thursday, february 7, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 12

INsIde

No post- Check out next week’s Valentine’s Day Issue

Gun violenceRhode Island responds to Sandy Hook shootings

Pages 4-9

Just eat itCorvese ’15 defends dining halls and city restaurants

Page 11

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tomorrow

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today

Daily HeraldtHe BrowN

By Mathias heller and eli OkunUniversity news editors

The Corporation will address a host of priorities when it meets this weekend, including potential tuition and financial aid increases and the approval of the an-nual budget, said Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy.

The meeting will mark the second time the Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — has convened since President Christina Paxson as-sumed office last summer.

The Corporation will assemble as a group Saturday morning, at which point

members are expected to vote on the creation of a school of public health. The faculty voted to recommend establish-ing a separate public health school last fall. If approved by the Corporation, the program in public health would apply to the Council on Education for Public Health for accreditation this year.

As in past years, the Corporation will review a report from the University Re-sources Committee to consider whether and by how much to increase tuition for the next academic year, and members will discuss how much money to allot to financial aid. Carey said he cannot predict what the Corporation will decide regarding tuition and fee increases.

The Corporation will also address the preliminary recommendations an-nounced in interim reports released last month by Paxson’s six strategic planning commit-

Corporation to discuss tuition, financial aid The agenda will also feature strategic planning and a proposed public health school

By adaM tOObinCity & state editor

The Dec. 14 murder of 20 first grad-ers and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. shook the nation and ignited debates about how best to ensure no such tragedy occurs again. In Rhode Island, the discourse began imme-diately as parents clamored for safer schools, residents questioned why military-style weapons are available to the public and health professionals warned that the state’s mental health system was allowing people who need help to become a risk to themselves and to others.

The Herald’s spread today investi-gates some of the conversations that arose in the city, state and on campus in reaction to the Newtown shoot-ings. Rhode Island legislators have expressed interest in banning mili-tary-style assault weapons. The state’s congressional delegation — two repre-sentatives and two senators — have all pushed for additional national controls on firearm access. Rhode Island’s men-tal health care system — once the envy of the nation — has fallen into disre-pair, and attempts at reformation and restoration are underway. Schools are reviewing their safety protocols with a focus on limiting casualties should a violent intruder threaten student safety. And President Obama’s execu-tive order to increase federal funding for gun research has ignited hope on College Hill about renewed investiga-tion of gun violence in the country.

state leaders confront gun violence following shootingsDebates on gun control, school safety, mental health and gun research emerge in Rhode Island

By lOren dOwdContribUting writer

Bringing together concentrations as var-ied as haute couture and computing,

the first class of Brown-RISD Dual Degree program

students will be graduating this May. After five years, these students will leave College Hill this spring with both a Bach-elor of Arts degree from Brown and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from RISD.

The program has been changing ever since this year’s senior class arrived in 2008 , and its feedback has contributed to the program’s evolution, administra-tors said.

“I think we’ve been learning a lot

from this first class,” said Michele Za-ger, the dual degree advising assistant. “They’ve really had the opportunity to sculpt the program.”

Students reside at RISD for the first year while they take foundation classes, but in the past few years, they have also been able to take one class at Brown — usually a first-year seminar. Students transition to Brown residence halls for the second year, though they take at least one RISD studio class during this time. For the last three years of the program, students move between the two schools. Seniors will complete independent study projects that culminate in capstone pre-sentations.

While this is the first official class of the dual degree program, these students are not the first to complete two degrees from both schools. Before the program’s creation, several students were already pursuing degrees at Brown and RISD by “transferring in and out” of both schools, said

dual degree students forge their own pathsAdministrators discuss the program’s developments since it began five years ago

By eMily bOneysenior staff writer

State Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence announced a bill at a press conference yesterday that would legalize marijua-

na for retail and consumption by adults 21 years

and older and provide for taxing and regulating the substance.

Ajello introduced the bill to the Rhode Island House of Representatives and was joined yesterday by State Sen. Donna Nesselbush ’84, D-Pawtucket, a sponsor of the bill in the Senate.

“People seem to be concerned about their children,” Ajello said at the press conference, noting constituents’ con-cerns that her bill would make access to marijuana easier. But Ajello said the bill aims to do the opposite and keep the drug out of the hands of young people. Currently, four out of five high school seniors report that marijuana is easy to acquire, Nesselbush said at the press conference.

“People who are selling it have no compunction,” Nesselbush said.

Both Ajello and Nesselbush said prohibition of marijuana was “ineffec-tive,” resulting in criminal profits and easy access to the drug for minors and students. “Public officials are compelled to act,” Nesselbush said.

Law enforcement officials spend far too much en-

bill would legalize marijuana in r.I.Proponents say the state could save money on law enforcement and raise revenue from sales taxes

/ / Corporation page 2

/ / Pot page 7

Herald file PHotothe Corporation will meet for the second time since Paxson’s inauguration and will discuss campus planning and technology-related issues.

erik olson / Herald

the first class of students will graduate from the brown-risd dual degree program this May, receiving a b.a. from brown and a b.F.a. from risd./ / dual page 3

s C h o o l s a f e t y

Herald file PHoto

among the conversations started in the wake of the sandy hook elementary school shooting was a new proposal for school safety plans.

feature

/ / Gun violence spread pages 4-9

city & state

university news2 tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

4 p.m.

Visiting Artist: Christina Hunter

List 110

7 p.m.

Mid-Year Activities Fair

Sayles Hall and the Campus Center

7:30 p.m.

BOP Winter Arias Concert

Grant Recital Hall

8 p.m.

Brown Stand-Up Comics Show

Salomon 001

SHARpE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY

lunCh

dinner

Texas BBQ Brisket, Sweet and White Potato Au Gratin, Lentil Croquettes, Yellow Beets with Red Onion

Pot Roast Jardiniere, Baked Manicotti with Meatless Sauce, Fried Rice Bowl with Ham, Vegetarian Rice Bowl

Cheese Ravioli with Pink Vodka Sauce, Chicken Broccoli Pasta Alfredo,Yellow Beans with Onions and Tomatoes

Turkey Cutlet, Swiss Broccoli Pasta, Vegan Mediterranean Stew, Cajun Chicken, Nacho Bar

THuRSdAY FEbRuARY 7 FRidAY FEbRuARY 8

C r o s s w o r d

s U d o k U

m e n U

C a l e n d a r

Shefali Luthra, PresidentLucy Feldman, Vice President

Samuel Plotner, treasurerJulia Kuwahara, 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 Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation 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 2013 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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tees, Carey said.“There’s a significant part of the week-

end when we’ll be engaging in discus-sions regarding the strategic planning process,” Carey said, adding that the Corporation will meet in a “retreat for-mat” on Friday to engage in an in-depth review of the committees’ recommenda-tions.

Carey said Corporation members will have the chance to provide feedback on the reports at the retreat gathering. He said he does not expect major action this weekend on the strategic planning process, noting that the Corporation is one of several bodies currently partici-pating in the planning discussion.

As part of the strategic planning process, the Corporation will discuss the University’s physical growth as the

strategic planning committees work on “re-imagining the campus,” Carey said. “Academic space needs of the campus are definitely part of the discussion,” he said.

The meeting last October coincided with Paxson’s inauguration as the 19th president of the University, but this week-end’s meeting will not feature any special commemorations, events or building dedications, Carey said. But the Corpora-tion will participate in a dinner hosted for all members of the strategic planning committees, he said. Corporation mem-bers will also break out into committee meetings today and tomorrow.

An ad hoc planning committee fo-cused on campus planning and growth and composed of Corporation members and alums will meet this weekend, Carey said. The other ad hoc committee, cen-tered on digital technology, is still in the process of discussing and reacting to the interim reports, he added.

The latter committee is looking at a wide range of technology-related issues, which have permeated many aspects of the University, said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “It’s really grown so tremen-dously in even the last five years, even from a communications standpoint,” she said.

The Corporation is also expected to approve several gifts to the University, Carey said, though he does not know in advance what they might entail.

Though an impending snowstorm this weekend may bring one to two feet of snow and blizzard conditions to Provi-dence, the University has not altered any plans for the weekend, Quinn wrote in a follow-up email to The Herald. Some Corporation members may have to alter their travel schedules in order to attend the meeting, she added. Forecasters have warned that the snowstorm, called Win-ter Storm Nemo, could result in wide-spread power losses in New England.

/ / Corporation page 1

By isObel heCkstaff writer

In an effort to control grade inflation, many professors in the Department of Economics will follow an official depart-mental recommendation to award 30 percent of students As, 40 percent Bs and 30 percent Cs, said Roberto Ser-rano, professor of economics.

Serrano said the department has recommended faculty members more closely monitor grade distributions in their classes, but grades will ultimately depend on the style of the individual class. For example, he said, the recom-mended distributions will be hard to follow in small seminars.

“Being serious about grades is the best incentive” for students to apply themselves, Serrano said. “The idea that everybody should get an A is just terrible.”

Louis Putterman, professor of eco-nomics and director of undergraduate studies for the economics department, said he agrees with Serrano and was surprised when he first heard some economics professors award mostly As.

“When I came to Brown a little over 30 years ago, there were a relatively equal number of As, Bs and Cs,” Putter-man said. “Until some unspecified time,

I believe that was the prevailing ethos.”Serrano said the department be-

lieves in fairness and that the “rules of the game” — the department’s grad-ing policies — are given to students upfront.

Both David Braun ’14, an econom-ics concentrator, and Alyssa Garrett ’15, an economics and applied math concentrator, said they have been in classes where professors announced they would give a certain number of As, Bs and Cs.

Braun said he has taken classes in which the number of As was said to be capped at 50 percent, and one this semester in which the limit is said to be 30 percent. In his syllabus for ECON 1710: “Investments I” last semester — which included a grade distribution of 30 percent As, 30 percent Bs, 30 percent Cs and 10 percent No Credit — Profes-sor of Economics Dror Brenner wrote, “As far as your transcript is concerned, you should neither be punished nor rewarded for taking this course.”

Garrett said she thinks grade in-flation is important to monitor and has been influential for students. She recalled one job recruiter on campus telling her, “you need to have above a 3.5, because we know you can do above a 3.5.”

Professors concerned about estab-lishing negative reputations sometimes find it helpful to explain grade distribu-tion rules are department-wide, Ser-rano said. “It is not about being mean

— it is about imposing an academic standard of excellence,” he said.

Garrett noted the University’s stan-dard of awarding only straight letter grades — and no pluses or minuses — may contribute to grade inflation. The difference between an A and B is much greater than that between an A- and B+, so implementing a plus and minus system could make the prospect of receiving a lower grade less intimi-dating, she said.

Putterman, Serrano, Garrett and Braun said grade inflation is not just an issue in the economics department, but also for the rest of the University. Serrano said he worries about losing grades as a means of distinguishing a student’s abilities, adding that it is important for the University to address the issue and open a campus dialogue about the ramifications of inflation.

“Any solution has to be instituted on a department- or University-wide basis,” Garrett said. “One professor can’t alone fix grade inflation.” She added that she commends the economics department for taking the initiative.

econ dept. looks to curb grade inflationProfessors are restricting the number of As to keep grades from losing meaning

recommendedgrade distribution

30 percent — a40 percent — B30 percent — C

university news 3tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

Stephen Lassonde, deputy dean of the college and co-chair of the Brown-RISD Dual Degree program. Three of those students, Andrew Bearnot Brown ’09 RISD ’10, Alice Costas ’09 and Sarah Faux ’08 served as advisers to the first dual degree class in 2008.

Students can choose their concentra-tions and majors based on their interests. Current seniors are pursuing combina-tions as varied as Comparative Literature and Graphic Design, Religious Studies and Printmaking and Biochemistry and Industrial Design.

Jonathan Hills ’13 plans to gradu-ate with a Bachelor of Science degree from Brown, which Lassonde and Zager said was not recommended when the program first began. Concentrating in mechanical engineering at Brown and furniture design at RISD, Hills said he thinks it isn’t difficult to earn an ScB within the dual degree program.

two-for-one Seniors in the program noted the

benefits of receiving an education from two prestigious schools at once.

“(The students) have an opportunity to explore a really rigorous intellectual inquiry that they experience at their courses at Brown, along with a very im-mersive studio experience at RISD,” said Patricia Philips, interim associate provost for academic affairs at RISD and co-chair of the Brown-RISD dual degree program.

Dual degree students can apply what they learn at Brown to what they do at RISD, especially through independent studies, said Alison Rutsch ’13, a student in the program.

“I feel like my Brown classes have of-fered me more critical social perspective, which is lacking at RISD … in terms of gender, class, race,” Rutsch said.

Courses at Brown complement the students’ intended career paths, which they identify early on in their RISD edu-cation, said Caitrin Watson ’13, who is studying environmental studies and ap-parel design.

“you have to find this identity that is not available anywhere else, through any other path that already exists. your iden-tity is formed by this in-between spot, which is a combination of two things,” said Stephanie Swart ’13.

a balancing act Dual degree students benefit from

connecting with students from both schools, said Beth Soucy ’13.

“It’s really hard to meet people outside your daily routine … so being able to

come into contact with people in both worlds and learn from them is probably my favorite thing,” Swart said.

Students also developed close con-nections with other members of the program, Swart said.

“It’s a kind of special bond,” Swart said. “I feel like I’ll always have a special understanding with other dual degree students.”

But being a student at more than one school can be socially straining as well, as dual degree students stay a year longer than their peers at either school.

“There are a lot of difficult social as-pects,” Rutsch said. After forming friend-ships during her first year at RISD, “being taken out of that environment and placed into an entirely new school without all of the friends you just made is really tough,” she said.

Scheduling conflicts can also be an inconvenience for students. Since RISD classes are longer than Brown classes and do not always meet on coinciding days, creating cohesive schedules is akin to completing a puzzle, several students said. RISD also has a winter session, while Brown operates on a semester schedule, which they said makes January a difficult time for housing and meals.

Pulling off this kind of program takes a lot of cooperation and patience on the students’ part, as well as advising and ne-gotiation from both schools. The students have to find a way to balance the rigor of the RISD curriculum and the “free-form nature” of Brown’s classes, Philips said.

“There are drawbacks to spreading yourself across two institutions. you don’t get the same immersion in either school that you would get if you were only (at-

tending) one,” Rutsch said.

Finishing touches In their final semester, many students

are working on degree projects or in-dependent coursework to tie together everything they have studied and prepare for their professional pursuits following graduation.

“It’s scary to finally have to go and get a job. But it’s also really exciting,” Soucy said.

Rutsch is working on a project in-terviewing kids in Providence public schools and creating artwork out of her findings. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to work up to this point in terms of reach-ing out and making connections,” she said. Swart said she is also enjoying the opportunity to “do (her) own thing” this semester.

Fifth-year dual degree students on the job hunt said it would be preferable to get a job that combines their two pas-sions, though they would take a job in either field.

“The first job you get out of college is not necessarily significant or mean-ingful,” Lassonde said. The dual degree students must “be nimble and open to letting other things happen and take ad-vantage of those opportunities.”

the students of the dual degree class of 2013 will leave a mark on both schools as the first-ever graduates of the program.

“I think that I learned a lot more from this program than I would have if it had been (already) established,” Soucy said. “We had to take charge of our education really early on ... that really enriched my education,” she said.

Feb. 7, 2003

the University’s office of environmental Health and safety removed asbestos insulation during winter break from nearly 60 rooms in Wriston Quadrangle, the Herald reported.

though eHs director stephen Morin said asbestos is only dangerous when it is damaged, the University moved quickly to remove the insulation after a broken pipe in Goddard House led to a possible release of asbestos, the Herald reported.

“there’s not a lot of asbestos in dorm rooms,” Morin told the Herald at the time. “We’re actually pretty close to having no asbestos at all in all dorm rooms.”

Feb. 7, 1983

the Herald reported that the entire campus was “left without heat or water” when two of the three boilers broke down earlier in the week.

“Unshowered students shivered in dorm rooms and ate lunch at the ratty on paper plates with plastic silverware,” the Herald reported.

students were displeased, calling the outage “a pain,” the Herald reported.

Feb. 7, 1973

director of Housing Bob Hill and acting dean of student affairs James dougherty proposed that upperclassman dorms have proctors, the Herald reported.

the proctors were intended to act in the same manner as first-year advisers and relay information about dormitory goings-on to administrators.

some questioned whether the proctors would actually be useful to students and where funding would come from to pay them, the Herald reported.

Feb. 7, 1963

the Cammarian Club defeated a proposal to eliminate the freshman Week Committee in a 12-8 vote. four other proposals were passed separately, the Herald reported at the time.

the other proposals included an increase in “spirit-raising” meetings during freshman Week, mandatory guided tours for all first-years upon their arrival to campus and a “beer party and weiner roast” at the then-new Haffenreffer Museum of anthropology. an amendment was passed, stipulating that the “serving of alcoholic beverages is to be contingent upon the approval of the University.”

the Cammarian Club would later be replaced by the Undergraduate Council of students.

By k i k i B a r n e s , M a r i ya B a s H k ato va , e M i ly B o n e y a n d s a M H e f t - lU t H y

s e n i o r s ta f f W r i t e r s

today in University History/ / dual page 1

gun violence4 tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

By adaM tOObinCity & state editor

Following the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — when 20 children and six educators were murdered — several Rhode Island officials have broached the subject of strengthening the state’s gun laws.

Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun restrictions in the coun-try — only California, New york, Mas-sachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and Hawaii received higher scores from the Brady Campaign to

Prevent Gun Violence, an organization that advocates increased gun control across the country. But the recent trag-edy has galvanized gun control advo-cates to push for restrictions usually outside the realm of debate, such as a statewide ban on all semiautomatic weapons.

State legislators have not intro-duced any gun control bills on the floor of the General Assembly, but Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 has convened a task force of legislators, public safety officials, law enforcement officials and the attorney general “to understand what the law currently requires, what changes may or may not need to be made,” said Christine Hunsinger, Chafee’s press secretary.

Rep. teresa tanzi, D-South Kings-town, Narragansett, said she is work-ing on legislation aimed at reducing the number of homicides committed with firearms. Though she has not

committed to any particular proposals, she said she is considering the merits of banning many military-style assault weapons as well as limiting ammu-nition magazines to 10 rounds and improving the enforcement of laws already on the books.

Rhode Island is one of three states and Washington, D.C. that require a minimum seven-day waiting period before the purchase of any firearm, though several other states have wait-ing periods for some firearms and not others, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. It also man-dates that individuals secure a “safety

certificate” — a license obtained after a minimum two-hour class in gun safety — before purchasing a handgun or selling firearms.

Gun control advocates point to these restrictions to explain Rhode Island’s low rate of gun murders, as well as other policies, like requiring gun owners to report to the authori-ties the loss or theft of a firearm — in place in seven states, including Rhode Island, as well as Washington, D.C. Gun homicides killed about .57 out of every 100,000 Rhode Islanders in 2011, one-fifth of the national average, according to the Guardian. Louisiana had the highest rate of firearm mur-ders of any state, with 10.16 of every 100,000 Louisianans dying from gun violence in 2011.

Rhode Island may not have the most acute gun problem in the coun-try, tanzi said, but there is still “no need for (residents) to have these

types of military weapons.” After the Newtown shooting, Rhode Islanders were “forming a line” to talk about additional gun control, she said. tanzi said most people were willing to have frank discussions about the merits of gun control, but she added that she was disappointed that “second amendment advocates have drawn their line in the sand,” opposing all restrictions on military-style assault weapons.

Semiautomatic firearms are often defined as assault weapons — a po-litical, not technical, classification — when they share features commonly found on military weapons, such as pistol grips or flash suppressors.

Rep. Michael Chippendale, R-Foster, Glocester and Coventry, said he would examine any bill that came to the floor of the House but would refuse to “support any form of gun control that is going to be simply for the pur-poses of making something happen for the sake of making something hap-pen.” Since the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban failed to reduce gun violence across the country, Rhode Islanders should not expect a state law to make an impact, he said. “It’s been proven — statistically proven — that an assault weapons ban does not prevent crime.”

Chafee is refraining from com-menting on any pending legislation before a bill comes to his desk for his

signature or veto, Hunsinger said. Bills often change substantially before pass-ing through the legislature, she added.

Calls for action

In the wake of the Newtown shoot-ing, New york Governor Andrew Cuomo spearheaded gun control legis-lation that included a ban on military-style assault weapons, an expansion of background checks and a seven-round limit on magazine capacity.

Some gun control advocates have pushed the legislature to go even fur-ther than New york to ban all semi-automatic weapons. The Providence City Council passed a resolution Jan. 4, requesting the General Assembly ban all ‘semiautomatic weapons’ in Rhode Island.

Semiautomatic weapons are fire-arms that fire a bullet, extract and eject the casing and then reload the cartridge in the firing chamber from one pull of the trigger. Chippendale said 90 percent of firearms fall into this category — under a semiauto-matic weapon ban, only pump-action shotguns and revolvers would be legal.

Councilman Sam Zurier said he supported the resolution because he wants to cut the number of gun deaths in Providence. But he added that at the time of the vote he did not understand how widely the term ‘semiautomatic weapons’ applies. “Probably, in hind-sight, (the resolution) might go a little further than I would like,” he said.

Michael Hammond, the legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, a national gun advocacy organization with about 300,000 members nation-ally, said his organization opposes

all gun control at both the state and national levels. “No one thinks any of these things would have had any impact on Newtown,” he said. He added that he “understand(s) what the game is — pick a tragedy for its political benefit.”

Zurier defended the principle be-hind the bill, arguing that a city should “have sensible controls on these weap-ons in an urban environment.” Since “there’s not a lot of hunting in the city of Providence … there’s no need for people to carry these things around,” he said.

Though Zurier said he did not know if one state enacting restric-tions on assault weapons could make a difference, “if several states step up” like New york did, then “maybe” gun violence would fall. If Rhode Island leads on the issue of gun violence, it “could spur on additional states,” he added.

Chippendale pointed to illegal gun ownership and a culture that glorifies gun violence to explain the high rate of violence across the country. “I feel the more law abiding citizens who possess (guns) legally and rightfully … the less crime there will be in an area,” he said.

The state can crack down on illegal guns, and as long “you are able to … walk into any house and the kids are playing games blowing peoples’ heads off,” firearm murders will still be a

problem, Chippendale said. “While Hollywood is promoting gun control, they have Sylvester Stallone promot-ing” his new movie called ‘Bullet to the Head.’

“When we make violence okay, it’s going to happen,” he said.

Despite the passage of the city council resolution about a month ago, it seems unlikely the proposed ban on all semiautomatic weapons will ever go before the General Assembly.

Sen. Harold Metts, D-Providence, said he planned to introduce a bill in the legislature on behalf of the city but was still uncertain about what specific provisions the mayor would request. He said he did not think the mayor is looking to ban all semiau-tomatic weapons, only assault weap-ons. “Those large-capacity magazines, assault weapons for war — on city streets, we certainly don’t need all of that,” he said.

Providence Mayor Angel taveras reiterated his support for increased gun control measures in his State of the City address last week. “One crime is too much crime, and the job of keeping our city safe never ends,” he said in his speech. “I am committed to passing reasonable, common-sense gun control legislation this year that puts Rhode Island in line with our neighboring Massachusetts and Con-necticut.”

Last year, Metts introduced a bill that would have allowed the state’s cit-ies and towns to pass their own laws regarding gun control. Currently, only the General Assembly is permitted to legislate on gun control. He said he thought a similar provision might be

in the bill again, but he added that tav-eras was concerned rural areas might use such a law to remove restrictions on gun ownership. Connecticut has averted this problem by only allowing its towns freedom to add gun control restrictions more stringent than those in state law.

“Especially in a small state like Rhode Island, access to guns will de-pend on not only laws in one specific city, but laws of other cities,” said Brian Knight, professor of economics, who has studied the national movement of guns from states with lenient gun laws to states with strict gun laws. “It is relatively difficult for cities to pass laws” that effectively curtail gun own-ership, because people can buy guns in other towns and municipalities with more lenient laws, he said.

Chippendale went further, arguing that a bill giving legislative authority to municipalities does not make sense. “A state like Rhode Island could never have 39 individual municipalities have their own various concealed weapon ordinances, discharge ordinances, transportation ordinances,” he said. “It would be absolute mayhem for the police department.”

Hammond said he also opposes this legislation, because “states tend to mellow out their crazier anti-gun aspects.” If municipalities “think they can cause problems for gun owners, I think in fact they will.”

Outside interestsDespite Rhode Island’s consistent

support of gun control, opposition to new restrictions remains visible, espe-cially in the more rural areas. “People want to keep their guns,” said Wendy Schiller, associate professor of politi-cal science, but “legislators will act when they think it will actually make a difference.”

Though both branches of the Gen-eral Assembly have strong democratic majorities, the National Rifle Asso-ciation donated $13,375 to various representatives and senators during the last election cycle, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which received its infor-mation from the Rhode Island Board of Elections. Donations included $2,000 to Senate president M. teresa Paiva-Weed, D-Newport, $1,600 to Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, D-Providence and $500 to Chippendale, among others, over the past two years.

While no one can determine for sure how much of an effect, if any, the donations will have on an effort to pass stricter gun legislation, Schil-ler said, “Nationally and at the state level, the NRA is influential because it gives money.” But she added that the NRA is “most influential in states that care about guns” more than Rhode Island does.

tanzi said she thought lobbyist dol-lars would have no effect on the debate in the General Assembly. Donations from groups like the NRA do “not pro-vide (lobbyists) with any special access to the legislators,” she said. “There is no understanding with lobbyists that we will be voting any more one way or another.” But she added that she cannot “say that’s an absolute.”

The National Institute on Money in State Politics did not list any gun control advocacy groups among the major donors in the past two years.

state discusses legislation to lower gun homicide rateA committee of legislators will explore policy changes in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook

“When we make violence okay, it’s going to hap-pen.”

Michael ChippendaleState Representative, R-Foster, Glocester and Coventry

“one crime is too much crime, and the job of keeping our city safe never ends.”

angel taverasProvidence Mayor

gun violence 5tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

By Gabrielle dee and PhOebe draPer

staff writer and senior staff writer

President Obama’s recent executive or-ders on gun violence in America will increase gun-related research on the University campus — a field that has been stifled since a 1996 statute barred federal agencies such as the Center for Disease Control and the National Insti-tutes of Health from funding gun-related research, University researchers said.

Several University professors have spoken out in favor of Obama’s initiative to remove past barriers to gun-related research and signed a Jan. 10 letter ad-dressed to Vice President Joe Biden by the University of Chicago Crime Lab calling to expand research on gun vio-lence.

While the University’s gun-related research has been stymied by funding barriers and limited access to firearm data over the last several decades, Uni-versity researchers told The Herald they were hopeful Obama’s recent order will remove barriers to research and breathe new life into the field.

signature of supportLess than a month after the school

shooting in Newtown, Conn., several University professors signed the letter to Biden.

In its letter, the Crime Lab recom-mended the federal government invest

directly in gun violence research and remove “current barriers to firearm-related research,” such as limitations on accessing federal data about gun owner-ship, according to the letter.

Though gun research is not in his area of expertise, “it just seems reason-able that research should be treated equally to other important issues,” said Nathaniel Baum-Snow, associate pro-fessor of economics and urban studies. “I don’t think that research should be limited by statute.”

Though the topic of gun research has yet to come up in Baum-Snow’s lectures, he said it is a likely source of discussion in upcoming meetings for his class ECON 1410: “Urban Economics.”

Gun research is important because it provides evidence-based recommen-dations for public policy, said Megan Ranney, assistant professor in the de-partment of emergency medicine.

“Creating policy based on emotion is often the way laws get created,” she said. “But without science and evidence behind it, we often see laws don’t have the intended effect.”

the lobbying effect The force behind the federal restric-

tions is the National Rifle Association, Ranney said. A powerful interest group, the NRA encouraged a group of Repub-lican senators to pass the gun research ban in 1996, she added.

Since the ban’s passage, “the number of public health researchers (looking into gun-related issues) has decreased

pretty precipitously,” Ranney said. “Most of the good articles you find are from the 1990s.”

Ranney said claims that gun-related research is too political were misled.

“The whole idea of research as po-litical is baloney,” she said. “Research is research — it’s done scientifically.”

barriers to fundingOn campus, there is “no coordinat-

ed effort on gun-related research,” said Brian Knight, professor of economics. “It’s more individuals pursuing their own

research agenda.” The lack of federal funding “certainly hampers research in the area,” he added.

Knight’s own interest in gun research was sparked when he heard anecdotal evidence of a gun trafficking network between states with strict gun laws and states with loose laws, he said.

Analyzing data about where guns were purchased versus where they were later found, Knight discovered that a significant fraction of American firearms — approximately one-third — were pur-chased in a different state from where they were found, he said.

tracing data — information that allows researchers to “trace” where a gun was purchased — used to be widely accessible to researchers, Knight said. But in 2003, the federal government heavily restricted access to this data, he said. As a result, Knight was forced to examine aggregate data by state, rather than tracing data on individual firearms, to conduct his study.

“We tend to see a lot of flow from states with weak laws to states with strong laws,” Knight said. “What this means is that states don’t have complete control over their gun policy.”

This results in a “lowest common denominator” effect, whereby states with the least strict laws set a standard for gun acquisition that ultimately affects many more states as firearms are transported across state lines, Knight said. This is the cost of “a patchwork of policies” rather than a stronger federal law infrastructure that dictates gun laws across states.

Knight did not receive federal fund-ing for his research, and he said doing so “isn’t easy for anyone” when it comes to studying guns.

The lack of federal funding affects other fields of study that would other-wise engage with gun-related research. “Public health and physician researchers are less likely to do research on firearms because there is not money for it from the NIH and CDC,” Ranney said.

“It’s really difficult to do good re-search on firearms if you are not get-ting funding from any sort of national organization, “ Ranney said, adding that

there have been a number of researchers at the Injury Prevention Center who have been blackmailed for pursuing gun-related research.

to skirt the federal government’s restrictions on gun-related research, Ranney said researchers pursue gun research discreetly.

Ranney is currently researching on violence among adolescents and has re-ceived federal funding to examine ways to prevent teenage girls from getting into fights. In applying for funding, Ranney did not mention firearms, but when sur-veying her subjects, she included several questions about whether they have been put in front of a gun, she said.

data problemsLimited access to data has affected

the research efforts of Emilio Depetris-Chauvin GS, who recently authored a study currently under review for pub-lication that analyzes the effect gun de-mand had on Obama’s election in 2008.

The study found an increased de-mand for guns in 2008 — a phenom-enon Depetris Chauvin dubbed the “Obama effect” — that was correlated with a fear of future Obama gun-control policy and racial prejudice, according to the study.

to conduct his research, Depetris-Chauvin had to rely on national back-ground check reports. The 1994 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act re-quires gun purchasers at federal license stores to undergo a background check. While these data are helpful, gun pur-chases at gun shows are not included, he said. “you only have gun ownership data on the state level every ten years — that’s a problem,” he added.

Working with what he could — most notably data that told him how many monthy background checks were run in each state — Depetris-Chauvin tracked data beginning in March 2007. Because there was no reliable agency tracking the number of guns or gun owners,

Depetris-Chauvin said he called every police department he could and got data directly from them.

The available data come at a price — Depetris-Chauvin said Chicago’s city survey, which included questions about firearms, would have cost him $1,000 to purchase.

What he found was a “huge surge” of gun purchases in November, especially the week before the election. Compared to the year before, there was an 80 per-cent increase in purchases, he said. There was also a “huge peak” in some particular states in July of 2008, when “people started to get information about Obama winning the election,” Depetris-Chauvin said.

Obama’s orderExpanding gun research and the new

laws Obama has proposed to curb gun violence have met controversy due to criticisms that gun research is inher-ently political.

“Only honest, law-abiding gun own-ers will be affected, and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy,” the National Rifle As-sociation said in a statement. Critics of Obama’s plan have expressed skepti-cism the new laws would result only in a drainage of the nation’s budget and a hassle for the average gun-owner, rather than a stop to mass shootings.

But without trying, researchers can-not know if their work will curb gun violence, Baum-Snow said.

Knight said gun violence research is important in the current sociopoliti-

cal climate because the United States is an “exceptional case” when it comes to gun policy. The United States has weaker gun laws and higher gun owner-ship rates than comparable nations and much higher gun violence and homicide rates, Knight said.

Obama’s executive order to appropri-ate money for gun-related research is now in the holding pen until Congress appropriates money for the fund, Ran-ney said.

“If Congress provides money for re-search into firearms, there will absolutely be an increase in research,” she said. The timeline “really depends on Congress and how quickly they move.”

Michael Mello, associate professor of emergency medicine and associate professor of health services, policy and practice, said he thinks reforms in re-search will decrease gun violence. “There is no one clear solution to a complex problem,” he said. In the same way mul-tiple levels of intervention were neces-sary to decrease motor vehicle crashes by 31 percent, the issue of gun violence must also involve “multiple interven-tions,” Mello said.

Ranney predicted that as soon as the federal ban is released, researchers will launch projects examining gun-related issues. The first projects would be “small-scale research,” while larger projects would take more time to receive funding due to the extensive application process, Ranney said.

“People aren’t going to be afraid any-more that it is going to blackmail their research career,” she said.

Gun violence scholars face data, funding barriersObama’s executive order may rejuvenate a research field that has seen sparse funding for nearly 20 years

0

$500,000

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2005-2008

2001-2004

1997-2000

1993-1996

Decline in CDC gun research funding

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g Source: CNN

disparity in nih research awards

Cholera, diphtheria,polio and rabies

2,068total cases, 1973-2012

486niH research awards

Injuries fromfirearms

Over 4 milliontotal cases, 1973-2012

3niH research awards

Source: University of Chicago Crime Lab

“The whole idea of research as political is baloney. research is research — it’s done scientifically.”

Megan ramneyAssistant Professor in the department of Emergency Medicine

“only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be af-fected, and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy.”

national rifle associationPress Release

university news6 tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

By hannah kerManstaff writer

The University’s graduate students could stand to benefit from a proposed immigration reform that would grant more cards for international graduate students studying science, technology, engineering and math.

The legislation was announced Jan. 28 by a bipartisan group of four Demo-crats and four Republicans in the U.S. Senate known as the “Gang of Eight.” The proposed legislation also includes a path to citizenship for those who have lived most of their lives in the United States. The White House has also jumped into the immigration policy debate with a four-pronged plan to “fix the broken im-migration system” that includes granting green cards to students with advanced degrees in StEM fields, according to a memo released Jan. 29.

The University’s graduate school contains 1,973 students, 681 of whom hail from abroad. Of those students, 471

are involved in life sciences, said Bev-erly Larson, communications director of the graduate school. PhD and master’s students have had difficulty obtaining the necessary visas to stay and work in the U.S, said Peter Weber, dean of the graduate school.

the current system is especially problematic for graduates who would like to start companies, Weber said.

“Visa issues are always at the front of their minds,” Weber said. “It makes it very hard for enterprising students to strike out on their own.”

Weber cited an example from a few years ago when a PhD graduate in engineering at the University began a company that used a new nanoparticle technology to clean up mercury spills. The company prospered for a few years, but Weber said its founder was unable to receive a visa to continue operations in the U.S. He was forced to leave, and the company was left without a CEO.

“It was a regrettable situation,” Weber said, adding that both the company and the local economy suffered from overly rigid immigration laws that caused a Rhode Island-based firm to cease op-erations.

Weber cited the instance as evidence of damage done to the state economy

by visa restrictions that forced talented Brown graduate students to leave the country.

Newly-elected Graduate Student Council president Matthew Lyddon GS criticized immigration laws that placed a legal obstacle to foreign graduate stu-dents completing their studies.

“Universities put so much time and resources into these foreign graduate students — it makes no sense to make them leave as a default,” Lyddon said.

Lyddon, a Welsh graduate student pursuing a PhD in political theory, said he was also concerned with the Senate immigration reform proposal to only grant visas to students in StEM depart-ments.

“The StEM subjects do not have a monopoly on creating innovators and entrepreneurs,” Lyddon said.

He added that restricting the green cards to StEM disciplines limits the economic benefit derived from com-prehensive visa reform.

Foreign PhD candidates under con-sideration for assistant professorships often struggle to stay in the U.S. unless the University has the funds to cover the lengthy and expensive visa process, Lyddon said.

Those who stay in the country as

professors can merit their new citizen-ship through teaching American stu-dents for over twenty or thirty years, Lyddon said.

While he sees the proposed reforms as progress, he added that he thinks the discussions need to broaden beyond the StEM disciplines. Lyddon also re-ferred to recent media coverage of the

Founding Fathers’ support for integrat-ing immigrants into America’s society and workforce.

“I understand that the country today is under different pressures,” Lyddon said. “But if you go and do the math, you see how much money is invested in graduate students in top-flight uni-versities.”

‘Gang of eight’ proposes new immigration policy

saM kase / Herald

u.s. senators have proposed a new immigration policy that would help provide steM majors an easier path to citizenship.

The legislation would give green cards to those who finish advanced degrees in STEM fields

g U n d e b at e

laUren Galvan / Herald

the rhode island state house has been the site of many recent deliberations on gun control and mental health policy.

gun violence 7tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

ergy and resources policing marijuana, and they will be able to focus more on

“fighting violent crime” if the bill passes, Ajello

said. Under marijuana prohibition, the state is “spending hard-earned tax dol-lars … incarcerating people who choose to consume a substance that appears to be less harmful than alcohol,” Nes-selbush said.

A regulated market for marijuana would create much-needed tax revenue for the state, Ajello said. Nesselbush said it was irresponsible to “leave it up to criminals” to choose buyers for their product, especially when the state could create a new market with new jobs and taxable income. tax revenue from mari-

juana sales would be used to fund drug education and treatment for those who need it, Nesselbush said. She said the bill would receive support from working-class members of her district when it became clear that the legalization of marijuana would not increase its use.

“Nationwide support (for legaliza-tion) is at an all-time high,” bolstered by the success Washington and Colorado have had with similar legislation, Ajello said. She has introduced similar bills last year and the year before without success.

If marijuana were to be legalized, the bill states that purchases would be limited to an ounce at a time, and the state would leverage a $50 per-ounce wholesale tax.

Legalization on a national scale would result in savings in govern-ment spending and sales tax revenue

that would add up to between $10 and $14 billion, according to a report by Jeffery Miron, an economics professor at Harvard.

Ajello cited Rhode Island’s defiance of the national prohibition of alcohol 80 years ago, when it was the only state in the nation to “recognize that such a system was bound to fail” and “refuse to ratify the 18th amendment.” She said the legalization of marijuana would solve many of the same problems that prohibi-tion created, such as illegal activity and underage use. During prohibition, “the product remained, as did the supply,” Ajello said.

“I see myself as a no-nonsense sen-ator,” said Nesselbush, “And this bill makes sense … and dollars and cents.”

“This is not such a liberal, wild-haired idea,” Ajello added.

/ / Pot page 1

state rep. edith ajello, d-Providence, proposed a bill that would legalize marijuana for adult purchase and consumption in r.i.

By eMily bOneysenior staff writer

two months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., legislators, teachers and admin-istrators have rekindled a debate on improving the safety of Rhode Island’s public schools.

State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist and members of the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Education are working on creating a school safety plan that could be en-acted statewide. The model would allow individual school districts to “go over their plans and make sure they have all the required elements,” said Elliot Krieger, communications assistant to the commissioner. He added that the state’s plan would be composed of “the best elements” from existing school safety plans.

Safety plans cover a wide range of topics, ranging from teacher protocol during drills to recovery after an inci-dent. Krieger said that instead of making the schools’ administrators read through the actual law, a model safety plan would ensure maximum efficiency and efficacy in each school’s planning process by pro-viding only the necessary information.

The presence of armed guards at some urban schools while other schools — primarily in suburban and rural com-munities — are not guarded has created controversy due to its perceived neglect of certain communities. Krieger said not all schools employ armed guards, and the state legislature defers to po-lice discretion on which schools require heightened security measures.

“Rhode Island schools are safe, but that doesn’t mean that a tragedy can’t happen anywhere,” Krieger said.

School safety plans have to be ex-tremely detailed, with planned responses to a number of different scenarios, he said, adding that they are reviewing “what laws (they) need to strengthen, and how (they) can improve current practices.”

In a school safety hearing Jan. 22, Gist said public schools are “safe and healthy places for teaching and learn-ing,” but added that violence and haz-ards can occur anywhere, so it is best to be prepared.

The state is also looking to imple-ment a master price agreement with a security company, Krieger said, ensuring low prices for door security systems if a school chooses to upgrade.

Rhode Island has one of the strictest school safety plans in the nation, Krieger said. Every year, schools are supposed to conduct 15 emergency response drills with their students. The commissioner is planning to issue a suggestion that at least one of these drills happen early in the year to ensure immediate readiness, Krieger said.

r.I. legislators propose update to school safety plan The state aims to revamp school safety policy as a response to last year’s Sandy Hook shooting

eMily Boney / Herald

Herald file PHoto

a commision of rhode island legislators, school teachers and administrators are working to develop a plan to increase school safety in case of a school shooting or other emergency situation.

city & state

gun violence8 tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

By Mariya bashkatOvasenior staff writer

All four members of Rhode Island’s con-gressional delegation have taken leading roles in Congress advocating additional federal gun control regulations. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., have all either introduced or supported bills in the current session of Congress that promote what they call “common-sense” gun safety laws like universal background checks for firearm purchases.

The four members of the delegation are co-sponsoring a bill that would re-quire a background check to purchase a firearm at a gun show, removing the “gun show loophole.” While government regulations require all firearm dealers to perform background checks, person-to-person sales are free of this restriction.

The legislators are also co-sponsoring a bill that would ban the sale or posses-sion of “ammunition feeding devices” — such as magazines — that have a capacity of more than 10 rounds. Whitehouse, Cicilline and Reed are also co-sponsor-ing the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, which would reinstate the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, eliminating ac-cess to a variety of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The bill, if enacted, would never expire.

Michael Hammond, legislative coun-sel of Gun Owners of America — an organization with about 300,000 mem-bers — said he opposed what he called President Obama’s cynical attempt to use a tragedy for political gain. “We under-stand what the game is. No one thinks any of these things would have had an impact on Newtown,” he said.

Hammond said he thought Obama was pushing gun control legislation to make it harder for Republicans to return to power. “If he can destroy the Second Amendment community — the last ma-jor leg on which the Republican Party ground game rests — Obama can destroy any effective opposition to the liberal agenda for the foreseeable future,” he said. “It’s about Obama’s ruthless efforts to destroy the people who oppose him.”

Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy, said she thinks Obama sees “gun violence as an epidemic that disproportionately affects the poor” and that his support for gun control is not very politically motivated. “Everything else he wants

to do is designed to put the Republi-cans in a bad position,” but “it would be counter-productive of him to go after guns,” she said. A fight over gun control “only mobilizes people that are most adamantly worried about guns — and they vote Republican.”

In addition to the bills he is co-sponsoring, Cicilline has introduced legislation that would close a loophole allowing gun providers whose licenses have been revoked or have expired to transfer their remaining inventory to their personal collection, said Richard Luchette, Cicilline’s communications director. Gun merchants with lapsed licenses can currently sell firearms as private citizens without nearly as much regulatory oversight, he said. Cicilline ,a founding member of Mayors against Illegal Guns — a coalition of mayors dedicated to cracking down on illegal gun use — has also pursued a “com-prehensive effort to require background checks on gun sales.”

Langevin has proposed the Crack-down on Deadbeat Gun Dealers Act in Congress, which would increase the number of annual inspections on fire-arm merchants’ sale-records and raise penalties for violations. Currently, a disproportionately large number of guns used in crimes can be traced to a small number of irresponsible gun deal-ers, said Jonathon Dworkin, Langevin’s spokesman.

Langevin has had a personal connec-tion to gun control since he was para-lyzed in a gun accident in a police station locker room as a teenager, Dworkin said.

If an accident can occur in “a police station with two weapons experts … an accident could happen anywhere,” he said. Much of the legislation he supports is focused on “keeping guns out of the wrong hands” by means of background checks, Dworkin said.

Reed, a former officer in the U.S. Army, supports improved mental health care and more controls on the availability of assault weapons, according to a press release. “Assault weapon” is a political term commonly used to describe semi-automatic weapons with military-style features, like flash suppressors and pistol grips.

“I served in the Army, and I’ve used military-style weapons. Let’s be clear — they are designed to rapidly kill,” Reed said in a press release.

Langevin and Cicilline were ap-pointed to the Gun Violence Protec-tion task Force, a committee of House Democrats that will propose legislative options on gun control for Congress and the president. “The goal of the task force is to recommend a set of policy proposals to reduce gun violence,” Luchette said.

Intense partisanship around gun

control legislation in Congress prom-ises to impede progress on any of the delegation’s proposals. Of the legislation under consideration, background check laws are most likely to pass because it will be “harder for the (National Rifle Association) and (its) Democratic sup-porters to argue against” them, Schil-ler said. Many gun owners are in favor of safety precautions like background checks, even if they disagree with bans on specific firearms, Dworkin said.

Garnering support for bills restrict-ing access to weapons or high-capacity magazines will be much more difficult, Schiller said. An assault weapons ban will be “impossible” to pass in Congress,

Schiller added, because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opposes the bill.

She said the ban is unpopular be-cause it would only prevent gun own-ers who purchase weapons legally from obtaining access to firearms. Criminals who have illegal weapons will still com-mit violence, she added. Though limiting high-capacity magazines is important, “trying to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them” would be more popular and effective, Schiller said.

Keeping the public’s attention on the issue is integral to the success of gun control legislation, Dworkin said. The Sandy Hook shooting “really shocked

the conscience of our whole nation, but even in the month and a half since then, we’ve seen close to 1,500 people killed across the country by gun violence,” Luchette said.

to raise awareness of gun violence, Langevin and Cicilline are each invit-ing someone who has been affected by firearms to the President’s State of the Union next week, Dworkin said. Each member of Congress receives one guest ticket to the address.

“For advocates for gun safety to be successful, it’s really important that people across the country are making their voices heard and compelling their government to act,” Dworkin said.

r.I. Congress delegation supports federal gun restrictionsBills would expand background checks, close loopholes and limit magazine capacity

examples of firearms that would be banned underthe assault weapons ban of 2013

ak-47

ar-15

M&P15

gun violence 9tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

Old lace | veena vignale

Co m i C s

By Maxine jOselOw senior staff writer

Rhode Island officials are taking steps to improve the state’s mental health care system to prevent violent trag-edies after the Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Dec. 14.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., introduced legislation Jan. 23 that would give federal funding to states to prevent teen suicide and violence. the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Reauthoriza-tion annually allocates $44 million “to help states and non-profit institutions prevent youth suicide,” according to a Senate press release.

“the horrific mass shootings we’ve seen at schools across the coun-try show that more work must be done to address the mental and be-havioral health of children and young adults before they hurt themselves and others,” Reed said, according to the press release.

“Many young people have treat-able mental illnesses, but they don’t get the help they need,” he added. “In Rhode Island there are more than twice as many suicides as homicides. We can do more to help schools, col-leges and universities prevent youth suicide.”

Susan Jacobsen, executive direc-tor of the Mental Health Associa-tion of Rhode Island, said the state’s community mental health centers — which have suffered from a de-crease in federal funding over the last decade — could benefit from the increased federal backing that Reed’s bill proposes.

While Reed’s bill assumes people with mental illness are more likely to commit acts of violence, most men-tally ill individuals do not become violent, Jacobsen said. Select men-tally ill individuals “with a history of violence and … substance abuse disorder can be at a higher risk of harm to self or others,” but in general, mentally ill people are more likely to be victims of crimes than to commit them, she said.

“I think we have falsely perpe-trated the myth that people with men-tal illness are dangerous,” she added. “the research doesn’t bear that out.”

the Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation is also mak-

ing efforts to improve the state’s men-tal health care system. RIPCPC re-cently forged an alliance with Rhode Island’s Behavioral Health Providers that “will allow RIPCPC’s physicians to smoothly facilitate direct referral to competent, capable and available behavioral health professionals in a timely manner,” according to a press release from the organization.

“Without this type of concrete re-lationship between behavioral health and primary care, you’re not going to make as much of an improvement in terms of (patients’) outcomes,” said Noah Benedict, chief operating of-ficer of RIPCPC.

In the past, patient confidentiality policies posed an obstacle to effective communication between RIPCPC and Behavioral Health Providers, Benedict said. the two organizations will discuss and refine these policies as they move forward in their alli-ance, he added.

While Reed’s bill and RIPCPC’s alliance represent the most recent attempts at reforming Rhode Island’s mental health care system since Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 created the Rhode Island Health Benefits Ex-change in 2011.

“the purpose of the exchange is to provide a mechanism for the public to access health insurance and a vari-ety of products in a way that is cost-efficient,” said Christine Hunsinger, Chafee’s press secretary.

State Rep. Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick, Cranston, said the exchange is a “great idea” that may address the discrepancy between public and pri-vate insurances’ coverage of mental health.

Rhode Island’s mental health care reform echoes President Obama’s recent proposals in response to the Newtown shooting, which include “increasing access to mental health services,” stricter background checks for gun buyers and more security in schools, according to a White House press release.

Obama’s proposals would provide funding to school districts to equip teachers with the skills and resources needed to recognize mental illness. they would also finalize regulations compelling private health insurers and Medicaid to provide additional coverage for mental health care, ac-cording to the press release.

Outlining these proposals at a White House press conference a month after the Newtown shooting, Obama said “We are going to need to work on making access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun.”

state seeks to improve mental health care systemOfficials will use federal funds and legislation to bolster the care R.I. delivers to the mentally ill By MarGaret Farris

ContribUting writer

two state representatives proposed legislation in January to eliminate the master lever — a tool that allows voters

to select every candidate from any party with a

single mark on the ballot. The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Michael

Marcello, D-Cranston, and Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, Burrill-ville, said they aim to encourage voters to learn more about specific candidates instead of voting along party lines, according to a press release from the General Assembly.

The current policy “wreaks havoc on local elections,” Newberry said. Vot-ers who use the master lever option to support candidates solely because of their party affiliation end up voting

for local candidates with whom they are unfamiliar, he added.

The legislation could also pressure candidates to increase campaigning instead of relying on support based on their party.

Ken Block, founder and chairman of the Moderate Party of Rhode Is-land, said the master lever creates an advantage for the state’s Democratic candidates.

“The average Democratic repre-sentative candidate starts out with a 16 percent advantage,” Block said. “In a great many races, this makes the dif-ference.”

Rhode Island is currently one of 16 states that has maintained the master lever ballot option.

“This argument has been made for decades and decades, and the Demo-cratically-controlled government has refused to allow a change,” Block said of Rhode Island.

After losing a bid for the governor’s office in 2010 as a moderate candidate, Block began his campaign to remove the master lever for the ballot. Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, an indepen-

dent, won the contest. A petition against the tool has

generated 1,664 signatures on Block’s website.

“Ballots show that voters are con-fused about the purpose of the master lever,” Block said. “Many voters believe it is an indication of their political phi-losophy.”

Rep. Thomas Palangio, D-Provi-dence, said he opposes the elimination of the master lever.

“Many times individuals don’t know who they’re voting for, and they should have the option to just vote for one party,” Palangio said, add-ing that more emphasis should be on party platforms and less on individual candidates.

“It means something to be a Demo-crat. It means something other than just a political party,” Palangio said.

He added that “no one is obligated to push the lever” — the lever is just one option voters have.

Democratic control in the Gen-eral Assembly may prevent a mote on the measure, Newberry said, but “if it comes to a vote, it will pass.”

‘Master lever’ ballot may be phased outThe option currently allows a voter to vote for every candidate from a particular political party

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editorial & letter10 tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

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Motto calls for moral living, not blind faithto the editor:

Jesse Hartheimer ’14 suggests the only meaning of “In God we hope” is a pious one and that it is appealing only to believers (“Hartheimer ’14: In rationis speramus,” Feb. 5). I have always personally interpreted our motto as more complex. Unlike putting our trust in God, our hope implies skepticism, a recognition that it may all be an “unjustified belief ” born of “misplaced ... confidence” we desire to be true.

“In deo speramus” has been, for me, a call for people to act in God’s stead. Be moral, improve the world, do good work here and now. Don’t rely on the belief something else will fix the world or infuse it with meaning for you. Hope for God, but it’s nothing to count on. What better mes-sage for an institution which is supposed to be preparing students for “discharging the offices of life with usefulness and reputation”?

Jason becker ’09 ’10aM

e d i to r i a l C a r to o n b y a n g e l i a w a n g

“i see myself as a no-nonsense senator, and this bill

makes sense … and dollars and cents.”— state sen. donna nesselbush ’84, d-Pawtucket

see pot on page 1.

e d i to r i a l

Law school has traditionally been a popular option for university graduates seeking to broaden their career opportunities, especially for those interested in law or public policy. Among others, political science, international rela-tions and history concentrators often consider pursuing a law degree either immediately or soon after graduating. Those who consider law school hoping to achieve gainful employment, six-figure salaries and elevated social statuses often view the expensive three-year venture as an attractive and logical option.

But an unsettling trend in the world of advanced degrees has sparked debate over the true opportunities a law school degree invites. tuition is soaring, student loan debt now outpaces credit card debt and, since the recession, lucrative employment is by no means a guarantee. For the first time, the American Bar Association released employment statistics for law school graduates from the class of 2011. According to the report, only half of that year’s graduates had a full-time, secure job that required a law degree nine months after graduating. While we believe law school can be part of a fulfilling life and career, we urge students to carefully consider the decision before taking on such a drastic investment of time, effort and money.

Nationally, the growing malaise among law schools has led to a decline in enrollment and the capacities of the schools themselves. Applications to law school are on pace to hit a 30-year low with only 27,891 people applying by mid-January, a 20 percent drop from this time last year and a staggering 38 percent drop from 2010. Only 40,000 students are projected to enroll, compared to a peak year in 2004, when Law School Admission Council records show some 100,000 students attended law school. Some schools have resorted to layoffs and buyouts or even lowering the cost of tuition to stay afloat. But there is a glut of law schools — 201 accredited by the ABA — and such a steep decline in public interest will almost surely lead to drastic program cuts or even closures.

Before panic ensues, Brunonians can take comfort in some good news. While the sobering statistics represent a larger trend of a struggling institution — a trend indisputably exacerbated by the economic downturn — top law schools continue to thrive. According to the ABA, a dozen top law schools, including the University of Virginia and N ew york University, reported that more than 80 percent of their graduates had full-time, long-term jobs.

Historically, the University has succeeded in placing graduates in these top law schools. For the law school class admitted in 2011, 183 of 201 Brown student and alum applicants were accepted — more than 20 percent above the national acceptance rate. Many Brown graduates matriculated at yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New york University School of Law, and Harvard Law School. About 80 percent of those who matriculated took at least one year off after their time at Brown.

Beyond Brown, other elite undergraduate and graduate schools over-whelmingly filled with students of more privileged socioeconomic back-grounds emerge as winners. The most recent economic recession has not affected Brown graduates as visibly as it has the rest of the nation. But there are unseen consequences that will emerge some years down the road, as more schools close down and fewer students consider law school as a viable option. Both graduate institutions and graduates must innovate and compromise to forge a path in the new normal for the legal field.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Dan Jeon, and its members, Mintaka Angell, Samuel Choi, Nicholas Morley and Rachel Occhiogrosso. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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law school doesn’t pass the bar

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An article in yesterday’s Herald (“Prof. discusses racial conflicts, lasting national legacy of 1965,” Feb. 6) incorrectly stated that in his Feb. 5 lecture at the Brown Bookstore, Professor Emeritus of History James Patterson said that “more than 500,000 Americans returned in caskets” from Vietnam and that columnist Art Buchwald wrote a piece “thanking God” Lyndon Johnson was president in 1965. In fact, Patterson said more than 500,000 U.S. troops were still in Vietnam when Johnson left office in early 1969. He also did not say Buchwald’s column thanked God for Johnson’s presidency. In fact, Patterson explained Buchwald’s column satirized Johnson and noted that his escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam was similar to a proposal advocated in 1964 by Johnson’s pro-war opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-AZ. The Herald regrets the error.

Co r r e C t i o n

GaBriella Corvese

opinions Columnist

kevin Cartyopinions Columnist

opinions 11tHE BROWN DAILy HERALDtHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

A few months ago on Facebook, a friend of mine wrote of how one friend’s perspective “as a white male in a fraternity” seemed to guide his opinion about sexual assault poli-cies at Brown. A couple days later, I saw one writer’s opinion explained away by another’s accusation that he was simply “bummed that his straightness, whiteness and dudeness got implicated in something negative.” I see this sort of posturing fairly often. In perennially sensitive debates about topics like race, sex, feminism or sexual assault, one participant, usually of a certain privileged status, brings up an opinion that goes against the grain, qualifies the question or challenges the con-ventional wisdom. And in response, he is often dismissed with some reference to his white, male or fill-in-the-blank privilege.

I do not like this trend. I find it to be a particularly unsavory, awful kind of identity politics, and I think it’s counterproductive.

I recently read a 1969 essay by feminist activist Carol Hanisch that I found helpful in deciphering this trend. The phrase “The Personal is Political” is both the title and the focus of her piece. In it, Hanisch writes that “personal problems are political problems,” and she encourages women and members of the women’s movement to recognize that the day-to-day injustices of their lives — such as men’s unwillingness to hire or date

them unless they “look pretty and giggle” or perceptions of them as “sensitive, emotion-al … (or) dumb” — are personal injustices that proceed from larger systems of power and control. It is worth organizing and act-ing against these systems of oppression, the sources of those original misdeeds.

to invert “The Personal is Political” is to say that the political — anything that com-ments on larger power relations — is per-sonal. This is where the Facebook posts come in. From this inverse angle, anything

from a rape joke to an online opinion can be deemed a result of the speaker’s own priv-ilege. So, when a friend of mine express-es an opinion about Brown’s sexual assault policies, it is safe to say, if one follows this line of reasoning, that his political speech is formed by his personal experience with-in a larger system. It is fair to chalk up his opinion to his privileged identity “as a white male in a fraternity.” It is not ridiculous to see others as shaped by social processes and to see their opinions as evidence of that in-fluence. It is not ridiculous — but it is det-rimental.

When we discount people’s opinions by saying they are shaped by privilege, we don’t

actually win the argument. The opinions they expound, regardless of how correct or incorrect they are, still stand. If a white guy posting on Facebook presents a rape myth, we should not expect to prove him wrong by saying he is posting such a thing because of his white male privilege. We should ex-pect to prove him wrong when we prove the myth wrong. Ideas don’t leave the pub-lic sphere because they get kicked out. They leave because they are incorrect.

Likewise, this practice discourages peo-

ple who might otherwise be involved sup-porters. When we tell others their speech results from their privileged circumstanc-es, we send two messages. On one level is the implicit idea that one cannot break free from those circumstances. Inevitably, we say, opinions will always be shaped by iden-tity. On another level, we say the opinion in question, and accordingly the speaker of that opinion, is not welcome. Shaped by a privilege he cannot seem to escape, the speaker is not a part of this movement, of this concept or of this conversation.

Lastly, by dismissing an opinion because of the unchosen identity of the person who gives that opinion, we do something that is

antithetical to the spirit of just about every social liberation movement. These move-ments — whether a feminist movement, civ-il rights movement or gay liberation move-ment — each gain great strength from their abilities to speak to persons as distinct indi-viduals rather than indistinguishable repre-sentatives of groups. The freedom to be seen as a unique being, filled with agency and originality, released from the burden of gen-der roles, racial stereotypes or heteronor-mativity, is a freedom for which each one of these movements strives. When we discard someone else’s opinion because of his privi-leged identity, we ignore this ideal. We see people as automatons, built by and trapped within a repressive system, rather than in-dividuals. There is a serious moral failing within that judgement. It is not fair, and it is not reflective of the countless differences and nuances that reside within each one of us, whether we are influenced by privilege or by oppression.

Most of the time that we see this bit of identity politics, it surrounds a difficult de-bate. But when we call out others’ privileg-es and discount opinions in the process, we tend to make those debates even more dif-ficult. So the next time a socially privileged person comments on a sensitive topic, think before you attribute his opinion to that which he cannot change.

kevin Carty ’15 is a political science con-centrator from Washington, d.C. He can

be emailed at kevin_carty@brown.edu or followed @Politicarty.

Identity politics is counter-productive

If I could make one suggestion to Pres-ident Christina Paxson on her strategic planning update, it would be to imple-ment a Brown/Johnson and Wales culi-nary dual degree program.

though I have a feeling this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, we still have an impressive variety of food here on Col-lege Hill. But not all of my peers agree with me. In fact, I have found some of my peers are more worried about the food here than they are about their exams. Food should not be a source of worry. At a school where certain foods are staples of our University culture — spicies with and Chicken Finger Friday come to mind — it is time we realize dining hall food isn’t going to kill us.

Considering Brown’s liberal and open-minded reputation, it is a surprise how quick we are to reject school food. the Ratty’s turkey and mashed potatoes do not compare to Mom’s thanksgiving feast, but that does not mean the food served on trays is inferior to that served on china. Most of us came to college to try new things, and people seem to forget that includes food.

First of all, I want to get one thing out of the way: there are no laxatives in

school food. I’m not sure where this col-legiate urban legend came from, but it is certainly just a rumor and nothing more. the Ratty’s black bean stew may take a different toll on your gastrointestinal tract than a plate of pasta does, but that

does not mean there are scheming dining services workers making sure your sys-tem gets flushed before the food poison-ing kicks in. And the title “the Ratty” is not a description of work conditions, but rather a nostalgic reference to campus lore. Have a little more faith in Brown’s food and dining workers, since they are only trying to make sure we aren’t study-ing on empty stomachs.

Even with that reassurance, are you still apprehensive about eating every meal in a dining hall? Change your meal plan. Brown offers plans for people who

need three meals a day and people who only snack. though some feel the pric-es of some plans do not match their val-ues, full meal plans are cost-effective in the long run since pooling money from all the smaller plans keeps the price of a

large one reasonable. For students with religious or medical reasons that prevent them from snacking with reckless aban-don, Brown also offers plenty of differ-ent meal plans to accommodate even the most stringent diets.

Regardless of options, though, do you constantly dread eating Blue Room sand-wiches and find Chicken Finger Friday to be a waste of a celebration? Go completely off meal plan and explore all of the food options around you. there are a hand-ful of events on campus every day offer-ing free food, as indicated by the phrase

“Kabob and Curry will be served” con-stantly punctuating event descriptions. And when free samosas begin to get old, you are left with Brown students’ most valuable food resource: the city. Recently dubbed “the creative capital,” Providence offers restaurants near and far to cre-atively fit every craving and desire.

And if you truly are unhappy with the food others are preparing for you, there is always cooking. the prospect can be intimidating to some, but with practice, the right ingredients and a little bit of research, you can go from microwaving Easy Mac to preparing white truffle and gruyere macaroni and cheese in no time. Just be careful with sharp knives, and please try not to burn anything down.

I, like many others, have opened my fridge, seen a plethora of goods and wist-fully declared, “there’s nothing to eat!” But I do hope the same stops applying to Brown. Food at Brown is what you make of it, and there are more than enough op-tions here and in Providence to feed the pickiest student. the dining halls may not be in Zagat or Michelin guides, but I am not afraid to speak the truth some of us are too stubborn to admit: the food here is pretty good.

When all else fails, though, Johnson and Wales is just a bus ride away.

Gabriella Corvese ’15 makes a mean stir-fry and can be reached at

gabriella_corvese@brown.edu

brown food is good food

the ratty’s turkey and mashed potatoes does not compare to Mom’s thanksgiving feast, but that does not mean the food that is served on trays instead of china is

inferior.

By dismissing an opinion because of the unchosen identity of the person who gives that opinion, we do

something that is antithetical to the spirit of just about every social liberation movement.

daily heraldtHe BrowN

city & statetHURSDAy, FEBRUARy 7, 2013

Racial profilingtwo state legislators introduced a proposal in the General

assembly this week to reinstate a policy of collecting data from traffic stops to curtail instances of racial profiling.

the legislation — introduced by rep. Joseph almeida, d-Providence, and rep. Grace diaz, d-Providence — will require police officers to document in writing their reason for pulling over a motorist or searching a pedestrian.

“as i’ve said for years, driving while black — or brown or any other color — is not a crime,” almeida said, according to a General assembly press release. “More than a decade after we first started collecting traffic stop information, those of us in the minority community know that we are still being stopped more often and getting searched for no good reason.”

legislation with similar intent has failed in the General assembly when police organizations expressed apprehension that such laws would hinder police work.

Sugary drinksa bill proposing a new $1.28 per gallon soft drink tax was

introduced by a group of legislators earlier this month.rep. larry valencia, d-Charlestown, exeter, richmond, rep.

teresa tanzi, d-south kingstown, narragansett, rep. arthur Handy, d-Cranston, rep. Maria Cimini, d-Providence, and rep. edith ajello, d-Providence, sponsored the bill, which stipulates that a sugary beverage is a “nonalcoholic beverage … containing sugar, corn syrup or any other high-calorie sweetener including … sodas, sports drinks or energy drinks.”

the legislation aims to decrease the obesity rate, which stands at 25.4 percent among rhode island adults.

restaurant owners have raised concerns that the tax will be bad for business. the Center for Consumer freedom stated sugary drinks are not the only contributor to obesity, though Harvard’s school of Public Health published a study last september showing they are a major factor.

manhole coversin an effort to prevent manhole theft, a bill heard in the House

Judiciary Committee today would prohibit scrap metal dealers from buying manhole covers without city consent.

the bill, sponsored by rep. elain a. Coderre, d-Pawtucket, comes in the wake of complaints from municipal officials about high rates of manhole cover theft.

a total of 230 manhole covers were stolen in Providence in 2012, racking up large costs for the city. the city recently passed a law similar to state legislation that requires scrap dealers to have a certificate from the city authorizing the purchase of their manhole covers.

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By Maxine jOselOwsenior staff writer

the Undergraduate Council of Stu-dents will vote next week on a pro-posal to formally oppose the federal sequester, said UCS treasurer Sam Gilman ’15.

the sequester — which was an-nounced by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan — would cut six per-cent of federal student aid for millions of students, Gilman said at the UCS meeting Wednesday night.

the council should take a stand against the sequester, Gilman said,

adding that he has drafted a resolu-tion he will invite members to review. He asked the council to vote on the resolution at its meeting next week.

Looking forward, UCS should send the resolution to other schools and “try to get them on board,” Gil-man said.

the federal sequester’s negative impact on students has not received adequate attention, Gilman added. “they haven’t gotten any press on this,” he said. “No one’s talking about the effect on students.”

Gregory Chatzinoff ’15, parlia-mentarian and UCS-UFB liaison, said he wondered whether the council’s formal opposition to the federal se-quester would mark the first time the council has “taken a partisan side on a political issue.”

Gilman said the issue of the fed-

eral sequester could not be divided along partisan lines.

the council also approved recat-egorizing 12 Category III groups that had not been spending their base-line funding. these groups included Brown EMts, BrownNation and Latin American Student Organization.

the group leaders did not respond in time to emails notifying them of their impending decategorization, so “there is no way they can appeal” the decision, said Student Activities Chair Alexander Kaplan ’14. “If it was that important to them, they would have responded,” Kaplan said.

“It’s not like they’re not going to be groups anymore,” said Afia Kwakwa ’14, chair of the Campus Life Com-mittee. “they’re just going down to Category II. they don’t need the money.”

uCs may stand against federal sequesterCongress’ inaction could lead to a 6 percent cut in financial aid students are eligible to receive

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