com-
mittee was formed after students
occupied the John Carter Brown
Library, protesting the Univer-
sity’s failure to meet previous
demands for increased student
and academic diversity.
This committee published a
report titled “The American Uni-
versity and the Pluralist Ideal,” in
which several recommendations
were made to address minority
student concerns. These recom-
mendations resulted in the hiring
of the first full-time Latino dean
and an increased effort to recruit
minority faculty in each academic
department, according to a 1986
article in The Herald.
The University followed all but
one of the committee’s recom-
mendations: that students be re-
quired to take at least one course
that relates to a minority issue,
according to White.
White said the University’s re-
sponse was, “sounds like a good
idea, but remember — we have
no required courses.”