By Nicole Boucher

Contributing Writer

When the Berlin Wall, which served as a “symbol of difference and di-vision” between the east and the west sides of Germany, fell, it repre-sented the culmination of changes in Soviet Union policies in the 1970s and ’80s, Consul General Reiner Mockelmann told a small gathering at the Watson Institute for Interna-tional Relations Thursday night.

Mockelmann, a retired West German diplomat and director of the Summer School Wust, spent most of the lecture outlining his-torical transitions from the Berlin Wall’s implementation to modern concerns in a “unified Germany.”

“The concept of openness” which emerged under Soviet Gen-eral Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost — eco-nomic and political transparency — in 1986 and 1988 “led to major changes in Soviet society as well as profoundly changing East and West relations,” he said.

Increased demonstrations, in-cluding a million people gathering

in protest on Nov. 4, 1989, led to the final push before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Between 1990 and 1994, the Reunification Treaty was passed and the Soviet military left Germany, he said.

But, Mockelmann said, major problems arose even with the Berlin Wall’s collapse. After the wall came down, many residents

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News.....1-4A r t s . . . . . . 5Editorial..6Opinion...7Today........8

Black, gay at the hayA Rhode Island College professor opens a new exhibit at the John Hay

Arts, 5is it hot iN here?Pembroke Hall hosts experts in a lecture on climate change

News, 3WorkiNg hard, or —Tyler Rosenbaum ’11: Thank goodness lawmakers faced up to urgent matters

Opinions, 7

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deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 101 | Friday, November 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Poll: Students more satisfied with advisingBy haNNah Moser

aNd seth Motel

Senior Staff Writer and neWS editor

Student satisfaction with academic advising is on the rise — 10 percent higher this fall than a year and a half ago, a recent Herald poll found. Near-ly 60 percent of students reported they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with advising, compared to just under 50 percent

in spring 2008. A plurality of students, 40.6

percent, responded that they were somewhat satisfied and 19.1 percent said they were very satisfied.

First years were much more likely than upperclassmen to ap-prove of the advising system, with 75.1 percent reporting satisfaction, while this number dropped to 53.9 percent among the rest of the stu-dent body. Both numbers were sig-nificantly higher than they were in 2008, though that poll was conducted later in the academic year.

Administrators have changed many aspects of the advising sys-tem recently, including a revamped Faculty Fellows program and the addition of Advising Central, which makes faculty members available throughout the week in J. Walter Wilson.

The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 687 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald admin-istered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night.

A year after being elected presi-dent, Barack Obama remains popu-

lar among Brown students — though he enjoys less popularity than last year. The poll found that 77.2 percent of respondents approved of the way he is handling his job, while most national polls rank his job approval at about 50 percent. Of the poll’s respondents, 57.4 percent said they somewhat approved of Obama’s job and 19.8 percent said they strongly approved. In last fall’s Herald poll, conducted just before the election, 86.1 percent of students reported

that they would vote for him.Seven months after the last poll,

many students are still about as con-cerned about their families’ ability to finance their education. While 59.4 percent were confident of their abil-ity to finance their Brown education, 38.1 percent reported being worried, including 10.3 percent reporting that they were very worried.

Student opinion of President Ruth Simmons remains high, with 77.5 percent of respondents report-ing approval and 3.6 percent disap-proval. The distribution between those who strongly approved and those who somewhat approved was nearly even. 18.8 percent said they did not know or had no answer.

Approval of the Undergraduate Council of Students is relatively unchanged since last semester’s poll. Of those polled, 48.7 percent strongly or somewhat approved of UCS, with 10 percent reporting disapproval. 41.2 percent said they did not know or had no answer as opposed to 35.5 percent last year.

The poll found that a plurality of students support reinstating the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University, which was disbanded here in 1971. Though more than one-third of respondents said they did not know or had no answer, 41.3 percent of students said they would

remembering when GISPs were groovyBy alicia cheN

Staff Writer

As students scrambled to pre-reg-ister for courses this week, cer-tain people were looking outside Brown’s course catalog to pick their classes for next semester. By 3 p.m. Thursday, those stu-dents had to submit their propos-als for group independent study projects and independent study projects — curricular options created in 1969 as part of the New Cur-riculum.

“One of the classic Brown experiences is to do a GISP,” said Alison Cohen ’09, who did multiple independent studies during her time at Brown and is studying environmental policy on a Fulbright Scholarship in Belgium. Students who have participated are so enthusiastic

they “spread the gospel” to other students, Cohen said.

GISPs allow faculty to experi-ment with new courses and give groups of students a way to pur-sue what really interests them, said Professor Emeritus of Engi-neering Barrett Hazeltine.

Hazeltine, who teaches ENGN0090: “Management of Industrial and Non-profit Organi-

zations,” said the course — long one of Brown’s

most popular classes — origi-nated as a GISP.

In the inaugural year of the New Curriculum, more than 500 students participated in GISPs. But after flourishing for the first few years after their cre-ation — reaching a high of 50 projects in the 1974-75 academic year — GISPs have faded from

SPOTLIGHT

continued on page 4

continued on page 2

Freddy Lu / HeraldReiner Mockelmann spoke at the anniversary the fall of the Berlin Wall Thursday.

Diplomat remembers the wall’s fall

For Bears, one last shot at YaleBy daN alexaNder

Senior Staff Writer

Coming into this season, the football team’s seniors had — at some point in their college careers — beaten every team they have faced except three: the University of Rhode Island, Holy Cross and Yale. But the Bears beat URI, 28-20, in a home game on Oct. 3. The next week, they took down Holy Cross, 34-31. Now, only Yale remains.

The Bears will kick off against the Bulldogs at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Yale Bowl in New Haven.

Brown (4-3, 2-2 Ivy) is coming off a 14-7 overtime loss to Penn. The Quak-ers, now 4-0 in Ivy League play, stand at the top of the league standings, tied with Harvard.

“We had a tough one last week,” said cornerback David Clement ’10. “Definitely the fact that we haven’t beaten Yale is helping bring us back. And we’re definitely as motivated as any game we have had this year.”

Penn shut out the Bears’ offense last week, which had led the Ivy League in scoring before the game.

sPorts

continued on page 2

continued on page 3

the herald Poll

Very satisfied

somewhat satisfied

somewhat dissatisfied

strongly dissatisfied

don’t know/No answer

are you satisfied or dissatisfied with academic advising at Brown?

sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, PresidentMichael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, TreasurerAlexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday 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 members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260Daily Heraldthe Brown

FRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAGE 2

CamPuS newS “We definitely have something to prove.”— Football co-captain Paul Jasinowski ’10 on Saturday’s yale game

approve of reinstating ROTC, com-pared to 24.9 percent who said they would disapprove of reinstating it.

In the past month, about three-quarters of undergraduates have used alcohol and about one-third have used marijuana, the poll found. At 77.9 percent and 32.3 percent, respectively, they were the two most-commonly used substances. They were followed by tobacco (18.3 percent), prescription painkillers taken without a prescription (3.9 percent), amphetamines (3.8 per-cent) and cocaine (2.6 percent).

Levels of substance use have not significantly changed since the fall 2007 Herald poll.

In this semester’s poll, higher numbers of males reported using marijuana than females — 39.1 percent to 26.4 percent. Also, sig-nificantly fewer first-years — 67.8 percent — reported using alcohol than upperclassmen, 82.8 percent of whom said they had drunk alcohol in the past month. (Due to smaller sample sizes, there are margins of error of 5.2 percent for male re-spondents, 4.9 percent for female respondents, 6.9 percent forfirst-year respondents and 4.2 percent for

upperclassman respondents). Of those polled, 17.1 percent

indicated that they had engaged in some form of academic dishonesty this semester, most commonly by copying answers off another stu-dent’s homework or using outside resources in their work without cit-ing them properly.

About half of the students have attended at least one varsity sporting event as spectators this semester. First-years were more likely to have attended a game, with 59.4 percent responding that they had been to at least one game this semester compared to 47.3 percent of upper-

alcohol, marijuana remain popularcontinued from page 1

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Ruth Simmons is handling her job as president of Brown University? strongly approve: 39.7%Somewhat approve: 37.8%Somewhat disapprove: 2.9%Strongly disapprove: 0.7 %don’t know / No answer: 18.8% 2. Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Un-dergraduate Council of Students (UCS) is handling its job? Strongly approve: 10.0%Somewhat approve: 38.7%Somewhat disapprove: 8.7%Strongly disapprove: 1.3%don’t know / No answer: 41.2% 3. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with academic advising at Brown? very satisfied: 19.1%somewhat satisfied: 40.6%Somewhat dissatisfied: 28.5%Strongly dissatisfied: 9.6%don’t know / No answer: 2.2% 4. How confident or worried are you about your or your family’s ability to finance your Brown education?Very confident: 33.2%Somewhat confident: 26.2% Somewhat worried: 27.8%very worried: 10.3%don’t know / No answer: 2.5% 5. Would you approve or disapprove of Brown rein-stating the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, which was disbanded here in 1971? Strongly approve: 17.9%Somewhat approve: 23.4%Somewhat disapprove: 12.8%Strongly disapprove: 12.1%don’t know / No answer: 33.8% 6. How many times have you attended a Brown varsity sports game as a spectator this semester? 0 times: 49.5%1-2 times: 29.1%3-4 times: 10.3%5-6 times: 4.7%7 or more times: 6.3%don’t know / No answer: 0.1% 7. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president of the United States? strongly approve: 19.8%Somewhat approve: 57.4%Somewhat disapprove: 11.8%Strongly disapprove: 4.5%don’t know / No answer: 6.6% 8. In the past month, which of the following sub-stances — not prescribed to you — have you used? alcohol: 77.9%Marijuana: 32.3%

Tobacco: 18.3%Prescription Painkillers: 3.9%Amphetamines (including prescription stimu-lants): 3.8%Cocaine: 2.6%Ecstasy (MdMA): 1.3%Psychedelic Mushrooms: 1.3%LSd: 1.0%Opium: 0.7%Nitrous Oxide: 0.3%Phencyclidine (PCP: 0.3%Heroin: 0.0%Other: 0.4%None of the Above: 19.8%don’t Know / No answer: 0.9% 9. Have you done any of the following in class this semester? copied answers off another student’s homework: 12.4% Used outside resources in your own work without proper citation: 4.2% Copied answers off another student’s quiz, test or exam: 2.3% Obtained unauthorized test materials in advance: 1.6% Used notes on a closed-book quiz, test or exam: 0.7% Submitted someone else’s work as your own in a paper, presentation or lab report: 0.4% I have not done any of the above: 80.1% don’t know/No answer: 2.8%

Methodology Written questionnaires were administered

to 687 undergraduates from Nov. 2 to 4 at the University Mail Room in J. Walter Wilson in the mornings and afternoons of Nov. 2, 3 and 4 and at the Sciences Library on the nights of Nov. 2 and 3. To ensure random sampling, pollsters approached every third person and asked each one to complete a poll. The poll has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence.

The sample polled was demographically simi-lar to the Brown undergraduate population as a whole. The sample was 53.4 percent female, 46.1 percent male and 0.4 percent other. First-years made up 26.2 percent of the sample, 28.2 per-cent were sophomores, 22.4 percent were juniors and 23.1 percent were seniors. 63.3 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 24.9 percent Asian, 9.2 percent Hispanic, 5.5 percent identified as black or African-American, 1.0 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.6 percent Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.4 percent identified with a racial group or ethnicity not listed and 2.2 percent chose not to answer. The sum of the percentages is greater than 100 percent due to respondents who identified with multiple ethnic or racial groups.

Senior Staff Writer Hannah Moser ’12 and News Editor Seth Motel ’11 coordinated the poll. Herald section editors, senior staff writers and other staff members conducted the poll.

results of the herald Poll

Paul Jasinowski ’10, a co-captain and offensive tackle said the Bears’ offense is coming into the Yale game with a chip on its shoulderpads.

“We definitely have something to prove against this defense and against this team,” Jasinowski said.

Brown and Yale (4-3, 2-2) are tied for third in the league, sporting identi-cal records. No team with two league losses has won the Ivy League title since 1982, and both Yale and Brown will need a win to keep their slim title hopes alive.

Like Penn, Yale has one of the top defenses in the league and an of-fense that ranks in the middle. Yale’s defense has allowed just 13.3 points per game, which is second best in the league — behind Penn.

“Penn and our defense have some similarities in terms of scheme,” said Yale Head Coach Tom Williams. “We’re going to run our defense and look to try to contain the Brown of-fense.”

“Obviously they’ve got explosive capabilities,” he added.

Yale’s defense has held the Bears to only 10 points in the last two years combined. The Bears’ only Ivy League defeat last season was a 13-3 loss to Yale.

“We beat Harvard and we had won all of our Ivy games up to that point,” said Jasinowski of last year’s Yale game. “That was definitely a really tough defeat for our team because that was our one loss in the league and the one that made us end up having to share the title.”

Yale’s offense — which runs out of a two-quarterback system — ranks fifth in the league in scoring. The pass-happy Bulldogs are last in rushing offense and second, behind Brown, in passing offense.

“They have good quarterbacks and good skilled-position players,” Clement said. “They throw the ball, run the ball — they’re definitely a solid offense. But if we do our jobs and are more physical than them, we should be fine.”

Football faces elusive Bulldogs Saturday

continued from page 1

head-to-head: By the Numbers

4-2 (2-2 Ivy)

25.4 pts/game

20.1 pts/game

115.1 yds/game

283.0 yds/game

33.3%

records

scoring offense

scoring defense

rushing offense

Passing offense

3rd-down conversions

4-2 (2-2 Ivy)

17.9 pts/game

13.3 pts/game

85.3 yds/game

207.7 yds/game

29.7%

Brown yalev.

Versus common opponentscornell

PennW, 34-14L, 14-7 OT

L, 14-12L, 9-0

CamPuS newSFRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009 THE BROWN dAILy HERALd PAGE 3

“There are no reasons not to act.” — Hugh ducklow,professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, on climate change

By ashley aydiN

Contributing Writer

Acknowledging the negative hu-man impact on the environment is essential to preventing drastic climate change, three experts said in a panel discussion on climate change at Pembroke Hall Thursday afternoon.

The event attracted about 30 students and faculty members to hear Elijah Huge, assistant profes-sor of art at Wesleyan University; Timmons Roberts, professor of so-ciology and environmental studies; and Hugh Ducklow, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Roberts emphasized climate justice and the need for adequate funding for developing countries to save the environment. He said those who are least responsible for causing the problem of climate change are also those most likely to suffer climate change’s impacts, including hurricanes, sea level rise, droughts and heat waves.

“Climate change is also going to affect those least likely to cope,” he said.

Roberts also listed the neces-sary steps for people to take against climate change, which he called an injustice. The first, he said, is to stop doing the harm, and the sec-ond is to assist those who are already harmed and are most vulnerable.

Roberts also discussed the “polluter pays principle” — those who create a mess ought to clean it up.

“There are 125 countries where it takes over five of their citizens to emit as much as an American (does),” he said.

He also called for developing mechanisms to extend the Kyoto Protocol, an international agree-ment branched from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, setting targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Huge, an architect by profes-sion and director of the design firm Periphery, emphasized the many effects that architecture has on the environment, and presented a few of his projects about the pres-ervation of wetlands and natural

settings.He said architecture has a direct

impact not only on the spaces that it defines, including rooms and buildings, but also on the broader environment.

Concluding the lecture, Duck-low, who is also a biological ocean-ographer, focused on the debates about the existence of global cli-mate change. He said the majority of climate scientists have accepted global climate change due to Earth-model observations made over many decades.

Ducklow said scientists have come to the general realization that if the world temperature in-creases by two degrees Celsius, the shift would affect the environment negatively.

“We need enormous changes in policy to avoid the two-degree-Celcius threshold,” he said.

Despite the degree of scientific consensus, a strong opposition disputes the existence of climate change to argue against steps to preserve the environment, he said. Though there “are significant un-certainties in science,” Ducklow said, “there are no reasons not to act.”

Ducklow said the proportion of Americans who say climate change is exaggerated has risen to 41 percent.

“We’re not getting better, we’re getting worse — there still isn’t enough being done,” he said.

The event was organized by the Humanities/Science Project, a three-year-collaborative program launched by the Cogut Center for the Humanities and the Faculty Committee on Science and Technol-ogy Studies. The project promotes interdisciplinary seminars and re-search opportunities bridging the sciences and the humanities.

Julia Kim / HeraldHugh ducklow, from Brown and the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole, spoke at a discussion panel on climate change Thursday.

experts urge action on climate

of former East Germany migrated to former West Germany for “bet-ter gross wages, salaries and lower unemployment rates.”

Rebuilding former East Ger-many produced mixed results, as “older structures were saved and cultural heritage was rescued” but ultimately “the catch-up process ... stalled,” Mockelmann said.

He said that to deal with preju-dice between the previously divided regions, a “decentralized” approach must be taken. “There is no recipe to break down prejudices political-ly,” he added.

To break down these existing prejudices and increase educational opportunities, he cited education-al programs such as the Summer School Wust, which was founded in 1991 in former East Germany by, among others, German Studies Pro-fessor Kay Goodman. The program brings English literature, theatre, music and increased opportunities for conversation about the culture to the region, he said.

Nonetheless, he said a “national pride” is now observable which “was not known in Germany before the fall of the wall,” he said. “To be proud of a nation that was only partly known was difficult.”

He concluded, saying, “The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago marked the beginning of a new era in history — the end of the Cold War — but a lot has to be done” to deal with continuing problems between the East and West sides of Germany.

Last night’s lecture marked only one event in the “Freedom Without Walls” series, sponsored in part by the German Embassy and hosted by the Department of German Studies. The 20th anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall opened on Wednesday with a screening of the 2003 German comedy “Goodbye Lenin” and will continue through the weekend.

The anniversary has prompted reflection and commemorative events across the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently visited Congress, partly to mark the anniversary.

“The Berlin Wall is part of a much bigger picture,” Sergei Khr-uschev, senior fellow in internation-al studies and son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, told The Herald. “If you try to build any wall, it is against human nature. You feel you are resolving a problem and you are doing nothing. You are trying to stop the movement of a people.”

German Studies marks fall of Berlin wall

continued from page 1

FRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAGE 4

SPotLIGht

view. “For more than 20 years, the

number of GISPs has hovered in the mid-20s,” wrote Associate Dean of the College for Curriculum James Valles in an e-mail to the Herald. This semester, 84 students are en-rolled in 16 GISPs.

shifting perceptionsToday, fewer students and fac-

ulty members know about GISPs or consider them to be serious course options than during the New Cur-riculum’s early years.

Faculty turnover may have con-tributed to the decline in awareness about GISPs among professors. Sev-enty percent of professors who were at Brown 40 years ago when the New Curriculum first began are no longer teaching, said Arthur Matuszewski ’10, GISP/ISP co-coordinator at the Curricular Resource Center and editor-in-chief of post- magazine.

GISPs are also not as well-known among students as they once were. Nick Donias ’12, who is developing a proposal for a spring GISP on multi-culturalism and identity, said he did not know the program existed until Associate Dean of Student Life Kisa Takesue ’88 suggested one as a way for Donias to pursue his interest in cross-cultural issues.

After he sent out e-mails and

Morning Mail notices advertis-ing his GISP, Donias received 20 responses — a level of interest that surprised him, he said. A lot of the students who responded to Donias’ announcements had also been unaware of the option to create a course, he said.

“The ’70s had a lot more accep-tance of academic experimenta-tion,” said Hazeltine, who has been teaching at Brown since 1959. But in recent years “there’s been pres-sure on making GISPs more like regular courses because people are worried about academic credibility,” he said.

Professor of English William Keach, who started teaching here in 1986, agreed. “The culture at Brown over the past six or eight years has become somewhat more cautious, somewhat more risk-averse,” he said.

Keach, who also has sponsored several GISPs, said many students may see GISPs as “not being courses.”

As Brown’s student culture has shifted, the increasing opportunities for extracurricular involvement have pushed students to look beyond the classroom, possibly lessening stu-dent interest in pursuing all possible curricular avenues.

“Meaning and purpose used to really be part of the college cur-riculum. Now they’ve been pushed

to the extracurricular,” said Clini-cal Professor of Engineering Josef Mittlemann ’72 P’00 P’04.

In the last 40 years, Brown also has bolstered its course offerings. With more options than ever, stu-dents have less need to look beyond the course catalog to pursue their academic interests. (This fall’s more than 900 course options are a record, according to Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.)

too much work ...When compared to the time- and

energy-intensive process of creating a GISP, the ease of enrolling in a normal course — which only re-quires entering a CRN number on Banner — may also dissuade many students from designing their own course.

To propose a GISP, students must find a faculty sponsor and submit an application that includes a syllabus, bibliography and evaluation plan months before the semester starts. The College Curriculum Council evaluates the proposal and either accepts or returns it with suggested revisions. The early deadline is to allow time for revisions and mirrors the application process for a normal course, Matuszewski said.

“I think the GISP process overall can look daunting, but it is actually a really great process to go through,” Cohen said.

Cohen went through the applica-tion process for her first and only official GISP, but she chose to do her next two collaborative study projects on an unofficial basis be-cause the GISP application process was so cumbersome, she said. Co-hen and the other group members “signed up for a departmental in-dependent study under the same professor under the expectation that we would work collectively, just as in a GISP, but with less paperwork,” she said.

The process also requires stu-dents to clearly express the course’s goals and their reasons for creating a GISP, which may deter some stu-dents from proposing one.

While normal classes are “more focused on the product, indepen-dent study focuses a lot more on the process of learning,” Matuszewski said. “Really investing yourself in independent study requires you to articulate why what you’re doing matters.”

... too little timeWhen faculty members have

other responsibilities, including re-search and teaching regular courses, having the time to sponsor a GISP can be difficult.

“I think faculty are busier than ever, so it is perhaps harder for faculty to be involved,” said Mittle-mann, who has declined sponsor-

ing some GISPs because of time constraints.

Keach said, “I’m glad to be doing it, it’s a lot of fun to be doing it, but it’s an additional time and energy commitment.”

There should be more incen-tives for faculty to sponsor GISPs, Matuszewski said, suggesting that Brown should work on “appropri-ately recognizing faculty for their support of independent studies.”

But to properly address the re-cent decline in student participation in GISPs, “the first thing is for the administration and the faculty to find out what’s going on,” Keach said.

While some people believe that group independent studies deserve more support, others think the de-creasing number of GISPs is a natu-ral consequence of the increasing diversity of other opportunities on campus.

“I think over 200 students per year is still a very healthy level, giv-en this increase in regular courses,” Bergeron wrote.

Still, others are concerned about the decline in GISPs. The trend “generally reflects a lack of investment of what it means to really stick to Brown’s ideals and values,” Matuszewski said.

“The GISP option used to be seen as a lot more central to what Brown was,” he said. “And now it’s become an afterthought.”

continued from page 1

GISPs: now just an ‘afterthought’ for many students

arts & CultureThe Brown daily Herald

FRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009 | PAGE 5

Black and gay, on display at the hayBy caitliN trujillo

Staff Writer

An exhibit about the contributions of black gay men to Rhode Island, its culture and its politics premiered Thursday evening at the John Hay Library. Rhode Island College pro-fessor Daniel Scott kicked off the display with a lecture about his work documenting the oral history of the traditionally overlooked minority group.

Black Lavender 2, which cura-tor Robb Dimmick spun off from an earlier Black Lavender exhibit, broadens its scope to include poli-ticians, artists, civic leaders and academics in the state throughout the 20th century. The first exhibit, shown at the Hay in 2005, focused on black gay writers.

The exhibit stands in a small room near the entrance to the li-brary, but what it lacks in space to spread out it makes up in its wealth of material. The glass cases contain photographs, flyers, newspaper clip-pings and other memorabilia that commemorate the represented figures.

The writer James Baldwin, who only visited Rhode Island once to speak at the First Baptist Church in America, has a mug in his section of the display case that is emblazoned with his portrait. Poet Langston Hughes is represented by a poem (“Ask Your Mama!”) that he wrote in Newport.

Some of the men featured in the exhibit were visitors — frequent visitors such as Hughes or one-time celebrities such as Baldwin. They were public servants and perform-ers, artists and writers.

There is a section titled Black, Gay and Brown, showcasing people like Ed Brockenbrough ’95, who contributed to literary magazines during his time as a student.

Scott, an English professor at RIC who conducted 16 separate in-terviews for the project, said in his lecture that despite recognition of these men and their achievements, very few black gay men have yet come forward with their stories. He emphasized that Rhode Island’s size plays a major role in gay black men’s sense of community — the people to whom he spoke said the state’s small size makes it relatively easy for people to know about each other.

“The positive spin on that is we have a more intimate community,” Scott said, but he added that people were also probably reluctant to share too much with others for fear of los-ing their sense of privacy.

Scott said when he asked his sub-jects what they most wanted to see happen in the state, many responded that they hoped they could foster a better sense of community.

Black Lavender 2 aims to achieve a similar goal — by commemorat-ing the achievements of prominent men, the project keeps alive the legacies and contributions they made to Rhode Island, ensuring that each man’s presence does not soon wane.

Midway through the night, May-or David Cicilline ’83 arrived at the library to present a proclamation that declared Thursday “Black Lav-ender 2 Day” in Providence.

Black Lavender 2, on the ground floor of the John Hay Library, is open during l ibrar y hours through Jan. 8.

what nic Cage and handel have in commonBy luisa roBledo

Staff Writer

Thanks to Brown’s New Music En-semble, the famous action scenes of the Nicolas Cage movie “Con Air” won’t be scored to the sounds of “Sweet Home Alabama” this week-end. Instead, John Cage’s avant-garde music will be the accompa-niment in Saturday’s “Cage Match,” the ultimate “Face/Off” between the king of silence and the king of explosions.

“The name is a complete gim-mick,” said Alex Kruckman ’10, one of the event’s coordinators. “But it’s going to be an awesome one.”

“Cage Match” will pair up some of John Cage’s compositions (in-cluding his most famous one, 4’33” — four minutes and 33 seconds of silence) with various moments from Nicolas Cage’s most celebrated mov-ies, including “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Snake Eyes,” “Ghost Rider” and “National Treasure 2,” said Alex Du-puis ’10, the other coordinator.

“We have around 20 perform-ers,” Dupuis said, including Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Associate Professor of Music Joseph “Butch” Rovan, her husband. They will present Cage’s “Water Music.”

Kruckman, who will also be per-forming, will use a prepared piano — that is, an instrument whose

sound has been drastically changed by the placement of foreign objects, such as screws, in the strings, he explained.

“It’s difficult to organize a pre-pared piano — a bit risky,” Kruck-man said. “But we’ve been really careful and plan to get the instru-ment tuned afterwards.”

Dupuis will be performing John Cage’s “Imaginary Landscapes” us-ing a computer. To honor what Du-puis called the composer’s “spirit of randomly determining aspects of the piece,” he hasn’t chosen the film that will accompany his piece yet.

“Cage really experimented with the boundaries of classical music,” Dupuis said.

The free event will take place in Grant Recital Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday.

and now for something completely different ...

In sharp contrast to “Cage Match,” the music department’s other concert offering this week-end will be the Brown Chorus’s performance of George Frideric Handel’s 18th-century oratorio “Is-rael in Egypt” this Friday at 8 p.m. in Sayles Hall.

Under the direction of conduc-tor Fred Jodry, a senior lecturer in music, the chorus will tell the “dramatic biblical story of the Jews

fleeing out of captivity from Egypt,” Jodry said.

“This piece features mostly the choir,” he said. “It’s very excit-ing and has ver y contrasting movements.”

Jodry called the orchestra writ-ing “wonderful” and the overall tri-umphant tone of the piece inspiring. “We’ll have trumpets, strings and oboes along with a small baroque organ and three wonderful profes-sional singers who are joining us.”

Chorus President Sarah Baker ’10 said the piece has been both fun and challenging to put on. “There’s eight parts going on at the same time,” Baker said, referring to Han-del’s multi-layered vocal writing. “We really have to listen to each other.”

For Baker, the most exciting part of the rehearsal process was moving from the chorus’ usual rehearsal space in Steinert Hall to singing in Sayles during the week leading up to the concert. The beauty of the building, combined with the “inter-esting acoustics,” helps her not to be nervous about the upcoming show, she said.

“We’ve worked really hard,” she said. “It’s going to be a great concert.”

Tickets cost $10 ($5 with Brown ID) and are available in Orwig Music Building Room 101 and at the door one hour before the performance.

Kayleigh Butera / HeraldRhode Island College English professor daniel Scott ushered in a new ex-hibit at the Hay with a lecture about black, gay men in Rhode Island.

editorial & LettersPage 6 | FRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009

The Brown daily Herald

J U L I A S T R E U L I

Farmer Brown

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On Tuesday, bioethicist Peter Singer delivered a talk on the ethics of human-animal relations. He contended that humanity has unjustly ignored the interests of animals for the sake of producing meat, and indicted in particular the modern practice of factory farming, which crowds huge numbers of animals together in miserable conditions, fostering virulent diseases and dangerously concentrating enormous quantities of waste. Singer is a gifted intellectual provocateur who has taken a number of controversial stands, and we certainly do not endorse all of his opinions. But we do recommend that Brown actively pursue more humane, healthy, small-scale and ecologically sound meat production, not only for its own consumption, but for that of its peer institutions and omnivores around the world.

The scale and techniques of modern meat production cause enormous suffering that cannot be ignored. For the sake of increased productive efficiency, factory farms routinely confine animals for nearly their entire lives in spaces so small they cannot stand or turn around; their only release is slaughter. So far, a handful of states have restricted such practices.

But the case against factory farming and the current level of meat consumption extends well beyond altru-istic concern for animal well-being. These gargantuan operations concentrate their inhabitants’ excrement in huge lagoons that regularly seep or burst, befouling nearby waterways and wrecking livelihoods based on fishing. And through their heavy use of machinery and their vast numbers of animals, factory farms contribute heavily to the tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide released each year overall by fostering, processing and transporting livestock.

The usual defense of factory farms is their efficient

production of vast quantities of meat. But this is not an unalloyed good. The overabundance of meat in the United States has helped fuel an epidemic of obesity that now affects roughly one in four of our fellow citizens. And the difficulty of tracking and inspecting this huge excess as it is transported and mixed into products such as ground beef has led to E. coli outbreaks like the one that recently killed two people and sickened many more in the northeastern states.

To his credit, Singer admits that for all the problems with modern production, meat is still an absolutely vital source of key nutrients for poor and under-nourished people worldwide; children of all backgrounds rely heav-ily on meat to provide iron and protein for their growing bodies. This means that the most privileged members of the human race have to provide the impetus for reducing the scale and inhumanity of meat production. Whether or not you want to admit it, that includes all of us.

In cooperation with other institutions of higher learn-ing in the Providence area, Brown can help lead the way. In particular, partnership with Johnson and Wales’ culinary college would directly influence choices about the production and use of meat across the country. The University can seek local meat sources with verifiably healthy, humane and ecologically sustainable practices; it can also research and promote such techniques. As a University, we can make sacrifices and take the initiative to reduce meat farming and make it more humane and sustainable. Or we can allow factory farms and other reckless practices to take a staggering moral and eco-logical toll on this country. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Committee cares about heI’s labor practices to the editor:

As current chair of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Respon-sibility in Investment Policies, a committee representing students, faculty, staff and alumni charged with advising the President and the Corporation on matters relat-ing to the social impacts of the University’s investments, I write to correct a misimpression given by the column by guest colum-nists Mark Morales ’10 and Alex Campbell ’10 (“The Truth about Brown’s Investments,” Nov. 5). In the column, the authors state that ACCRIP “dismissed our claims as outside their purview.” Actually, the committee met with members of the Student Labor Alliance about labor practices at HEI Hotels and Resorts twice in the 2008-09 aca-demic year, the second time also having a dismissed HEI worker address us.

After the second meeting, I communicated to the student who had served as contact for the SLA group that ACCRIP’s members had discussed the matter and had rec-ommended to President Ruth Sim-mons that the University should communicate with HEI that the labor practices alleged to have oc-curred “would be matters of real concern to the University were they to be substantiated.” I stated that our committee “recommends ongoing engagement between the University and HEI over these mat-ters.” Let me add on a personal note that I commend Morales and Campbell for their concern regard-ing the workers, and that I write at this time solely to set the record straight on the role of ACCRIP in this matter.

louis PuttermanProfessor of Economics

Nov. 5

correctionsAn article in Thursday’s paper (“Buyout plan offered to U. employees,” Nov. 5) contained the information

that Brown would pay all but $83 per month of the health-care premiums for employees who take the buyout offer. In fact, the employees would be responsible for the full premium, with $83 contributed by the University each month.

An article in Thursday’s paper (“UCS votes to increase activities fee by $8,” Nov. 5) incorrectly identified Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn as the chair of the University Resources Committee. Klawunn is not a member of the committee.

A caption on page 1 in Thursday’s paper (accompanying “Filmmaker views Haiti revolution through leader’s eyes,” Nov. 5) incorrectly identified the man speaking as the filmmaker, Noland Walker. The man pictured in the photograph is Professor of Africana Studies Barrymore Bogues.

letters, please!letters@browndailyherald.com

FRIdAy, NOvEMBER 6, 2009 | PAGE 7

opinionsThe Brown daily Herald

Maine was supposed to be the first. After ballot initiatives failed in thirty states, in each case translating to a constitutional amend-ment to ban same-sex marriage, Maine was supposed to be the first notch in the win column for gay rights advocates. Instead, it followed the herd.

Students didn’t come out in the numbers expected by gay marriage advocates to sup-port Question 1. Once again, young people are being blamed for the failure of this initia-tive. Perhaps the narrow margin could have been filled by the numerous liberal college students who populate the state. But with an off-year election turnout of over 50 percent of registered voters, high for any election, perhaps it is time for the middle-aged cam-paign organizers to look within rather than to blame those outside their inner circles.

It seemed that geography would help beat the initiative. New England states have been the most resounding supporters of same-sex marriage, if so far only through legislative and judicial action. And same-sex marriage seemingly had momentum on its side. New Hampshire and Vermont both legalized gay marriage in the last year, with Maine passing legislation soon after.

Gay rights advocates had time and money on their side. They have been active on this issue in Maine since Massachusetts started allowing gay marriage in 2004. Conserva-

tive groups have only put significant money into the state this calendar year, in order to support this particular ballot item. Gay rights groups outspent conservatives two to one, but the rejection of gay marriage in Maine has filled the coffers of conservative groups.

Until Tuesday, Maine had same-sex mar-riage. Against all odds and projections, the voters took it away.

Gay advocacy groups such as the Hu-man Rights Campaign set high hopes for this election and are now trying to forestall

fallout similar to that from the California Prop 8 debacle last year. At the recent gay-rights march in Washington, D.C., in Oc-tober, many of the speakers called for an all-hands-on-deck approach in Maine, making gay marriage in one state the sole focus of this election.

The saddest part of the battle for gay rights is that marriage is at the center of what those rights mean, even when there are so many other issues that unify both gay and straight communities.

Many gay rights advocates have chal-

lenged Obama for not addressing gay is-sues in the first year of his term. Obama’s focus has been on health care, which is one of the most pressing problems for the gay community. Gay youth are more prone to suicide and drug and alcohol addiction, and gay girls are as likely to become pregnant as their straight peers.

Same-sex couples don’t necessarily get covered under one partner’s policy. Just because gays share some of the same is-sues as straights doesn’t mean we are being ignored.

My greatest question about this is why people who care about gay rights keep put-ting gay marriage legislation up to a vote, and then futilely hoping for victory. We aren’t getting brownie points for effort. We keep losing and wasting our money on campaigns that don’t have a historical basis for hope.

The problem with the gay rights move-ment right now is that it is too idealistic, and is looking towards the wrong ideals to guide it. A cursory glance back at American his-tory shows that progressive change does not come through the voters. It is almost always

imposed on the voters, or on a significant portion of the voters, to their utter dismay before that dismay turns to acceptance.

Slavery was forcibly abolished in the South despite massive opposition. Women’s suffrage came through legislative action, despite widespread protest and almost a century of building momentum for a con-stitutional revision.

Civil rights were also legislative initia-tives, and school desegregation and inter-racial marriage were both judicially imposed. Abortion was legalized through judicial ac-tion years before the majority of Americans believed that it was a woman’s right.

Democracy is about protecting the mi-nority from the tyranny of the majority. The majority voting to repress a minority goes against the spirit of the Constitution. All this demonstrates is the failure of the American Republic to protect the rights of all its citi-zens in a fundamental way. Representative democracy provides a structure in which many sets of values should be able to coex-ist.

Obama promised during his campaign to fight for equality, but we need to be fight-ing, too. The gay rights community is not monolithic: resources need to be allocated in a way that represents the diverse needs of a diverse community to achieve results rather than become rhetoric for a future campaign.

Susannah Kroeber ’11 really wants to party it up at a post-election gay

marriage celebration.

rejected 31 times over

You may not have noticed, but Rhode Island is a relatively small state. In fact, you can fit almost 2,500 Rhode Islands into the area of the United States! It also has a relatively small population, as states go. So it may come as no surprise that the General Assembly (the state’s legislature) meets for only half the year.

Normally, the January through June ses-sion is enough time for the General Assembly to get all its business finished. Of course, even spending half a year might not be nec-essary — Florida’s legislature, for example, is constitutionally restricted to meeting only 60 days per year.

But this year, circumstances were very dif-ferent. Clearly, the situation was dire. So dire, in fact, that legislators took the drastic step of coming back to Providence for an unusual October session.

What, specifically, drove our legislators back to Providence for two whole days, with some having to make the perilous journey from as far as Westerly or Newport? Rhode Island was facing some serious problems, which in the aggregate have created the worst crisis the state has faced in decades.

No, I’m not talking about that trivial eco-nomic situation. If you read any of the newspa-pers, you’ll discover the biggest threat facing the state; indeed, it was the primary target of this new session: legal, commercial sex. Yes, although a legal loophole has permitted

indoor prostitution in Rhode Island since 1976, and although the General Assembly has met for a total of 198 months during the time this loophole has existed, only very recently have the pernicious effects of this permissiveness been felt, apparently.

I, for one, am quite relieved that prostitu-tion will be criminalized immediately. Rhode Island likely would not have survived had it been forced to wait until the next regular session of the General Assembly commences in early January to begin fining and jailing prostitutes.

Another crisis of epic proportions was averted when the House of Representatives agreed with the Senate’s plan to ask the state’s voters whether to change the state’s official name from “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” to simply “Rhode Island.”

Cynics might point out that the referendum on the straightforward issue will take place in November 2010, and that therefore the House’s action could have waited until Janu-ary. But they underestimate the importance of planning ahead. Moreover, some voters might not be appreciative of having only 10 months’ time to make up their minds on such an issue, preferring instead to have a full year.

Additionally, the General Assembly ap-

proved a law allowing individuals in same-sex couples to make funeral arrangements for their deceased partners. This legislation was urgently necessary to make legislative lead-ers seem less callous and heartless in their steadfast opposition to same-sex marriage or civil unions.

Whether anti-gay Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 signs the bill or not, the General Assembly and its overwhelming Democratic supermajority, by bravely tossing this bone to the gay com-munity, managed to silence perhaps the most heart-wrenching testimony presented in favor

of marriage equality at the yearly legislative hearings on that subject. Undoubtedly, had the bill not been passed at this special ses-sion, legislators might have been forced to hear such testimony on the harmful effects of their inaction on gay rights again. Truly, this was a crisis averted.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the General Assembly stiffened penalties on minors operating boats while intoxicated. Un-questionably, delaying action on this crucial measure for two months would have resulted in a catastrophe of epic proportions.

Unfortunately, other, less pressing business had to be left until January. Legislators are, after all, part-time, and do have jobs outside

of government. It is therefore understandable that some issues just could not be consid-ered during this special session and therefore needed to be postponed.

The main issue that failed the make the cut was the state’s rapidly worsening fiscal condition. Some naysayers might argue that last year’s $60 million deficit and this year’s projected $60 million deficit warranted more attention than allowing Rhode Island motorists to buy license plates that indicate support for the New England Patriots, or permitting bars to stay open an extra hour (but not to serve alcohol during that hour).

Such naysayers, however, clearly miss the point, blindly focusing on Rhode Island’s im-pending bankruptcy at the expense of many more important issues. What use is a solvent state government if, for example, intoxicated teens can operate motorboats with impunity? Can you put a price on the immediate incar-ceration of women who sell sex in their own homes? I didn’t think so.

Luckily, Rhode Island lawmakers recog-nized the pressing issues facing the state, and they traveled from far and wide to come back into a special session specifically to address them. And though the legislators have already left town, the enduring legacy of their brief presence will remain with us for quite some time. The General Assembly bravely faced the numerous crises confronting the state and prioritized accordingly. All I can say as an admiring citizen is: mission accomplished!

tyler rosenbaum ’11 is dismayed the general assembly didn’t act to penalize

drunken Segway drivers.

mission accomplished!

What use is a solvent state government if, for example, intoxicated teens can operate

motorboats with impunity?

Until Tuesday, Maine had same-sex marriage. Against all odds and projections,

the voters took it away.

SUSANNAH KROEBERopinions coluMnist

TyLERROSENBAUM

opinions coluMnist

got something to say? Leave a comment online!

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today, NoVeMBer 6

7 PM — MEZCLA “On a Boat,”

Salomon 101

8 PM — Brown University Chorus

Concert, Sayles Hall

saturday, NoVeMBer 7

7 PM — Rangeela! with Badmaash

dance Company, Andrews dining

Hall

8 PM — Brown New Music Presents:

Cage Match, Grant Recital Hall

dot comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

hippomaniac | Mat Becker

sharPe reFectory

luNch — Hot Pastrami Sandwich,

vegan vegetable Couscous, French

Green Beans with Tomatoes

diNNer — Cajun Baked Fish,

vegan Stir Fried Noodles with Tofu,

Rice Pilaf

VerNey-Woolley diNiNg hall

luNch — Chicken Fingers, Rice

Pilaf with Zucchini, Baked vegan

Nuggets

diNNer — Paella with Mussels,

Baked Macaroni and Cheese,

Spinach-Stuffed Tomatoes

A diamond to Sayles Hall’s world-famous organ, which, not unlike the newly crowned World Series champion Yankees, was born around 1903, fell into disrepair in the 1980s and was restored to glory in the 1990s. Despite those 16-foot pipes, though, it still doesn’t whine as loudly as A-Rod.

Coal to the developer who is proposing to build a $35 million luxury hotel on Brook Street. Beyond the dissonance between “luxury hotel” and “Brook Street,” we don’t see why more expensive hospitality is needed when Bagel Gourmet is already charging $9 for Mexican food.

A diamond to bioethicist Peter Singer for sharing an anecdote about how he first became interested in animal rights when he saw a friend choose a salad over a dish with meat. A lot of Brown students get where your friend was coming from — though it sometimes has less to do with vegetarianism and more to do with the fact that those “chopped sirloin patties with onion sauce” look like dirty socks.

A cubic zirconium to a state senator’s proposal to consolidate all of Rhode Island’s cities and towns. We’re not big fans of such a concentration of power — but it’s probably true that all of Central Falls’ one square mile could fit snugly into the wine cellar of a Newport mansion.

A diamond to the Food Network for featuring our fine University on not one but two shows this week. Now that the cable TV floodgates have opened, maybe the Discovery Channel will cancel on the Alaskan tundra and come here to film “Man vs. Wild: The Friedman Center in February When the Heat is Off.”

Coal to the visiting performer whose avant-garde play “An Oak Tree” involves a second actor who has not seen the script beforehand. We get it — watching people flounder is fun. But for real entertainment, you could just watch the second-semester orgo kids get their midterms back next week.

A cubic zirconium to the new Thayer Street restaurant Better Burger Company. Your establishment sounds good — or at least, as you say, “better” — but if you don’t serve barbeque tortellini pizza or Mexican Philly cheesesteaks with frozen yogurt, you probably won’t last long around here.

A wistful diamond to Wednesday’s farmer’s market on Wriston — the last of the season — and those delicious harvest vegetables. It was gourd while it lasted.

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Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldProvidence was aglow Thursday afternoon, as sunsets creep earlier.