Monday, February 14, 2011Daily Heraldthe Brown

Since 1891vol. cxlvi, no. 14

29 / 14

t o m o r r o w

47 / 19

t o d aynews...................2-5sports...............7-8editorial.............10opinions.............11arts......................12insid

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SportS, 8

Skid snappedAfter five years, w. basketball gets wins over Ivy rivals

trupin ’13: A call to support living wage factories

opINIoNS, 11 wea

therDon’t sweat

By Nicole BoucherNews editor

The Corporation approved an $834.3 million budget, raised tu-ition and increased enrollment for the 2012 fiscal year at its meeting Saturday.

The University’s highest govern-ing body — which meets in Febru-ary, May and October to formulate decisions on University operations — accepted a 3.5 percent rise in undergraduate tuition and fees to $53,136 for the upcoming year and approved a 6.4 percent increase in the 2012 operating budget. The tuition increase is slightly lower than the average annual 4.3 percent increase over the last five years, ac-cording to the University Resources Committee report, made available online this weekend. The URC is charged with outlining budget rec-ommendations to the Corporation.

The increase is necessary to maintain recently inflated expens-es, said Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, citing rising faculty sala-ries and the cost of preserving Uni-versity resources. The University also relies on tuition for additional expenses including strengthening academic programs and maintain-ing capital projects developed un-der the Campaign for Academic Enrichment.

“We’re so tuition dependent,” Kertzer said, because “students still expect the same level of academics” as other elite schools with larger endowments. Tuition accounts for 55 percent of the Education and General budget, according to the URC report.

The financial aid budget will rise by 8 percent to maintain the current rate of 43 percent of stu-dents who receive aid. Kertzer said financial aid continues to be a main priority for the University, despite the expenses necessary to maintain it.

Budgeted undergraduate enroll-ment will increase by 1.8 percent to 6,000 students, though the figure is slightly elevated to reflect the unexpectedly higher yield of the current junior class. The number of incoming first-years will be the same, Kertzer said, and the larger rising senior class will now be taken into account.

This meeting marks the first gathering of the Corporation since the conclusion of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment. In order to

Corp. raises tuition by 3.5 percent

By Natalie VillacortaseNior staff writer

“I love you.” Today, we say these three words — to boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives. But to every person, and to every brain, the phrase means some-thing different.

Selection, naturallyThe most fit will survive to re-

produce, passing on their genes to the next generation. This, of course, is Darwin’s theory of natu-ral selection. An individual pur-sues the most genetically fit part-ner to pass on favorable traits to

offspring, increasing their chance of reproductive success.

Senior Lecturer in Neurosci-ence John Stein knows all about selecting favorable mates — he is happily married with chil-

dren. Having a baby is a major investment, so females need to be choosy. And males have to flaunt their stuff to convince females of their worth — heavy antlers on deer, thick manes on lions and brightly-colored feathers on birds show off physical fitness, Stein said. If a male is smart and fast

enough to survive despite showy appendages that take energy to maintain and can draw the at-tention of predators, he must be a genetically fit mate.

But it is 2011, and with hair gel and a dearth of natural predators, humans function outside of these bounds. Fathers do not hunt for food, and mothers do not fight off tigers. The act of survival simply is not that difficult — most every-one lives to reproductive age. So how do humans choose a mate?

The modern equivalent of ant-lers, Stein said, are gold chains

A brainy valentine: the science of love

LOVE AT BROWN — Clockwise from top left: Steven Rasmussen ’74 MD ‘77 P’13 and his wife Francis Row ’74 P’13 on the Main Green; Victor Houser ’81 P’12.5 and his wife Cheryl Miller ’83 P’12.5 celebrate Commencement in 1981; Nick Baer ’12 and Emma Roth ’12; Charlie Baumann ’13 and Julie Gutierrez ’13. all photos courtesy of the couples.

Watson increases required IR courses

The Watson Institute for International Studies announced Friday that requirements for international relations have changed for students who declare for the concentration in the future. Students who have already declared will not be affected by the changes, according to an e-mail from Mark Blyth, director of the International Relations and Development Studies programs and professor of political science.

The total number of required courses has jumped from 11 to 14, not including the requirement that concentrators study three years of a foreign language or demonstrate equivalent proficiency.

The changes also include the elimination of the “Politics, Culture and Identity” track, with the courses encompassed by that track added to the other two tracks, which will now be called “Security and Society” and “Political Economy and Society.”

The consolidation took place because the tracks “lost their focus and intellectual coherence” under the previous system, according to the Committee on International and Development Studies’ report.

Watson hopes to announce changes to the development studies requirements today, Blyth wrote.

see tomorrow’s Herald for full coverage.

— Caitlin trujillo

N E W S I N B R I E F

By BriaN MaStroiaNNistaff writer

A year has passed since the death of Avi Schaefer ’13, but the words he published early in his first year still stand strong. Schaefer’s death has had a more lasting impact on the Brown community than most.

“I came to Brown looking for an environment that embodies the qualities of expression, open-mindedness and understanding,” Schaefer wrote in a Nov. 2, 2009 opinions column for The Herald. The piece was the 21-year-old’s response to what he saw as a lack of dialogue and understanding between both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian debate on campus.

Before Brown, Schaefer served as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces with his twin brother Yoav,

an experience that gave him a unique perspective on the fight for peace in the Middle East. “I went to the army so that my chil-dren will not have to — a dream I fear may not come true,” he wrote. During his time at Brown, Schaefer worked to communicate his dream to others, making friends and, oc-casionally, unlikely allies of those around him.

But he was never able to realize his dream. Early in the morning of Feb. 12, 2010, he was struck and killed by a driver at the intersection of Thayer and Hope streets while walking back to campus with two friends. The days that followed were filled with remembrances as friends, family and members of the Brown community mourned

One year later, voice of Schaefer ’13 strong

continued on page 3

A h e A r t y w e lc o m e

Courtesy of Tene JohnsonMembers of Students for a Democratic Society hung a banner from Wayland Arch Friday to provoke campus dialogue as the Corporation convened.

See full coverage on page 3.

Feature

continued on page 5

continued on page 6

Ben Schreckinger, PresidentSydney Ember, Vice President

Matthew Burrows, TreasurerIsha Gulati, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Fri-day during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Campus news2 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

5:00 P.m.

Israeli Film Festival Screening of

“Syrian Bride” (2004), Salomon 001

5:30 P.m.

Lisa Fentress: “Treading the Grapes

at Villa Magna,” Rhode Island Hall 108

7:00 P.m.

Demystifying Nonprofits,

Petteruti Lounge

7:00 P.m.

Israeli Film Festival Screening of

“The Secrets” (2009), MacMillan 117

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH

DINNER

Vegetable Strudel, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Chocolate Foil Hearts, Flourless

Raspberry Black Satin Cake

Country Style Ham, Vegan Stew, Garlic Bread, Flourless Raspberry

Black Satin Cake

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, Steak and Pepper Fajitas, Valentine Cookies

and Cupcakes

Chicken Cutlet Sandwich, Spinach and Rice Bake, Valentine Cookies

and Cupcakes

TODAY FEbRUARY 14 TOmORROW FEbRUARY 15

C R O S S W O R D

S u D O k u

M E N u

C A L E N DA R

By KatheriNe loNgstaff writer

Though the Department of Fa-cilities Management claims it has received fewer complaints about heating this year, some students — like Colby Jenkins ’12 — are still living in rooms so hot they say they are forced to sleep with their windows open in mid-February.

“The temperature in my room fluctuates,” Jenkins said. And this year’s problems are nothing new.

“I lived in Perkins freshman year, and it was a sauna. I remem-ber one of my friend’s Facebook statuses when they turned on the heat was, ‘ResLife, I know we asked for some heat, but we didn’t ask for Africa,’” Jenkins said. “Then there was a time last year in Pembroke when some of my friends went home because it was unbearably cold in the room before they turned the heat on. I had six blankets on, shivering.”

But Facilities said there were no serious heating issues on cam-pus.

“We’ve got most of the heating issues figured out,” said Carlos Fernandez, assistant vice president of facilities operations and engi-neering. “Now, everything is just a regular part of doing business.”

Facilities officials said when students like Jenkins open their windows, they may be making their buildings even hotter.

“What they don’t realize is that this throws the thermostat out of whack because it tries to

overcompensate for the cold air and then blows even more hot air into the entire building,” said Kai Morrell ’11, a sustainability outreach coordinator at EcoReps, an environmental student group funded by Facilities.

“A lot of students hear stories from their friends, ‘Oh, I called Facilities, but they didn’t do any-thing,’ stuff like that — but that’s not true.” Morrell said Facilities will always fix heating issues in rooms where the temperature is not between 68 and 72 degrees.

“Above all, I would encourage people to try to keep their win-dows closed and try to live with the temperature as best as pos-sible,” Morrell said.

Jenkins said he decided to just open his window rather than mak-ing a call because Facilities had not helped him in the past. He said last year, Facilities told him to endure the cold for a week, even though the room temperature was below 68 degrees.

He is not the only one who said calling Facilities doesn’t always mean ending the problem.

“The heater just stopped work-ing, and we can feel the breeze coming through the windows,” said Ileana Laguna ’14. “We called Facilities about it last semester and they came and fixed it, but the problem’s come back. They told us that since a wall of our room is facing outside, it’s just going to be a problem. I don’t know if we’re going to call them again.”

Eric Marceau ’12 has had

mixed experiences with Facilities. “When I was a freshman, my room was ice cold. I called Facilities, and they were just like, ‘Eh, the build-ing’s old. Nothing we can do about it,’” he said. “Then again, when I was a sophomore, my heater didn’t work, and they came and fixed it right away.”

Fernandez said some perceived temperature problems arise from the diverse preferences of the stu-dent body.

“We have students from all over the place, and what will be com-fortable for some will be unbear-able for others,” he said.

But he acknowledged that in-vestments must be made to im-prove temperature control in the 56 residence halls on campus.

“It’s an ongoing issue at Brown to upgrade buildings,” he said, pointing to the renovation of 315 Thayer St. from a space rented by the University into an environ-mentally friendly dormitory with temperature control in every suite.

Facilities is also working on adding student environmental consultants in Wriston and Kee-ney quadrangles to identify areas of wasteful energy use by students.

Fernandez said Facilities even-tually wants to use this informa-tion to cut energy waste across campus.

“We would like to create cam-pus-wide competitions between dormitories,” in which students would compete to save energy, Fernandez said. “This requires student education.”

Dorm heating complaints continue

Nick Sinott-Armstrong / Herald Despite reassurances from Facilities Management, students feel they must control dorm temperature themselves.

Letters, please!

letters

@

browndailyherald

.com

Corporation 3the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

banner criticizing Corporation removed by students

A banner reading “Corporate Criminals Run Brown” appeared on Wayland Arch facing Wriston Quadrangle Friday evening, a day before this weekend’s meeting of the Corporation. Less than 24 hours later, the banner had been taken down.

The banner included a small “TM” for “trademark” beside the word “Brown.”

Julian Park ’12 — a Herald opinions columnist — Ben Sadkowski ’14 and Alex Dean ’14, all members of Students for a Democratic Society, hung the banner from the windows of a dormitory room to provoke campus dialogue, they said.

Dean said she and her companions disapprove of the university’s investment policies and strategies. “There is a known corporate criminal” on the Corporation, she added, referring to fellow Steven Rattner ’74 P’10 P’13. Rattner has settled allegations with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Attorney General’s Office that he performed illegal favors to garner business for the private investment firm Quadrangle Group by paying multi-million dollar fines and accepting temporary bans from the securities industry. He has not been convicted of a crime and has admitted no wrongdoing.

Some Wayland residents were displeased with the banner and removed it on Saturday afternoon, Park said.

Students for a Democratic Society put up a similar banner the weekend before the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center opened at the beginning of this academic year. The group hung a banner from Faunce House exhorting the university to “renovate your investments.” It was taken down within “a couple hours,” Dean said.

Park said he has seen other banners hang from Wayland Arch for weeks before being taken down.

“We don’t want to vilify the students who took it down,” Dean said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to address the student body as a whole because there are many communication methods … but, like, almost everyone walks through Wayland Arch, and we figured that was a pretty effective way to get people talking about the issue.”

— Jake Comer

By Shefali luthraseNior staff writer

The Corporation asked administra-tors this weekend to submit both a report on hiring and tenure practices at peer institutions and a proposal for how to determine and maintain “appropriate” faculty-tenure ratios. Both documents will be presented in October.

The hiring and tenure report will include suggestions for implement-ing procedures already in effect at other universities. But further details as to what the report and proposal will entail have not yet been deter-mined, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said.

Kertzer also said it will be difficult to work on the Corporation’s requests until the faculty finishes addressing the tenure procedure revisions cur-rently drafted by the Faculty Execu-tive Committee.

The faculty is scheduled to fin-ish voting on these revisions by the April faculty meeting, according to Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education and chair of the FEC.

Garcia Coll said she found the Corporation’s request “unclear” be-cause it did not mention what role, if any, faculty would play in crafting the documents.

“We have to be part of the deci-sion-making,” Garcia Coll said, “and we have to be kept informed by the work that’s going on by their com-mittees.” She said the absence of the word “faculty” from President Ruth Simmons’ Saturday e-mail announc-ing the request was a bad indicator, adding that she hoped it did not

imply faculty would not play a role in drafting the report and proposal.

Garcia Coll added that she was “disappointed” that the Corporation did not acknowledge the changes approved in the December faculty meeting. But she said that upcoming steps are still up in the air.

“What’s it going to bring? We don’t know,” she said of the Corpo-ration’s request. “The next six months — the next three months — are cru-cial.”

Kertzer said the administration would involve faculty in crafting the report and proposal, though he did not know how or in what role.

“I’m sure we will, for parts of this, discuss this with the FEC and poten-tially relevant faculty committees and faculty as a whole,” Kertzer said. “It just happens we don’t have any clear plan in mind for how this will work.”

Kertzer noted that the report and proposal will be completed by his successor because he is stepping down from his position in June.

Garcia Coll said she predicted a mixed reaction from faculty. She said she has already received e-mails from faculty members with questions about the decision.

Kertzer expressed hope that the faculty would be pleased by the Corporation’s interest in tenure procedures, adding that he thinks the Corporation has developed an understanding of the “faculty per-spective” on tenure.

“The Corporation made it very clear they don’t want to interfere with faculty governance or faculty prerogative,” Kertzer said.

James Baird, professor of chem-

istry, also said he did not think the Corporation’s decision would detract from the faculty’s role in determining tenure policies.

But Baird added in an e-mail to The Herald that the Corporation would have to be careful with issues such as the proposed tenure-faculty ratio.

“It is not such a bad idea to have tenure ratio goals, but the issues are more complex than goals,” Baird wrote. “Blindly sticking to goals — and I am not sure how one comes up with those — would be a mis-take. Having a reasonable age mix of young scholars and seasoned scholars seems good to me. It is how you get there that matters.”

But Kertzer said the tenure rate may “take care of itself ” based on the revisions passed by the faculty or outlined in the upcoming proposal. The revisions could increase the stan-dards for tenure so that the tenure rate declines enough to “mitigate the problem,” he said.

“The Corporation members have shown extreme interest in this issue,” Kertzer said. “There’s no more impor-tant issue than ensuring that we have the highest quality faculty possible.”

Kertzer said the Corporation’s interest in tenure procedures and ratios traces back to 2009, when the New England Association of School and Colleges accreditation commit-tee expressed concern regarding the University’s high tenure rate. The is-sue was originally addressed by the Provost’s ad hoc committee to re-view tenure and faculty development policies before being transferred by faculty to the FEC.

Corp. requests tenure updates

Initial step taken in Hunter renovations

The Corporation’s Committee on Budget and Finance approved the search for an architect to renovate Hunter Laboratory at its meeting this weekend. The Committee on Facilities and Design, which is in charge of the search, hopes to have a recommendation for the Corporation in time for its May meeting, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management.

The renovation will create more much-needed lab space for research, Associate Provost Rod Beresford said.

“At the moment, there’s no lab space that’s unallocated,” he said. The new space would allow for the growth of existing research programs, recruitment of new faculty and the expansion of the new School of Engineering, he added.

There have been initial brainstorming sessions about what the renovations will entail, Provost David kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said. Though plans are still taking shape, the university hopes to renovate the first floor to increase classroom space while converting the top floors into laboratories for both the School of Engineering and the Center for Environmental Studies, kertzer said.

“Hunter is not a panacea, but we think it can be renovated in such a way that it provides about 30,000 net square feet of pretty flexible research space,” Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Because Hunter sits at the heart of campus and because the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences plans to vacate the building when renovations to the Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory conclude this fall, kertzer said he hopes the renovations are completed soon so the building does not sit idle.

While the Corporation has approved the search, a separate vote is needed to approve the expenditures and renovation itself.

— Joseph rosales

N E W S I N B R I E F

continue attracting revenue sources to the University, the Corporation created a Committee on Develop-ment, which will work to expand fundraising and development plans in the future, Kertzer said.

The University will also identify potential new investment resourc-es, representing the third phase in a plan to cut budget deficits and spur growth following the 2008 economic collapse, according to an e-mail sent to the University community Feb. 12 by President Ruth Simmons. The first two phases included smaller operating budgets for the previous two fiscal years and faculty restructuring result-ing in 60 staff layoffs and 140 early retirements last year.

As part of this third phase, the Corporation will look into devel-oping a professional master’s pro-gram to raise revenue, Kertzer said. Students entering graduate school from the workforce can receive monetary aid from their employ-ers, thus requiring less financial aid and generating revenue, he said.

Corporation members also called for the administration to develop recommendations for the May meeting pertaining to the future of varsity athletics in the context of budgetary concerns. The University currently has the

lowest athletics budget in the Ivy league, though it still supports a high number of teams, Kertzer said. Recommendations will also examine the number of slots set aside for varsity athletes during the admissions process. Simmons will be forming a committee to de-velop recommendations this week, Kertzer said.

The Corporation approved a recommendation from the Advi-sory Committee on Corporate Re-sponsibility in Investment Policies to stop investing in hotels run by HEI Hotels & Resorts until they abide by higher standards for work-ers. “It’s definitely a victory,” said Lenora Knowles ’11, a member of the Student Labor Alliance. “We’re the first school to do this, so it’s really a big deal.”

The Corporation broke Saturday at noon for a memorial service to celebrate the life of Joseph Fer-nandez ’85, the former president of the Brown Alumni Association and Corporation trustee, who died suddenly Dec. 18.

“As a family circle, we gather to take hands and to try to take heart,” said University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson at the service.

The former city solicitor for Providence, Fernandez also served on the Multicultural Alumni Com-mittee, as a trustee of Trinity Rep-ertory Company and as a direc-

tor of the Community College of Rhode Island Foundation.

“One could easily tell Joe was not a prepackaged version of a public servant,” Simmons said at the ceremony. “He derived a great deal of satisfaction in the totality of his Brown experience.”

The Corporation approved the appointment of the new associa-tion president George Billings ’72 as a trustee this weekend. Billings said he plans to continue the work Fernandez started in expanding the connection between students and the University’s 88,000 alumni.

“It’s a little bit like losing a brother,” Billings said.

The body also accepted $14.8 million in gifts and approved the establishment of new endowed pro-fessorships, including two named after Jonathan Nelson ’77 P’07 P’09, the namesake for the Nelson Fit-ness Center slated to open in 2012. The Committee on Budget and Finance approved the beginning stages of the Hunter Laboratory renovations. Hunter Laboratory will be empty once renovations to the Metcalf Chemistry and Re-search Laboratory conclude. “Over the next year, there are going to be very important buildings opening,” Kertzer said.

— with additional reporting by Alex Bell

Budget, tuition pass at meetingcontinued from page 1

N E W S I N B R I E F

Campus news4 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

By caroliNe flaNagaNCoNtributiNg writer

From Rhode Island to Hawaii, high school students are learning environmental leadership through programs offered by the Brown Leadership Institute, a pre-college program that teaches high school students interested in global is-sues to take action in their own communities.

In 2004, the Leadership Insti-tute formed the Brown Environ-mental Leadership Lab, and has since partnered with a Hawaiian educational center, branching into the Pacific. Students enrolled in the Brown Environmental Leader-ship Laboratory program in Rhode Island spend two weeks living at the Haffenreffer Estate in Bristol, on the shores of the Narragansett Bay. A faculty comprised of gradu-ate students and professors teach the students about sustainable de-velopment through experiential learning, said Robin Rose, asso-ciate dean for continuing educa-tion and director of leadership programs.

The Leadership Institute also offers a similar program at the Ko-hala Center in Hawaii in April. Researchers and students use the center to focus on “energy self-reliance, food self-reliance and ecosystem health,” said Samantha Birch, a Kohala Center field educa-tor and program leader. Students enrolled in the Hawaii program learn about geology, marine sci-ence and Hawaiian culture.

“Environmental leadership is woven into the program,” Birch said. “Students learn what it means to be an environmental leader dur-ing the program. They learn about sustainability and group dynam-ics.”

The partnership with the Ko-hala Center came about when Matt Hamabata, the executive director of the center, expressed interest in developing a relationship with Brown. “It became very clear, very quickly that the values that drive the Kohala Center are the same values that drive the Leadership Institute,” Rose said.

At the Leadership Institute,

each student is required to create an action plan that they can imple-ment in their own community at the end of the course. Past action plans have ranged from students introducing recycling and com-posting programs in their schools to projects on electronic waste and alternative energy sources. Eliza-beth Vasily ’13, who participated in the Leadership Institute dur-ing high school, created an envi-ronmental club at her school and held a fundraiser during which the club sold reusable water bottles and used profits to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs, which they distributed throughout the school.

The Kohala Center currently offers two full scholarships for students from Hawaii to attend the program, though one of these scholarships may be discontinued, Birch said. The center collects the funds, is in charge of the on-island advertising and works with the University to select the students.

“The scholarship students bring a lot to the program,” Birch said. “They share their knowledge with the other students and get to meet students from all over the country.”

The Leadership Institute’s mis-sion is to “help students develop and apply knowledge, skills and attitudes associated with socially responsible leadership,” said Lexi Weintraub, assistant director of leadership programs.

The programs help keep people from the University employed over the summer and help students see what it is like to live on campus, making them more likely to ma-triculate if accepted, Weintraub said.

“(The program) solidified my interest in Brown,” said Olga Ro-cha ’13, a program participant. She later ended up applying early decision.

“Being thrown into an environ-ment where I was completely out of my element was incredibly help-ful,” she said. “It forces you to think insightfully about environmental issues.”

Vasily said “it was one of the best experiences I’ve had thus far,” adding “it transformed my person-al passion for nature into action.”

In R.I. and Hawaii, institute trains leaders

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By Jeff liptoNsports ColumNist

There he was. Boy, it looked like him. But the beard made me unsure. It had to be him. It actually made sense. Here. Now.

His figure stood tall but perhaps a little shorter than I had envisioned. His body appeared a bit thicker than the lanky one I had imagined. Still, there was an unmistakable resem-blance. But that red beard tripped me up. I was used to seeing the goatee but never that beard.

On his head sat a black hat with a black San Diego Chargers lightning bolt symbol visible because of its tex-tured protrusion. The man looked like an athlete, outfitted in a gray Nike Pro short-sleeved T-shirt with a black swoosh. His black Nike mesh shorts hung at knee-level. There was an-other logo on the shorts, but I could not quite make it out.

I thought I’d take a closer, yet cir-cumspect, look.

The logo on his shorts was that of the San Diego State University Aztecs. Now I was sure.

Stephen Strasburg — the future pitching star of the Washington Na-tionals.

It did make sense. We were at physical therapy, after all. I was do-ing my rehabilitation, he was doing his. I had had hip surgery, he had had elbow surgery.

I did not want to bother him in such an environment but felt com-pelled to ask him how his rehab was going — he said it was going well. After a bit of commiserating about our various injuries, I asked him for his autograph.

He said, “Sure.” Our interaction was cordial. Stras-

burg seemed low-key with a great deal of humility for a 22-year-old with a $15.1 million contract, the highest ever paid to a Major League Baseball draft pick.

After my encounter, I continued to mull over my reaction to Stras-

burg. My eyes had lit up. A smile had engulfed my face. But it was not my happiness that left a lasting impres-sion. It was Strasburg’s demeanor — humble, unassuming, down-to-earth.

In today’s world, in which athletes are often prima donnas and crimi-nals, Strasburg sticks out as much as his sore elbow.

The spotlight has shone brightly on his pitching skills.

The magnifying glass has hovered over his mechanics.

The scalpel has been brought to his arm.

Now, it’s time to bring his humility to the forefront.

Another encounter I had with a famous athlete went a little differ-

ently. A few years back, at the Buick Invitational at the famed Torrey Pines Golf Course, I had what I thought was the privilege of meeting then-San Diego Chargers running back LaDai-nian Tomlinson. I saw him staked out in the rough, watching the action, and really wanted his autograph.

My problem: I had no paper, and I had no pen.

Not to be deterred, I figured I could just have him sign my Buick Invitational ticket. Then, I tracked down a tour official in a golf cart and politely asked to borrow a Sharpie.

She asked me, “What for?” I explained that I had seen Tom-

linson and really wanted his auto-graph.

She responded, “You are not al-lowed to ask golfers for their auto-graphs.”

Before I could say anything — and hopefully before my face could contort itself into a look of ARE YOU SERIOUS? a la Dick Vitale — a man she was with explained that L.T. was in fact not a golfer. The kind lady granted me permission to borrow the pen, and I was on my way.

I approached L.T. at what I thought was just the right moment.

I told him I was a big fan and talked to him enough to make my acquain-tance felt but not too long to intrude. Feeling kind of bad, I said I did not want to bother him, but it would mean a great deal to me if I could get his autograph.

His reply was something like, “No, but I’ll shake your hand.”

Then, in an effort to extenuate his terse response, he add that he did not want to attract attention to himself and that he was just there to watch Tiger Woods play golf. So I shook his hand. As I tried to look him in the eyes and see what defenders cannot behind his tinted visor, the rays of light shimmering off his designer sunglasses blinded me. I felt spited, but understood he did not want to draw attention to himself. Plus, the rebuff I received from L.T. was not all that bad or even uncommon. But it got worse.

A few months after my encounter with him, a television commercial in San Diego for Oggi’s Pizza, a local restaurant chain, featured L.T. In the advertisement, a kid approaches him and asks for an autograph. Beaming with a smile, L.T. takes the football the kid is holding and signs it.

Now that’s what I call false ad-vertising.

On the field, L.T. stands out for lowering his shoulder. Off the field, he stands out for giving the cold shoulder.

On the field, Strasburg stands out for what he calls his “winning per-sonality.” Off the field, he stands out for being down-to-earth.

What’s important is not L.T.’s in-congruous actions — these are typi-cal among the spoon-fed athletes of our generation.

What’s important is that Stras-burg’s actions buck this trend. Hope-fully, his behavior reflects his true humility — not just the fact that he is still young and unaccustomed to all of the attention and autograph requests.

I want to believe this is the case because he truly seems genuine, even amidst the firestorm of hype that has surrounded him.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And where there’s Strasburg, there’s hope. Hope for the Nationals to become competitive and, more im-portantly, hope for people to have a positive role model in the world of sports.

A tale of two athletes: role models in sports

sports column

Valentine’s Day 5the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

By Sofia caStello y ticKellstaff writer

Students flocked to not one, but two, on-campus speed dating sessions this past week, braving the snow with varying levels of sincerity as the infamously stressful Hallmark holiday drew closer.

Barbour lounge — thursday nightPress status was the only thing

that got me past the long line crowding the stairway leading into the pink-tinted room strung with streamers.

The throng was accumulating in anticipation of East Campus Speed Dating, an event organized by East Campus Community Assistants — who are based in Barbour, Per-kins, Graduate Center, King House, Vartan Gregorian Quad and Young Orchard residence halls — in con-junction with the Office of Residen-tial Life. Brynn Smith ’11, a CA who helped organize the event, received a report that 50 people had been turned away.

Tables were set up in a U-shape around the room, with soft drinks and a DJ booth spouting out the likes of “Stacy’s Mom.” Metallic heart confetti lay sprinkled on the tables between expectant speed daters.

Participants received numbered labels to stick on their shirts, along with a pen and paper so they could record the numbers of prospects in columns labeled “friend” and “love interest.”

After one minute to exchange a few words, participants had the option of writing down the other person’s number if they were inter-ested. If two participants’ interests coincided in either column, they were considered a match, and each was contacted by event organizers via e-mail.

Sixty-six people attended East Campus Speed Dating, and 66 matches were made — 22 pertaining to love and 44 to friendship — re-sulting in an average of two matches per person. In 10 cases, one person put down love and the other friend-ship, CA Natalie Serrino ’12 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The rotation set-up meant that participants would sometimes end up facing people of the same sex.

“It was a little tedious to talk to a lot of guys,” said Martin Aspholm ’14. “I was there to meet people, have fun. No one was taking it too seri-ously.”

For the most part, a date would

lean in, hand outstretched, and ask one of the following four, very pre-dictable, questions:

What’s your name? What year? What are you majoring in? Where are you from?

More rarely asked were, “Where do you live on campus?” and “What classes are you taking?”

The routine was so ingrained that, “What do you do in your free time?” left me slightly speechless.

And although a matter-of-fact, “What are your hopes and dreams?” surprised me, “What’s the most awk-ward question you’ve been asked so far?” took the cake.

The allotted time generally end-ed in one of two ways — awkward glances to the left to check out the next suitor, or success in finding something in common and being forced to move along anyway.

After such a bombardment of one-minute rotations, I became a lit-tle dazed. Each new potential suitor seemed to come at me in a fish-eye lens, and I came to assign each date one defining characteristic.

While it can be difficult to have a meaningful conversation in such a short time period, several speed dat-ers showed there are ways to make themselves memorable.

A “let’s curdle” shirt, sporting a milk carton and a lemon mid-cud-dle. A #1001 name tag. Hair gelled into three distinct prongs.

And the unforgettable #46 — who casually tapped her piece of paper when I asked what she was doing here — and showed how she had scratched out “love interest” and written in its place “sexual interest.”

At the end of the event, roses were raffled out, as was a dinner for two on Thayer Street.

petteruti lounge — Saturday nightThe second speed dating event,

organized by the Class of 2014 Class Board, took a less romantic tack.

“With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we wanted to get people to hang out,” said An-drew Silverman ’14, vice president of the Class Coordinating Board and an organizer of the event, adding that his goal was to create a “friend-finding atmosphere.”

The informal vibe was created by bright lighting — which petered out every few minutes to indicate a rota-tion — and a random assortment of tables around which people could gather as they chose.

But there was no impartial sys-tem in place for contacting people.

Participants had to ask for phone numbers or e-mail addresses if they wanted to see the person across the table again.

“That was a little awkward,” said one beaming junior. “I’ve got a date for Tuesday, though!”

“It’s a cluster(expletive),” Tom Miotke ’14 quipped.

Rotations lasted four minutes, and participants were free to choose who they wanted to sit across from for each rotation. Girls were on one side of the circle, boys on the other, and while Silverman apologized for the “hetero-normative” setup, boys were generally the ones to walk around and choose a date.

One junior joked, “I have a game plan — go in for the kiss immedi-ately.”

“It feels like waiting to be asked to dance at a sixth-grade party,” an-other participant remarked.

Upon learning that I was a ju-nior, one gangly first-year remarked, “older woman” with an appraising look.

Participants were provided with helpful questions in case the conver-sation went stale.

“I didn’t want to just ask, ‘What’s your favorite animal?’” Silverman said, having watched a YouTube video on how to set up speed dating. “I sat around and just thought about really funny icebreaker questions.”

Silverman came up with cre-ative prompts, among them, “What did you wear, or not wear, to(SexPowerGod)?” and “Edward or Jacob?” alluding to “Twilight.”

Not everyone took the events completely seriously. One senior concentrating in literary arts admit-ted to having a pool with his friends to see who could get the most call-backs. Another person used an alias, meaning no one could actually con-tact him.

Jeb Koogler ’11 and Victoria Chen ’11, CAs who organized the East Campus event, both comment-ed on how difficult it can be to get people to turn out to for organized events.

“We didn’t expect such a great turnout — this is fantastic,” Chen said, adding with a shake of her head, “This is crazy. We didn’t ex-pect this.”

Koogler gave speed daters props for participating.

“Valentine’s Day can be rough for, I would say, 90 percent of peo-ple. This group was not resigned to having a difficult Valentine’s Day — you’ve got to respect their courage.”

Droves turn out for speed dating

Sofia Castello Y Tickell / HeraldSpeed dating participants received a number, pen and paper which were used to record love and friendship prospects.

and Porsches. The courtship process — going on dates and exchanging lavish gifts — is just a man’s way of saying, “I can pro-vide for you and our children.”

And after the male sows his seeds, he sticks around. Monog-amy gives children a survival advantage, Stein said, and since the child shares 50 percent of the father’s DNA, “it is a worthwhile investment of your time to help your child survive.”

Love — that attachment be-tween father and mother — is biologically advantageous.

your love is my drug Being in love feels great. Love

is almost like a drug.This actually makes a lot of

sense. Peer into the brain of some-one who has recently fallen in love, and you will find activity in the same areas associated with addictive behavior and reward-seeking, said Sean Maldonado ’11, a neuroscience concentrator who focuses on love and the brain.

When the reward system is activated, a person is inclined to perform that behavior again. This reinforcement is caused by the hormone oxytocin, also called the “cuddle hormone” because of its association with attachment. Oxytocin is necessary for creating a bond between a mother and her infant and is also known to pro-mote monogamy. This hormone is released after orgasms, creating a feeling of attachment between sexual partners.

The ventral tegmental area — that love and drug-stimulated region — is also linked to higher levels of dopamine. Brain-im-aging studies show that viewing pictures of loved ones, compared to viewing pictures of neutral friends, causes a peak in activa-tion in that region.

But while some areas of the brain have increased activity dur-ing love, others receive less blood flow. One such area is the amyg-dala, part of the limbic system, which is associated with emo-tion, especially fear. The longer a couple is together, Maldonado explained, the more comfortable they are in the relationship.

Brains in love have increased levels of dopamine and norepi-nephrine, as well as decreased levels of serotonin. Such chemical conditions are curiously similar to the effects of Obsessive Com-pulsive Disorder and depression on the brain. “For all intents and purposes, the lovesick person is mentally ill,” Maldonado said.

love is in the airWalking across the Main

Green, an array of potential mates is within view. How to tell which one is the one?

Try sniffing them. In a 1995 study published in the proceed-ings of the Royal Society of Lon-don, women smelled the T-shirts of men, ranking each shirt in or-

der of preference. Women chose T-shirts of men whose major histocompatibility complexes — which present foreign invaders to trigger an immune response — were most different from their own. Offspring of two people with dissimilar complex types will have stronger immune systems that are able to detect a more diverse array of bacterial and viral invaders.

Birth control has been shown to throw off a woman’s sense of smell. A relationship that begins happily while a woman is tak-ing the pill could turn sour if she chooses to stop.

Men can also pick up on scents. Studies show that men find women who are ovulating more attractive than women who are menstruating.

college loveLooking for love in the party

scene is risky as well. Drugs and alcohol can interfere with brain processes, leading to poor judg-ment. The euphoric effect of drugs and alcohol can be con-fused for feelings of affection for a partner, Stein explained.

And yet, despite the challenges of college life, many students have found love at Brown. Over one-third of students reported being in an exclusive relationship in The Herald’s Spring 2010 poll. There have been 410 marriages between alums who graduated in the 1980s and 410 between alums who grad-uated in the 1990s, according to the Brown Alumni Association. There have already been 100 mar-riages between graduates of the most recent decade.

Many of these couples knew each other while at Brown, but some met at alumni events, said Todd Andrews ’83, vice president for alumni relations.

“We see this as a strong indica-tion that Brown is a very romantic place,” Andrews said.

that magic feeling Science can provide explana-

tions for love letters and heart-ache, but it cannot explain the indescribable, magical feeling of finding the one.

“Humans regularly do things that don’t make sense within the realm of biology,” Stein said. Many people choose to be celi-bate, deliberately not perpetuat-ing their genes. Just because two people are a good genetic match does not necessarily mean that they will have a lasting, meaning-ful relationship.

Philosophical love and scien-tific love need not be mutually exclusive, Maldonado said. It is difficult to say to someone, you are “just feeling a series of chemi-cals coursing through you,” he said. But “it’s important to realize that whatever is going on in your brain is what you’re going to be feeling, and how you’re feeling is real.”

“I think love is the most im-portant thing in the world,” he said.

Love seen through the lens of a microscope

continued from page 1

Campus news6 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

his loss.Schaefer’s legacy continued

to build over the year. His fam-ily started The Avi Schaefer Fund, dedicated to continuing some of the work he began while at Brown, and a tree was planted in his honor in the Brown-RISD Hillel court-yard last November.

Now, a full year after his death, Schaefer’s family, friends and those whose lives he touched continue to honor his memory and fight for his ideals.

‘a very special memory’Marika Baltscheffsky ’13 formed

a close connection with Schaefer in the short time they were both students here. Baltscheffsky was with Schaefer at the time of the accident and was herself injured by the collision. Though she met Schaefer earlier in the year, she be-gan to spend more time with him about three weeks before his death. She said she fondly remembers a fundraiser he threw for Haiti relief. Walking back to campus with him from that event was “a very special memory,” she said.

“He managed to make everyone he was with feel special,” Baltscheff-sky said. “He was very inspiring.”

Baltscheffsky, who put flowers on the site of the accident, said that the pain of loss has “its ups and downs.”

“When I think of him, I am happy to have known him. It’s hard, but it’s turning into good thoughts that his memory holds,” she said.

She said Schaefer’s way with people and his easy-going nature made him a unique presence on campus.

“He never held judgments,” she said. “He had this thing about him where someone asks you a question and it feels like they know every-thing about you — he really got to know people.”

“He left so much love in his group of friends,” she said.

unending friendshipGabi Lewis ’13 and Joshua

Moses ’13 both met Schaefer at the beginning of their first years. Schaefer was the first person that Lewis met, and in turn, Lewis was the first person Moses met.

Lewis said he remembers Schae-fer sticking his head through the door of his first-year dormitory room when he was moving in, and the two quickly bonded over many things including their shared con-nection to Israel. Schaefer lived in Israel while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, and Lewis was born there.

For Moses, it was Schaefer’s maturity that stood out. Schae-fer’s time in the IDF and living abroad had given him a wisdom that his friends could rely on. “If there was a problem, he would help you through it,” he said.

“Most people get to college hav-ing no idea what to do, and since he had done so much, he really knew his path,” Moses said. “He knew how to get from point A to point B.”

Both Lewis and Moses current-ly live in a Graduate Center suite

with some of Schaefer’s other close friends. One of those friends, Greg Sewitz ’13, said he was surprised by Schaefer’s ability to bring people together even after his death. “I now have close friends that I had not met before this happened,” he said. “Also, these incredible connections that have come out of this tragedy are really hard to reconcile — a lot of positive things have stemmed from this horrible, tragic event.”

On Saturday, the roommates opened up their suite to an extend-ed group of friends. The gather-ing was meant not just to honor Schaefer but also to have a space for everyone to come together and have a moment of reflection that “didn’t feel forced,” Sewitz said.

He said it is surprising to realize that he had only known Schaefer for a matter of months. “I was talk-ing to one of my roommates the

other day, and he said he’s known Avi longer dead than alive. It shook him a little bit. We all have spent so much time thinking about and re-flecting on Avi’s death,” Sewitz said.

“Most of us really only knew him about six months or so,” he said.

the avi Schaefer fundPerhaps the most direct way

Schaefer’s memory is being kept alive is through the Avi Schaefer Fund. Started by his family, the fund is a way to continue the work that Schaefer began to formulate while in his first year.

“The fund pretty much started almost immediately after we recov-ered from the terrible news, and Yoav basically said that we have to do something in Avi’s name,” said Avi’s mother, Laurie Gross-Schaefer. She said that Yoav was adamant about jump-starting the fund right away because “there was a larger community of people who wanted to make donations in Avi’s name,” she said.

After observing a month of mourning for their son, Schaefer’s mother and his family began to create a mission statement for the fund, making its presence known to the Jewish community at large. She said that a lot of interest came from a wide circle of friends who had known Avi and Yoav through-out their lives.

“We tried to figure out two things with the fund,” said Avi’s father, Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schae-fer. “We wanted to pinpoint what were some things that Avi was cur-rently working on that we wanted to continue, and what were some

things Avi wasn’t quite aware of — what did Avi do that we wanted to model?”

The fund’s main objectives fall into three categories. One is de-veloping an Avi Schaefer Fellow-ship for former Israeli soldiers who hope to attend North American colleges and universities. The goal of the fellowship is to recognize those who are dedicated to pro-moting peace, the Gross-Schaefers said. The first Avi Fellows will be on campuses in the fall of 2012.

The fund also hopes to spon-sor what its website calls “confer-ences and retreats that will bring together Israeli and Palestinian students with diverse and con-flicting views.” The third aim of the fund is to encourage models for courses and other college and university programs that will be based on sharing the narratives of both the Israeli and Palestinian

sides of the debate.For Gross-Schaefer, all of these

aims line up directly with his son’s philosophy. “Avi was unique be-cause he was able to come to a very special university and say on the issue of Israel-Palestine, ‘I’m not here to try to convince you, and I want you to hear my story, and I want to hear your story,’” he said.

For Yoav, the missions support-ed by the fund have a very special meaning. “Avi and I did everything together. His causes were mine, and mine his … and now I’m continu-ing them all for both of us, while Avi’s memory and love support me, challenge me and accompany me,” he wrote in an e-mail from Jerusalem.

an influence on manyWhile Schaefer’s family spear-

heads the fund, others at Brown are trying to keep his dream of an open dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians alive.

For David Jacobson, professor of Judaic studies, Schaefer was a catalyst for two projects — one was a class examining Israeli and Pal-estinian narratives, and another a conference aimed at bringing both sides of the conflict together.

Jacobson first became aware of Schaefer by reading his column in The Herald. After meeting together, Schaefer and Jacobson wanted to work with Palestinian student Sami Jarbawi ’12 on an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award.

“A lot of students don’t realize this, but sometimes an under-graduate can spark something in a professor’s mind,” Jacobson said.

Originally, Jacobson hoped to

spend the summer working with both Jarbawi and Schaefer. He said that both he and Jarbawi remain committed to realizing these goals.

This semester, JUDS 0980W: “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Contested Narratives” is being of-fered for the first time. Jacobson spent six weeks with Jarbawi de-veloping the course. Only eight students are currently enrolled. Despite the small size of the class, its participants “come from a wide range of perspectives,” Jacobson said.

The other project that he, Jar-bawi and Schaefer conceived to-gether is a conference called “Is-raelis and Palestinians: Working Together for a Better Future.” To be held at Brown March 13-14, the conference will bring in speakers who work on projects that aim to foster understanding between Is-raelis and Palestinians. The con-

ference will also feature a panel discussion on relations between both groups and a performance of “Neighbors” by the Galilee Multi-cultural Theater.

Less directly influenced by Schaefer is the student-run “Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week” that will take place this spring. Ethan Ham-merman ’13, one of the organizers of the week-long series of speakers and discussions said though Schae-fer did not directly play a role in the creation of the event, he most likely would have participated.

The week is meant to “let people say what they want to say so that we can all get the entire perspective. You usually only get one side of the story, and this way, both sides are unified in a fashion — people want peace,” Hammerman said.

“We want to push the idea of passionate centrism,” Hammer-man said. “We are working through Hillel and encouraging new discus-sion. Definitely Avi’s memory is in our minds,” he added.

an extended familyFor Leor Shtull-Leber ’12, a

former president of Brown/RISD Hillel’s student executive board and Herald design editor, studying abroad in Israel during the one-year anniversary of Schaefer’s death is a powerful experience.

Shtull-Leber attended a me-morial partly organized by Yoav. “While in Israel, we are surrounded by his friends who have known him for years, and really life-changing years too,” Shtull-Leber wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“But it was really nice to see the friends and connections and

tremendous impact he made on people all over the world,” she wrote.

For University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, the connections that Schaefer forged helped form a kind of extended family of friends and acquaintances, particularly on campus.

“In my mind that is a confirma-tion that when any of you join the Brown family, you bring all of your family with you. It’s been wonder-ful, if painful, to come to know each other in this way,” she said.

Rabbi Mordechai Rackover, as-sociate University chaplain for the Jewish community, has personally seen the continued impact of the 21-year-old student’s death. He said students still come to his office to talk about Schaefer. “In my rela-tionships to a large community of people here, there’s a tremendous impact that this kind of tragedy has,” Rackover said.

‘friendship has no limits’For Yoav, while observing the

various memorials has been “tre-mendous,” he wrote that the image of his brother as “larger than life” has “been hard because that’s not my Avi.”

Similarly, Baltscheffsky said that Schaefer has “become some sort of saint here. People talk like he’s not a real person.”

While a larger-than-life image of a young leader in the call for Israeli-Palestinian peace has built up around Schaefer over the past year, it is the image of a son content with his life in college that remains in the minds of his parents.

“I was there for the weekend before he died,” his father said. “As you are walking down Thayer Street, people would come out of the cafe to greet him, thank him for the Haiti fundraiser, and he wasn’t taking credit for it as much as he was thanking them for being involved.”

“He really appreciated people and didn’t need to be the center,” he added.

The last time Avi’s mother saw her son was also shortly before he died in February. She had to rush off to a Monday meeting in Boston, and her son suggested they meet for coffee, even though she had a time frame of 20 minutes before she caught her train and he headed off to class.

“He insisted that even if only for 20 minutes, we had to see each other. We were in Blue State Cof-fee, and he was so happy,” she said.

A year later, Schaefer’s legacy has impacted friends from unlikely places. Part of what inspired Jacob-son to work with both Schaefer and Jarbawi was the close friendship that developed between the two men, both from traditionally op-posing points of view.

Currently studying abroad in London, Jarbawi was not on cam-pus for what has been a weekend of reflection for many of Schaefer’s friends.

“Avi taught me that friendship has no limits,” Jarbawi wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It tran-scends all boundaries, including cultural and political ones.”

“Avi was unique because he was able to come to a very special university and say on the issue of Israel-Palestine,

‘I’m not here to try to convince you, and I want you to hear my story,

and I want to hear your story.’”

Schaefer ’13 remembered: A year later, legacy remainscontinued from page 1

Sports weekend 7the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

By SuDarShaN SriraMaNsports staff writer

The women’s ice hockey team lost its 11th and 12th consecutive games this weekend. The Bears took two heavy punches on the road, falling 8-0 to conference leader No. 2 Cornell before drop-ping a 4-1 decision to Colgate.

cornell 8, Brown 0Friday’s game was a classic

mismatch, as Brown (2-21-3, 1-15-3 ECAC), winless in its last 20 attempts, went up against a dominant Cornell squad (25-1-1, 19-0-1), unbeaten in its last 22 games. It did not take long for the Big Red to show why they are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the conference.

Just 40 seconds after the puck dropped, Cornell forward Re-becca Johnston beat goaltender Aubree Moore ’14 on a breakaway. Brianne Jenner registered an as-sist on the goal.

Johnston and Jenner then teamed up on the next two goals, scoring and assisting on one each to put Cornell up 3-0 after the first period.

Jenner completed her hat trick in the second period. Forwards Catherine White and Kendice Ogilvie piled it on with two more goals, increasing Cornell’s lead to an almost-insurmountable 7-0

advantage in the second period. Forward Hayley Hughes scored in the dying moments of the game to notch an eighth goal for the Big Red.

Brown had as many shots in the game as Cornell had goals.

“Cornell has a lot of national team players,” said tri-captain Erica Kromm ’11. “Our aim was to try and shut them down, to play our game and really get our offense going. We did get a few opportunities, but there weren’t really too many quality shots.”

Referring to Moore, who had 40 saves on the night, Kromm said, “Aubree played really well, but you can only save so many shots.”

colgate 4, Brown 1Brown had to bounce back

quickly to prepare for Saturday’s matchup against Colgate (11-17-3, 8-10-2) at Starr Rink. But Brown’s pattern of weak first-period performances continued as Colgate went up 1-0 seven minutes into the first period af-ter forward Brittany Phillips took advantage of a power play. The Raiders then managed to make the most of a penalty kill, scoring a short-handed goal in the final minute of the first period to go up by two goals.

Colgate added another to its tally midway through the second

period. Phillips beat goalie Katie Jamieson ’13 for the second time on the night. Brown responded with a goal by Alena Polenska ’13 early in the third frame to ignite brief hopes of a comeback. But Colgate scored four minutes later to effectively shut Brown out of the game.

“We match up pretty well against them typically, but they scored two pretty quick,” Kromm said. “We have to learn to start the games off a lot harder — the third period is typically our best. If we played our first the way we play our third periods, we’d win a lot more of the close games, and our big 7-0, 8-0 losses wouldn’t be anywhere near as big.”

Kromm also said she was hopeful her team would end the season on a good note.

“The next three teams we play, we beat them preseason,” she said. “Honestly, the teams aren’t that much different. It’s just a matter of confidence — against Yale last time, we were all over them the second period, but we gave them three quick goals in the first and that pretty much killed the game.”

The Bears play Yale (7-16-3, 6-11-2) away on Tuesday, before finishing off their regular sea-son with home games against Princeton (14-12-1, 11-8-1) and Quinnipiac University (20-10-2, 12-8-0) next weekend.

Bears can’t put brakes on skid, lose 12th-straight game

By garret JohNSoNsports staff writer

The men’s hockey team has had its high and low points this sea-son, but the Bears (8-12-4, 6-10-1 ECAC) are hoping they are on the way up going into the Eastern Col-lege Athletic Conference tourna-ment after toppling St. Lawrence University (9-15-5, 5-11-1), 5-1, Saturday. The night before, the Bears fell, 4-1, to Clarkson Uni-versity (13-14-2, 7-9-1) for their fifth-consecutive loss.

All season, Head Coach Bren-dan Whittet ’94 has stressed the importance of his 10 freshmen to the future success of the program. This weekend, two of Brown’s youngest — forward Mark Hou-rihan ’14 and forward Garnet Ha-thaway ’14 — showed that they can make an impact here and now.

Brown took control of the game early Saturday night, grabbing a 2-0 lead against St. Lawrence af-ter first period goals by forwards David Brownschidle ’11 and Chris Zaires ’13. The onslaught contin-ued when Hourihan broke away from the St. Lawrence defense and beat Saints’ goalie Robby Moss less than three minutes into the second period for his first career goal, putting Bruno on top, 3-0.

“It took me a while to score, so it felt good to finally get that out of the way,” Hourihan said. “To be honest, I didn’t even know it went in until I saw everyone

celebrating.” Less than two minutes later,

Hathaway kept the pressure on with his fifth goal of the season, assisted by defenseman Mike Wolff ’12.

“The rebound just popped out in front,” Hathaway said. “The puck was in the air, so I just kind of batted it in from the middle of the slot.”

Bruno gave up a goal in the third period, but made up for it when defensemen Jeff Buvinow ’12 drilled one into the Saints’ net, assisted by Hathaway and Houri-han. The Bears held on for a 5-1 win, ending their three-week-long losing streak.

“After a big slump, it was great to have a five-goal game and really build some confidence,” Hathaway said. “Hopefully, we’ll just keep rolling.”

Although every team in the ECAC makes the playoffs, only the top four receive first-round byes. Brown currently sits ninth in the conference, two points behind Clarkson and nine points behind Cornell (12-10-3, 10-6-2), which occupies the critical fourth spot in the conference.

The Bears will need contribu-tions from the entire team, in-cluding the 10 players that make up Whittet’s first recruiting class. Hourihan praised the way in which their coach has helped them adapt to Division I college hockey.

“Coach knows that coming in, it’s a big jump from where we played before and that we are all going to make mistakes,” Houri-han said. “He has been really good about letting us make the mistakes and learning from them.”

Hathaway noted that he has

learned from the older members on the team this year. He asserted that the Brown hockey program is “on the rise.”

“We have some very important older guys on the team that I know all the younger guys look up to,” he said. “That’s how we’ll keep

building the program. Hopefully next year, the younger guys will look up to us.”

The next test for the Bears will be a road trip to ECAC ri-vals Princeton (14-9-2, 9-7-2) and Quinnipiac University (13-12-5, 6-8-4).

Freshmen lead Bruno to league win at St. Lawrencem. HOCkEY

Jonathan Bateman / HeraldYoung gun Mark Hourihan ‘14 had a goal and an assist Saturday night as men’s hockey snapped their five game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over St. Lawrence.

Jonathan Bateman / HeraldCaptain Samantha Stortini ’11 and women’s hockey had another rough weekend, losing at No. 2 Cornell 8-0 and at Colgate 4-1.

W. HOCkEY

Sports weekend8 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

By MaDeleiNe WeNStrupsports staff writer

Fresh off a victory over Cornell a week ago, guard Sheila Dixon ’13 sounded confident about the up-coming games against Dartmouth and Harvard.

“We’re ready to go. Both games are very winnable, and we’re look-ing to make them ours.”

Dixon proved to be confident for a reason. The women’s basket-ball team (7-15, 3-5 Ivy) swept the weekend, taking down Dartmouth (5-16, 1-6) on Friday night, 56-48, and then inching past Harvard (13-8, 5-2) on Saturday, 57-56. The Bears had not defeated either Dartmouth or Harvard since their 2005-06 Ivy League Championship season.

Brown’s substitutes came up big both nights. Forward Caroline King ’13 pulled down a career-high nine rebounds and had four points

off the bench on Friday night. “I would say that this is Caroline

King’s best game at Brown Univer-sity,” said Head Coach Jean Burr.

“There was unselfishness from the bench — the subs came in and really made a difference,” Burr add-ed. “That’s a real tribute to a good team effort.”

Rookies Sophie Beutel ’14 and Maggie Smith ’14 gave Brown an extra lift. Smith pulled down a career-high seven rebounds on Friday night and Beutel had four points and four rebounds for the Bears on Saturday.

Point guard Lauren Clarke ’14 led the way for the Bears Friday night, notching 12 points and six rebounds.

The Bears dominated on Friday against Dartmouth, but the game against Harvard was a tight one. The Bears were up by as much as 11 points in the first half, but the Crimson came out hot after the

break and kept things close. With two minutes left, Har-

vard went on a six-point streak — including four points from guard Christine Clark — to make it a one-point game, 57-56. The Crimson called two timeouts in the last minute to draw up plays but missed both shot attempts. Brogan Berry missed a jump shot with two seconds remaining, and Christine Matera could not put in the follow-up effort.

“We started to get a little tenta-tive,” said guard Lindsay Nickel ’13. “They are a big second-half team — they always have a strong second half. But we continued to make defensive stops, and it all worked out in the end.”

The Bears will be back on the road this weekend, looking to avenge early losses to Penn and Princeton. The Bears will play Penn Friday night and Princeton Saturday.

Bears snap five-year losing streaks v. Harvard, Dartmouth

Jonathan Bateman / HeraldFreshman Lauren Clarke ’14 had a solid weekend for women’s basketball, with 12 points and six assists Friday night and nine points, five assists and five boards on Saturday.

W. bASkETbALL

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Arts & Culture 9the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

bb & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden and Valerie Hsiung

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

CO M I C S

By eMMa WohlseNior staff writer

Lost, lonely but boldly independent, a troop of women took over the en-tertainment portion of Friday eve-ning at Cuban Revolution Restaurant in Olneyville.

Burlesque dancers, sideshow acts, singers and comedians by night, these performers were students in Kristen van Liew’s class “Cabaret and the Avant Garde,” offered at Rhode Island School of Design Winterses-sion.

In “RISD Takes Chifferobe: Lost, Lonely and Vicious,” the women converted the restaurant into a dinner-theater cabaret for one night. They began with a variety of side-show acts, such as a life-size doll or a girl singing from a swing in the middle of the restaurant.

Before the performances began, students in flapper dresses circled the tables passing out cupcakes and paper fortune cookies with predic-tions such as “Confucius say: Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.”

This was a take on the cigarette girls found in old-fashioned night-clubs, said Sofia Poe, a student in the class and a cupcake distributer. It was an act designed to “get the audience warmed up” for the night’s show, she added.

Interspersed with performances by the students were those by Ms. Wensday, a local singer, masquerad-ing as her alter ego Mademoiselle Mercredi.

Wensday’s romantic but innocu-ous melodies, in English, French and Spanish, were ideal dinner theater fare — pleasing to the ear but not loud or distinctive enough to derail serious conversation.

But for the audience members

who came just to see the show, her performance began to drag near the beginning of her second appearance onstage and went on far longer than needed.

Van Liew performs regularly around Providence as her alter ego, Kristen Minsky, and was recognized as one of 10 people to watch in 2011 by Providence Monthly magazine.

But for this class, she “basically assumed the role of groundskeeper,” she said. The students had creative control of their individual perfor-mances.

Though there was no theme or message imposed from above, many of the students explored “body politics” and “the spheres women are relegated to,” van Liew said.

In one, a girl dressed as a bride sang a song about wanting to step out of her sheltered life, before tearing off her gown to reveal black lingerie. But her performance was calculated to be desperate and awk-ward, van Liew said, and lost any sex appeal as a result.

Emily Oliveira, a sophomore at RISD, performed an act of solo po-etry, which she said was inspired by a dress she found. In the act, she took on the role of a bitter and defeated old woman haranguing her husband.

Oliveira, whose focus is in il-lustration, said she took the class in part because of her interest in performance art. But, she said, it was also “just self-indulgent fun.”

All nine of the students in the class were women, though van Liew said this was not intentional. But it did allow for “a lot of female ritual moments in the process of getting the performance together,” she said.

“It felt a little more like a com-munity of women,” Oliveira said. “We were on the same wavelength about a lot of stuff.”

RISD students explore burlesque also part of the MFA program.

The story centers around Dan Darkson, a hardboiled, bowler-hat-wearing private eye who, at the behest of a client, investigates a man’s disappearance. The scenes shift between Darkson and his ad-ventures and a driver trying to keep awake while he travels during the night. As the play progresses, it is revealed that the driver is actu-ally listening to a broadcast of a radio show titled “The Darkson Chronicles.”

The production hilariously plays upon film-noir and radio show el-ements — the dark lighting and

the dramatic characters — and employs special effects and an in-teresting mix of pre-recorded and live sound.

The story is performed with a combination of narration and char-acter dialogue. All actors, at one point or another, play Darkson. The rest of the characters include mem-bers of a religious cult, a mysteri-ous female hitchhiker and a femme fatale who imprisons Darkson.

“The play was an incredibly col-laborative effort,” said Madeleine Lambert GS, an actor in the show, adding that the group as a whole contributed diverse ideas and ma-terial to the production.

For Seemel, the development of the production was very “fluid” and magical.

“The energy was just crackling all the time,” he said.

And while the weeks of rehears-al were not without its challenges, Seemel said he felt they were part of the process. “I think frustra-tion is good. Frustration is a part of working in a group because if it’s hard, it probably means you’re on to something.”

Whether it was stories of a private eye, or the frightening ad-ventures of two innocent children, there was something for everyone at “Writing is Live.”

Ten days of plays come to endcontinued from page 12

editorial & Letter10 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

L E T T E R TO T H E E D I TO R

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Requisites no reason to reject ROTCTo the Editor:

In his column opposing the reinstatement of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Brown (“Don’t Ask, Don’t ROTC: Why it’s still a bad idea,” Feb. 11), Dave Morris ’88 asserts, “As all courses taken at Brown are electives (in the case of ROTC), we would have a requirement where an outside entity, the military, would prescribe at least nine courses that a cadet must take.” Moreover, “Because ROTC prescribes a core curriculum of nine courses, it does not truly give its students freedom of opportunity.”

We already have a requirement where an outside entity prescribes at least 12 classes that over 10 per-cent of Brown students must complete. In fact, due to their career goals, these students must complete

an even more extensive core curriculum than ROTC cadets: two semesters of calculus, two semesters of physics, two semesters of general chemistry, two semesters of organic chemistry, two semesters of biology and two semesters of English. By Morris’ logic, the Association of American Medical Colleges’ requirements, like those of ROTC, deprive Brown students of “freedom of opportunity.” Indeed, a pre-med curriculum “is oil on the New Curricu-lum’s water,” and there should be no place for it on our campus.

There are many legitimate reasons to question the re-establishment of ROTC at Brown. ROTC’s academic guidelines are not one of them.

Jennifer Grayson ’11

E D I TO R I A L CO M I C b y j u l i a s t r e u l i

“This group was not resigned to having a difficult Valentine’s Day — you’ve got to respect their courage.”

— Jeb koogler ’11, speed-dating organizer

E D I TO R I A L

Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 elicited concern from charter school supporters when he announced last month that he would take a “thoughtful pause” before expanding the state’s charter schools. The governor made waves again earlier this month when he shook up the state’s Board of Regents, which helps oversee Rhode Island’s public schools. Given the importance of public education, we took a pause of our own to consider these changes.

Former state House Majority Leader George Caruolo will take over the chairmanship of the Board of Regents from former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders Jr. ’71. Flanders, along with several other board members Chafee replaced, supports Education Commissioner Deborah Gist. Teachers’ unions are often at odds with Gist, especially over her support for charter schools, and how well Chafee will work out his disagreements with the commissioner is a looming question. Caruolo is known as an effective politician. We hope he puts his skill to use, shaping conflicts between Chafee and Gist into compromised agreements to take action, not discord-fueled gridlock.

Chafee’s choice of words is not as commendable as his choice of chairman. The intentional ambiguity of the phrase “thoughtful pause” is unbefitting of a governor whose campaign rested on “trust.” In response to critics, Chafee spokesman Michael Trainor told the Provi-dence Journal, “Governor Chafee finds it odd that any one person or group would object to a thoughtful pause.” Indeed, who could argue with giving a complex issue thought! But the Governor should answer criticism, not deflect it with rhetorical games. It is also concerning that Chafee is so confident this pause will not jeopardize federal Race to the Top funds when many, including Professor of Political Science Marion Orr say, “Clearly, a governor who is pushing back on charter schools jeopardizes those funds.” Furthermore, the calls for a pause and to bring education policy expert Diane Ravitch to Rhode Island sometime before “the beginning of spring” do not demonstrate the urgency we need on education issues.

We would like to see the governor be more forthcoming about his discussions with federal officials regarding Race to the Top funds and immediately begin working with Gist and others to craft a compromise. Charter schools will not provide every answer we need to strengthen all public schools. Ravitch, a former advocate of charter schools who is now one of their leading critics, likes to point to one well known study which found that a mere 17 percent of charter schools nationwide were outperforming traditional public schools in math. But we wish that, rather than pausing, Chafee were clamoring to find out what high-performing charter schools are doing right, and whether those strategies can be implemented system-wide.

Gist’s recent proposals to tighten the standards charter schools must meet are a useful starting point for compromise. Her efforts seek to answer in part a common criticism Ravitch makes — that many charter schools fail their students academically and the community at large — for example, by cherry-picking only the best students and thereby depleting the population at other public schools.

We believe charter schools can be a useful partner to traditional public schools. For this partnership to yield benefits, however, the governor must strive to make charter supporters and opponents al-lies, not adversaries. He need not pause before beginning this process.

editorials are written by The herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Thought, yes, delay, no

opinions 11the Brown Daily heraldMonday, February 14, 2011

This February, as you head to the bookstore in search of a wardrobe that matches your school spirit, something will be a little differ-ent. A few of the Brown-emblazoned items will not be your typical Under Armour or Champion brand wear. You may see a hoodie or a tee that says “Alta Gracia” on the label.

At $39.99 and $19.99 respectively, these hoodies and tees are among the cheapest op-tions at the bookstore. The price, however, is not the only reason to consider buying them. These garments were made by people who earn enough to improve the quality of their lives and provide opportunities for their chil-dren.

Alta Gracia is a living wage factory in Vil-la Altagracia in the Dominican Republic. Its workers receive wages sufficient to provide for three quarters of the basic needs in a Do-minican family of four, or more than three times the Dominican minimum wage. As Alta Gracia worker Mariza Vargas puts it on the company’s website, “Alta Gracia is great for me and my family because it gives us the chance for a better education — even for me to go back to school!”

Things were not always this rosy at Alta Gracia. For years, the factory was operat-ed by BJ&B, a Korean company that made Nike- and Reebok-brand caps for colleges and universities in the United States. Work-ers from the BJ&B plant reported suffering

many abuses typical of sweatshops, including forced overtime, verbal and physical abuse, lock-ins and dismissal for trivial causes. In 2001, when BJ&B workers unionized and sought recognition from the company, man-agement retaliated by firing 20 union leaders.

Only through extensive campaigning — in which U.S. college students played a piv-otal role — did the company finally agree to negotiate a union contract in 2003. The re-sult was the most worker-friendly contract in the Dominican garment industry, but in

2007, the factory closed, leaving the commu-nity in Villa Altagracia destitute as the owners sought out lower-wage labor overseas.

This state of affairs might have contin-ued indefinitely, thus indicating the futility of fighting sweatshop conditions.

But it didn’t. A year ago, Knights Apparel reopened the factory under the name “Alta Gracia.” The new factory is an experiment of historic proportions, as it represents one of the first instances in which such a factory has attempted to pay a living wage. The resulting increase in labor cost — at about 80 cents per T-shirt — comes mostly out of the company’s profits, meaning that retail prices are compet-

itive with industry standards. This model depends on the idea that con-

sumers really want to buy living wage gar-ments at moderate prices. In other words, the fate of the Alta Gracia experiment is now in our hands. We can either prove or disprove the power of consumer consciousness. Either way, the outcome will have a significant im-pact on the future of workers’ rights in the garment industry.

To clarify the importance of this moment in our lives as consumers, it is worthwhile to

consider some of its historical context. Next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. On March 25, 1911, 146 workers died in 18 minutes during a fire at a garment factory in New York City. The victims — who were mostly young, non-unionized immigrant women — were unable to escape the fire because of locked exits. The public outcry that followed this tragic event led not only to the establishment of safety codes, but also to increasing public support for the labor movement. Over the follow-ing decades, garment industry sweatshops waned in this country.

Critics of the anti-sweatshop movement

hold that sweatshops are a necessary, albe-it unfortunate, reality of industrial develop-ment. They point to the example of the de-mise of sweatshops in the industrial world as evidence that economic growth ultimately “raises all boats.” Yet this argument is seri-ously flawed for at least one obvious reason: Sweatshop conditions still exist in the United States. In 2000, half of the 434 investigations conducted in the garment industry by the Department of Labor found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. If economic devel-opment is the only way sweatshops will dis-appear, then how much more development will we need before sweatshops disappear here, let alone elsewhere?

Last December, 28 were killed and more than 100 were injured in a garment factory fire in Bangladesh. Perhaps the most striking thing about the fire, which took place in a fac-tory owned by a company that makes clothes for such brands as JCPenney, Walmart and Target, is that it is exactly similar to the de-tails of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Doors to fire escapes were locked, yes, and other safe-ty measures were similarly nonexistent, yes. And like in the fire 100 years ago, the gar-ment industry giants want to use the status of the victims as subcontracted labor to deny responsibility. In short, nothing has changed for those workers. Nothing will change un-til we as consumers demonstrate to global corporations that we stand for people before profit. Alta Gracia is a first step.

Ian Trupin ’13 has not yet declared a concentration, but finds his new hoodie

most sexy.

A call for consumer activism

A few days before the end of winter break, I taught my parents to play Settlers of Cat-an. They agreed largely out of shock that I would voluntarily want to play — even ad-vocate playing — any board game whatso-ever. I had traditionally been loath to join a board game unless coerced, and my sudden passion for Settlers constituted a break from their normal experience of their daughter.

In reality, my obsession with the game had a little more history than they knew. I was first convinced to play during the spring of 2010, when I — to my own sur-prise — had a fine time. Agreeing to play again in the fall with a couple of friends who had made it a habit, I began to understand the strategy better and came back again. This humble beginning grew into a tradi-tion in which the three of us, sometimes with a fourth, would gather multiple times a week to play two or three games at a time.

So what is this game that broke my self-declared loathing for board games? In a sense, it’s like Monopoly in that the goal is to build a civilization based on resources — in this case, natural raw materials like wood, ore and wheat, rather than money — that players accumulate in the game. The first player to 10 victory points, which can be gained in various ways, wins.

The Washington Post recently declared Settlers “the board game of this era.” Mo-nopoly tends to be solely about person-

al gain, and the winner can dominate the game for hours, often to the annoyance of everyone else struggling to survive on their measly purple properties. Settlers, by con-trast, requires the constant attention and cooperation of all players, even if they are not winning. The key of the game is trading — with five different resources required in various quantities to build the elements of your civilization, you usually aren’t able to get what you require without finding areas of mutual need.

What a great lesson — as the Washing-ton Post noted. No longer can we operate

under the assumption that world powers can retain their influence without the aid and cooperation of other countries. Wheth-er resources are plentiful or scarce, we must find ways to utilize what we have and what others have to our mutual benefit. Especial-ly in the context of President Obama’s “win-ning the future” rhetoric, I have to draw the comparison — yes, you can win the game, but not without that wheat-for-wood trade with the player to your right.

Settlers has also mastered a balance of chance and strategy. In Monopoly, a sin-gle roll can gain you a few hundred dollars or lose you that same amount, potentially knocking you out of the running complete-ly. Settlers depends on dice rolls as well, but you have much more freedom to manipu-late your hand of resources, regardless of the number you roll. Another real-world skill: managing what life throws at you with your own ability to adapt to the circumstances.

Furthermore, the game is “so Brown,” as we love to say here. Determining where to build your civilization, you may choose to

spread your settlements over a wide range of resources or over a select few that will follow a specific strategy. Sound familiar? With our open curriculum, we are free to take classes in as many departments as we can. Or, as the case may be, we may focus our energies on an academic passion we know exists. I tend to prefer playing with a diversity of resources, which makes sense given the fact that I have taken classes in upwards of sixteen academic departments.

But back to our current world situation. Monopoly is still applicable in certain ways. Woody Allen recently wrote a spectacu-lar column for the New Yorker in which he mixed the modern business world with the language of Monopoly. “Should he risk ev-erything and buy Marvin Gardens, or leave his money in tax-free bonds until he passed Go?” We often cannot escape constant re-ports on foreclosures, executive bonuses, stock market changes and bailouts. To some extent, the real stories get lost among finan-cial terminology and governmental policy.

The beauty of Settlers is in its simplic-ity and the simultaneous complexity of thought that comes with it. I understood the primary rules of the game by the middle of my first try, and succeeded in building vari-ous elements of my civilization. Now, doz-ens of games later, I still make minor dis-coveries in strategy and slight adjustments in my building priorities and trading prac-tices. Friends who have played for years tell me the same thing.

My mother called me a week after I re-turned to campus following break. She told me that she and my dad had invited two of their friends over for dinner. They had be-gun explaining and setting up the game — their first without me — at 10:30 at night. Triumphantly, their friend Rick won at one in the morning. She told me they “had a blast.” For all the high-brow arguments the Washington Post and I can make, the fact remains that the game has an excellent de-sign.

Chelsea Waite ’11 loves beginning a game with a road.

Settling Catan, winning the future

Whether resources are plentiful or scarce, we must find ways to negotiate what we have with what others have

to our mutual benefit.

We can either prove or disprove the power of consumer consciousness.

BY CHELSEA WAITEopinions Columnist

BY IAN TRuPINopinions Columnist

Daily Heraldthe Brown

Arts & CultureMonday, February 14, 2011

By BeN KutNerstaff writer

The gravity of Trinity Repertory Company’s current staging of Ar-thur Miller’s “The Crucible” will stop you dead in your tracks. The production, directed by Brian McE-leney, Head of the Brown/Trinity MFA Program in Acting, is driven by the power and compulsion of its cast.

“The dramatic action is incred-ibly intense — every character is plunged into a metaphorical cru-cible as they are forced to confront their essential selves,” McEleney wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The play is set during the infa-mous Salem witch trials of 1692 and focuses on the connections and relationships between those accused of practicing witchcraft and their accusers.

The play’s protagonist, John Proctor (Stephen Thorne) is a di-chotomy in himself, with much of the plot focused on his dual iden-tity of sinner and saint. He quickly finds himself at the center of the accusation web, struggling with an adulterous secret that fans the fires of the witch hunt.

What begins as mere suspicion of witchcraft escalates over the two-and-a-half hour play — a constantly evolving imbroglio which leaves the audience feeling as if their own fate lies in the rope of the gallows.

A play of such emotional mag-nitude requires a cast of multiple power-players, and the Trinity Rep cast comes through with poise and clear delivery. The bellowing Judge Danforth (Fred Sullivan Jr.) instills fear into fellow characters and au-dience alike, with a stubbornness and monstrosity that renders him a force to be reckoned with.

Audience members may find themselves slightly confused when several actors take on multiple roles. Though cast members an-nounce their roles at the beginning of each act, audience members may still be disoriented when they see

a recognizable face in a new role.Actress Barbara Meek, though,

has an extraordinary ability to make each of her characters distinct and unique, allowing the audience to forget she ever played another role. Meek plays the roles of a slave wom-an, a woman accused of witchcraft and a male judge.

Though the theater of Trinity Rep is intimate enough to bring the audience face to face with perform-ers, the immediacy of the drama was further enhanced when cast members walked up and down the aisles, engaging in dialogue.

McEleney stressed this staging

greatly during the climactic trial scene, continually placing the judge high in the audience while those on trial looked up at him from the stage far below, affording the audience no distractions from the scene’s heat. The energy and ten-sion between the actors was tre-mendous.

The play is carried by these strong moments of acting. The set is relatively simple, set on the steps of Providence City Hall as a means of connecting the play to contem-porary times, wrote McEleney. The costumes, too, are simple — strip-ping the play down to the essentials

of acting and plot.“When Arthur Miller wrote this

play in 1952 he was responding to a contemporary political situation — the McCarthy-led Communist witch hunts — and was using the 1692 Salem witch trials as a way to think about what was happening in his own world,” McEleney wrote, adding that he hoped to connect the play to our contemporary world.

“I have tried to direct the play in a way in which the audience is in-vited to think about it, not merely as a historical drama, but as an imme-diate response to our own historical point in time,” wrote McEleney. We see the same selfless heroism on the streets of Cairo today, he wrote.

“It is (the play’s) immediacy, its remarkable aptness for our political moment and the way it speaks to us today that demands we return,” wrote Artistic Director Curt Co-lumbus in the play’s program.

Trinity Rep’s production suc-ceeds in rendering “The Crucible” a new and current play. The audience, filled with guilt — and eventual ex-oneration — is forced to question their own role in the trials.

Great acting, intimacy with the audience and a classic script

combine to make this a play worth seeing.

Trinity Rep bewitches audience in intimate performance

By Margaret yistaff writer

A hanging dummy, a furry red monster and a talkative young hitchhiker came to life on stage in the “Writing is Live” festival, which concluded yesterday. Wrapping up 10 days of workshops and full productions from graduate and un-dergraduate playwrights, the event was presented by the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and featured productions from its Brown/Trinity Master of Fine Arts programs and the Rites & Reason Theatre.

The festival kicked off Feb. 4 with a series of workshops ex-ploring diverse plots including a New York City romance in Zarina Shea’s GS “Grasping at Grace” and a modern take on the Icarus Story in “Lifted” by Charlie Thurston.

The following week showcased three thesis productions by MFA graduate students and a play from Franny Choi ’11, a Herald editorial cartoonist.

Choi’s piece, titled “Mask Danc-es,” is the first undergraduate play to be featured in the history of the festival. It explores the Gwangju incident, an event in South Korean history marked by military brutal-ity toward student protestors.

At the Pell Chafee Performance Center was “Meronymy,” a play ex-ploring memory and its boundar-ies, written by playwright Rachel

Jendrzejewski GS. A crowd also flocked in to see

Ian McDonald’s GS “The Boy Who Lived Forever (And the Woman Who Didn’t)” in Leeds Theatre. The play is described by McDonald as a scary children’s fairytale.

The main character, Shane (Brandon Vukovic GS), is a meek fifth grader who suffers constant bullying at the hands of his teenage neighbors. One day, while play-ing in the woods, he and his only companion, Lyn (Caroline Kaplan GS), come across a dead woman hanging by her neck. The pair reluctantly seeks help from Lyn’s older brother Jak (Brandon Drea GS), who brings his friend Tyson (Tyler Weaks GS) along.

But piece by piece, the woman’s body goes missing. Shane eventu-ally encounters the monster (Wil-liam Austin GS) that is eating the woman.

What began as a scary and fun-ny story soon takes on the darker theme of social rejection, as Shane is terrorized by Jak and seemingly loses Lyn’s friendship.

“I think it’s a story of what kids can do to each other,” Vukovic said.

Another fully staged produc-tion, “The Darkson Chronicles” by MFA playwright Theo Goodell GS, is inspired by 1950s film noir and detective stories, said Kristan Seemel GS, director of the play and

Theatre festival brings words to life

By Meia geDDeSCoNtributiNg writer

The Israeli Film Festival of College Hill kicked off its third year Thurs-day with a screening of “Precious Life” at the Avon Cinema. The fes-tival, free and open to the campus and community, will end Feb. 17.

A committee of six Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students have dedicated months to organizing the festival. Sarah Levy ’12, co-director, said the com-mittee wanted to “highlight Israel as a hub of art” by choosing the best Israeli films possible. Films such as “Sweet Mud,” which won Best Picture at Ophir Awards, Is-rael’s Academy Awards, highlight “Israel’s new and growing film in-dustry,” Levy said.

Films cover a broad spectrum of ideas and themes, such as ar-chitecture, war, orthodox religion and sexuality. They “raise a lot of questions without giving a lot of answers,” Levy said.

“Precious Life” revolves around efforts to save the life of a Pales-tinian baby brought to a hospital in Israel. The committee liked its accessibility and message of peace, Levy said. Nava Winkler ’13, who served two years in the Israeli army, said she liked the film’s focus on the individuals’ humanity with-out polarizing Israel and Palestine.

But, Levy said, “Israel has a lot to offer outside the context of poli-tics.” Filmmakers tell stories about their societies and shed light on certain themes and cultural as-pects of Israel, she said. For ex-

ample, “Tel Aviv-Jaffa,” which will be screened Feb. 15, discusses the architecture of the city. Dietrich Neumann, professor of history of art and architecture, will speak after the screening.

The stop-motion animated film “$9.99” was screened Saturday night to a full audience of com-munity members and students. RISD Professor Amy Kravitz dis-cussed the film with Director Tatia Rosenthal, followed by questions from the audience.

Rosenthal, who left medical school to pursue animation, said she was always conflicted between science and art. A motif in the movie is, “Think first because life doesn’t give you a second chance,” but she said she believes “$9.99” shows the opposite.

The film, which is composed of multiple stories woven together, opens with a riveting exchange be-tween two men, “a life and death ... intensely Jewish” moment, as Kravitz called it.

Diane Newman, who lives in Providence, wondered why the film was being shown at an Israeli film festival, apart from Rosen-thal being Israeli and the setting’s architectural similarities to Tel-Aviv. Rosenthal said that “$9.99” was never meant to be an Israeli film, and that it is an international, every-city story.

One of the storylines revolves around a young man searching for the meaning of life. A $9.99 book will apparently give him the an-swer — or six. College Hill resident Jolie Shushansky commented on

the dialogue and the film’s use of humor to convey serious messages. She also expressed pleasure at the way the film festival brought to-gether members of the community and students.

Hillel, one of 10 co-sponsors of the festival, assisted with logistics and finances, said Marshall Ein-horn, executive director of the or-ganization. The festival costs over $10,000, which includes movie rights, bringing directors such as Rosenthal to speak, renting Avon Cinema and printing costs, he es-timated.

The festival is “an idea that the students have been driving for the last few years,” Einhorn said. The strong student group behind it “should make it a staple of the cal-endar for years to come,” he added.

The festival is only the culmina-tion of the committee’s yearlong work recruiting students in Sep-tember, holding weekly meetings, doing research, writing requests for grants and contacting dis-tributors. Levy’s experiences in mentoring first-year students and learning about student organizing have been “incredibly rewarding,” she said.

Gili Kliger ’12, the other co-director and a Herald design edi-tor, also expressed excitement. She and Levy could not stop smiling as they explained that they had been talking about their hopes for the festival for such a long time, it was difficult to adequately convey them. They are incredibly excited to share their passion with the community, Levy said.

Israeli films more than just politics

Jennifer Salcido / Trinity Repertory CompanyTrinity Repertory Company brought the terror of the Salem witch trials to the steps of Providence’s city hall building.

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