Volume CXLII, No. 47 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891TUESDAY,TUESDAY, PRIL PRIL 10, 10, 20072007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Concert not canceled due to threats, ASA president saysThe Turkish-Armenian concert planned for Friday that was can-celed was not called off because the president of the Armenian Students Association received threats, ASA President Ruben Iz-mailyan ’09 wrote Monday in an e-mail to The Herald. Izmailyan wrote that he was not in any way “threatened, intimidated or even asked to pull out.”

The Herald reported Monday that the concert was canceled due to threats, citing an e-mail from a Turkish Cultural Society mem-ber. That e-mail, which included a message sent from the TCS pres-ident to the group’s members, stated that the ASA president

and musicians received “warning messages” from members of the Armenian community and that as “the situation got serious, warn-ings turned into threats.”

Izmailyan, who declined to explain the cancellation for Mon-day’s article, yesterday told The Herald the cancellation was a joint decision between the two groups after the Armenian musi-cians decided not to participate.

“I have received nothing but encouragement in my handling of the innate complexities in-volved in such an event,” Izmai-lyan wrote Monday, “including

Simmons urges ‘forceful engagement’ by humanists

The humanities are “central to any way of thinking about the human race,” President Ruth Simmons told a fi lled Smith-Buonanno 106 last night, urging the “forceful engagement” by humanists in a broad array of disciplines.

Simmons’ speech was the In-augural Invitational Lecture in the Humanities, organized by the Cogut Center for the Humanities with the aim of allowing the Brown community to learn from promi-nent University faculty — many of whom may speak more often away from Brown than on campus.

Simmons “was an obvious choice” for the inaugural lecture, said Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center. He added that Simmons is a “distinguished humanist” with University ap-pointments in Africana studies and comparative literature.

Simmons called the humani-ties “the foundation” for other aca-demic fi elds. Science and technol-ogy cannot advance without the humanities, she said, adding that “you have to walk before you can run.”

Humanists continue to come under fi re for holding values “at odds” with those of the public and often respond to this criti-cism by turning inward, Simmons said. Whenever there are break-throughs in science, humanists

BY DEBBIE LEHMANNSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Marine discusses two tours of duty in Iraq

The ongoing war in Iraq is worth fi ghting, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. A.J. Fielder told an audience of 28 students and community members in Smith-Buonanno 201 last night. In his talk, hosted by the College Republicans, Fielder drew from his own experience in two tours of duty in Iraq as commander of a heavy weapons platoon and a snip-er platoon.

“Tonight, we have the opportu-nity to hear the unfi ltered version of the goings-on in Iraq,” said Zack Drew ’07, president of the Brown Republicans, in introducing Field-er.

Fielder’s presentation included a discussion of the pitfalls of apa-thy and its remedy through mili-

tary service, as well as a profi le of the Marine Corps. He then chron-icled his tours in Iraq with a slide-show that featured photographs from the 2003 invasion and his lat-er postings in Ramadi.

Fielder — now the Marines’ head offi cer selection offi cer for Rhode Island — said in his speech that he enjoys any opportunity to come share his stories on campus.

“It used to surprise me that we’d get so many applicants from Brown. It doesn’t anymore,” he said. “When I come up to Brown, the people that I talk to are engag-ing, they’re caring more about what’s going on in the world. These are the kind of people the Marine Corps wants.”

Discussing his two tours of duty, Fielder described the initial invasion of Iraq as “conventional

warfare,” as opposed to the more complex present situation. He also highlighted the changing nature of the enemy the U.S. military faces in Iraq.

“The difference between these insurgents now and those insur-gents then was that their tactics were terrible” on his fi rst tour, he said, citing an example of combat-ants trying to attack U.S. tanks by hand. Now, Fielder said, insur-gents mow down groups of Sunni and Shiite children playing soccer to incite sectarian violence among their parents.

Fielder recounted the personal toll the war takes on the lives of Marines, describing the diffi cult yet vital task of thinking logically when fi ghting on the ground.

“We’re looking to shoot peo-ple. That’s our job,” he said of the

sniper platoon he led in Ramadi. “We tell ourselves what we’re do-ing is good, what we’re doing is re-quired. The way I deal with this — I tell myself that for every person

BY ALEX ROEHRKASSESTAFF WRITER

Financial aid scandals will not touch U., offi cials say

In light of ongoing fi nancial aid scandals at institutions of higher learning around the country, Uni-versity offi cials say students need not worry about similar corrup-tion at Brown’s Offi ce of Financial Aid.

Three senior university fi nan-cial aid offi cers — David Charlow of Columbia University, Lawrence Burt of the University of Texas at Austin and Catherine Thom-as of the University of Southern California — sit on the advisory board for Student Loan Xpress, a company owned by the Educa-tion Lending Group, according to the Higher Ed Watch blog, which broke the story.

In return, they received shares in the Education Lending Group. The New York Times report-ed that Charlow has made over $100,000 selling his shares since 2003.

Each of the three universities listed Student Loan Xpress as

a “preferred lender” for its stu-dents.

The CIT Group, which ac-quired Student Loan Xpress in 2005, has placed the company’s three top executives on adminis-trative leave, according to an April 9 press release.

The fi nancial aid directors were also placed on leave at their respective universities shortly af-ter details of the fi nancial transac-tions fi rst emerged on the Higher Ed Watch blog April 4. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the universities are conduct-ing investigations into the stock holdings, according to Higher Ed Watch, which is run by the New America Foundation, a nonparti-san think tank.

Director of Financial Aid James Tilton, who used to work in Columbia’s offi ce of fi nancial aid, could not be reached for com-ment.

Brown has several safeguards in place to prevent a confl ict of in-

BY JAMES SHAPIROSENIOR STAFF WRITER

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Islandwww.browndailyherald.com

PA S S O V E R P I Z Z A

Chris Bennett / Herald

The Gate served matzoh-and-cheese pizza over the weekend for students observing Passover.

Chris Bennett / Herald

President Ruth Simmons delivered the Inaugural Invitational Lecture in the Humanities Monday afternoon in Smith-Buonanno 106. continued on page 4

Chris Bennett / HeraldCaptain A.J. Fielder spoke Monday night about his two tours in Iraq.

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A LEAP FOR OLEEPThe Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education Proj-ect celebrates its 10th anniver-sary this year and looks back on its accomplishments

GUGGENHEIM GRANTSFive Brown faculty members garnered prestigious Gug-genheim fellowships — the most won in a single year for the University

BABY HATCHES PHENOMAdam Cambier ’09 argues that Japanese prime minis-ter Shinzo Abe should em-brace the baby-hatch phe-nomenon

5CAMPUS NEWS

11OPINIONS

INSIDE: 3METRO

UPENN SPLITS BASEBALLThe baseball team split a dou-bleheader against UPenn this weekend, leaving them at 10-14 overall and 5-3 in the Ivy League

12SPORTS

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

Hi, How Are You | Alison Naturale

Deo | Daniel Perez

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown

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Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker

ACROSS1 Biblical trio5 Sweeties

10 Italian spewer14 River in

Warwickshire15 Curator’s

acquisition16 “Victory is mine!”17 Dramatic electric

storm display20 With the bow, in

music21 Fuzzy berry22 Tobacco industry

initials23 Painter Édouard25 Golf scoring

system based ontotal strokes

27 How some stuntsare done

29 Journalist Nellie30 __ Tin Tin31 Low areas34 Watch displays,

briefly38 Guide for the 1-

Across42 Alleviate43 Feel the same

way44 Jackie’s “O”45 Sch. with a

Brooklyn campus48 Losing weight50 Half-sandwich

companion55 Bilko, casually56 Spanish year57 Bugle, for one58 Playwright Simon59 Highly valued

asset, and thispuzzle’s title

64 Increase65 56-Across

beginner66 Small

salamanders67 Scotch bottle

word68 Away from the

office69 Goulash, for

one

DOWN1 Vandalize2 Bird: Prefix3 Crack up

4 Fosteredthrough heredity,as desirabletraits

5 Jamaica-basedBond villain

6 Slenderswimmer

7 Just about equal8 Unbending9 Discount

brokerage bigwigCharles

10 Essen article11 Show off with a

baton12 Teenage turtle of

comics13 Peeved18 Publishing size19 Cash register23 Man with a code24 Singer Baker25 Peach __26 WWII journalist

Ernie28 WWII fliers32 Brain scan, for

short33 Barbershop tool35 Skier’s aid36 Factor in the

1980s S&Lcrisis

37 Whack, biblically39 Move, in real

estate jargon40 Clucker41 Landlord’s

contracts46 “__ hollers, let ...”47 Australian golfer

Geoff Ogilvy wonit in 2006

49 Honorees’places

50 “Lost Horizon”director Frank

51 Strip of gear, asa ship

52 Stage presence53 Maine campus

town54 Not yet mounted,

as a gem58 Element #1060 Last letter at

Cambridge61 Hindu honorific62 Taxonomic suffix63 Canberra’s state:

Abbr.

By Lila Cherry(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 4/10/07

4/10/07

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SHARPE REFECTORY

LUNCH — Honey Mustard Chicken, Grilled Tuna Sandwich with Cheese, Pasta Spinach Casserole, Chocolate Frosted Brownies, Sugar Cookies

DINNER — Sesame Chicken Strips with Mustard Sauce, Lamb Stir Fry, Sticky Rice with Edamame Beans, Vegetables in Honey Ginger Sauce, Sugar Snap Peas, Honey Wheat Bread, Boston Cream Pie

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Shaved Steak Sandwich, Spinach Strudel, Mandarin Blend Vegetables, Chicken Gumbo Soup, Sugar Cookies

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METROTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 3

State pension funds may soon be di-vested from corporations doing busi-ness in Sudan — the state House of Representatives unanimously passed a divestment bill last Thursday by a vote of 56-0. The legislation, previ-ously passed unanimously by the Senate, will now go to Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65.

Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Dist. 12, the bill’s primary sponsor, told The Herald he introduced the bill because he “wanted to send a mes-sage” both to international compa-nies with contracts in the Sudan and to Congress, as well as “put serious pressure” on the Sudanese govern-ment.

Almeida said he developed the bill with the help of Brown students — specifi cally members of the Dar-fur Action Network, headed by Scott Warren ’09 — and added that “with young blood standing behind us, we

can get a lot done.”Warren told The Herald that he

has been working on the divestment bill for almost a year and a half, hav-ing fi rst met with Almeida in January 2006. “To get a unanimous vote is re-ally exciting” after such a long pro-cess, he said.

Warren said he is “hopeful that the governor will sign the bill,” adding that there is “no reason he wouldn’t,” but he noted that Carc-ieri’s policy advisers, with whom he has met, have not yet taken a posi-tion on the bill. But with unanimous passage in both the House and the Senate, the bill likely has enough votes to override the governor in the the governor in the the governorcase of a veto.

In a speech made on the House fl oor before the vote on the bill Thursday, Almeida urged his col-leagues to “show some compassion for other human beings” and said the bill would “stop the destruction

BY SARA MOLINAROMETRO EDITOR

Rhode Island set to divest from Sudan

OLEEP, 10 years after founding, brings Met students to nature

The Outdoor Leadership and Envi-ronmental Education Project — a program that matches students from the Metropolitan Regional Ca-reer and Technical Center, a local charter school, with Brown student mentors — will mark its 10th anni-versary this year.

OLEEP was started by several students participating in the Brown Outdoor Leadership Training pro-gram who thought inner-city mi-norities should have the opportunity to experience the role of nature in turning groups of classmates into groups of close friends, said Ben Castleman ’99.5, one of the group’s founders and currently director of curriculum and assessment at the and assessment at the and assessmentMet Center.

Castleman said the fact that the program is still alive and strong af-ter a decade of work is “a testament to the dedication of the coordinators and the clarity of vision that the pro-gram has kept over the years.”

Castleman helped found OLEEP in 1997. OLEEP “really came out of an experience I had on a BOLT

trip my sophomore year,” he said, explaining that his BOLT group’s backpacking trip had brought his group together in a way that only outdoor experiences could. After BOLT, Castleman wanted to pro-vide students in Providence with the same opportunity to experience na-ture. The program has continued to be strong ever since, he said.

While the program’s methods have changed somewhat in the past 10 years, OLEEP still remains dedi-cated to its original vision, said Dan-iel Sonshine ’07, co-coordinator for the program.

Sonshine said the program has three components: weekly work-shops to teach environmental sci-ence, weekend hiking trips to near-by parks and trails and mentoring through which each Met student participant is assigned a Brown stu-dent mentor.

One of the major changes in OLEEP over the past decade has been the increasing emphasis on en-vironmental science, Sonshine said. Though the group had started with a focus on connecting inner-city stu-

BY ANNA MILLMANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Courtesy of OLEEPThe Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education Program is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Tai Ho Shin / HeraldBackers of a bill divesting state investments from companies doing business in Sudan rallied at the State House last Thursday before the House of Representatives unanimously passed the legislation.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007PAGE 4

are “singled out” as not contribut-ing, she said.

But, Simmons said, humanists can and should contribute to fi nd-ing solutions to all the questions individuals face today, whether relating to the environment, eth-ics or international affairs. She stressed that humanities should be at the center of public debates and conversations.

“Whatever the setting, we have to believe that we belong there and have something to offer,” she said.

Throughout her education, Simmons said, people tried to dis-suade her from studying the hu-manities, urging her to pursue something “constructive” and “practically oriented.” But Sim-mons said it is important for edu-cators to understand that the skills and knowledge people gain from the humanities “will overwhelm-ingly level the playing fi eld” for them.

Simmons said universities should be responsible for identi-fying the values shaped and nur-tured by the humanities. Universi-ties must support efforts that put “a positive light on the role of hu-manists in problem solving” and must stop making apologies for the theoretical and aesthetic work of humanists, she said. Simmons also underscored the importance of applied work in the humanities, calling this “the highest priority for the next decade.”

“In a world where one is con-cerned about poverty, vast income disparities, the shrinking ice caps, the sheer velocity of change, the disappearance of all sorts of bor-ders,” Simmons said, “We must ask — how will the humanities matter, and perhaps more impor-tantly, how can we convince the world that investment in the hu-manities is practical?”

In the question-and-answer session following her speech, Simmons stressed the importance of advising in encouraging stu-

dents to pursue the humanities. The University must “take advis-ing very seriously,” she said, and should ensure there are people in advising capacities who can ex-plain to students what they can do with degrees in the humanities.

Simmons also encouraged those in the humanities to keep asking for more resources.

“It’s important not to say, ‘Okay, that’s enough, we don’t require as much as other disciplines,’ ” she said.

Simmons said the Cogut Cen-ter, which launched in 2003, should play an important role in advancing the idea that humanists have much to add to the practical problems of today’s world. But broadening the role of humanists should be a goal for academics ev-erywhere, she said.

“The world is starved for what the humanities can bring to public life,” Simmons said. “And there is no place that can advance the gen-eral principles of humanities bet-ter than universities.”

terest between offi cers and lenders, said University spokeswoman Mol-ly de Ramel. “Financial aid offi cers sign a strict confl ict of interest state-ment, which prohibits them from holding stock in a company of that kind,” she said, referring to student loan companies.

The University participates in the Federal Direct Loan Program, in which “the federal government acts as the lender and provides Fed-

eral Stafford and PLUS loan funds directly to Brown for our students and parents. Therefore, we do not have a preferred lender list for fed-eral student loans,” according to a written statement provided by de Ramel.

“If a parent requests information on a private loan, we direct them to the ‘Financing a Brown Education’ link” on the University’s fi nancial aid Web site, de Ramel said.

That link leads to an online bro-chure that states that “the Offi ce of

Financial Aid is not able to endorse one loan product over another ... Families are urged to utilize the In-ternet to research details on loan products, conduct comparisons be-tween loan offerings, shop the loan marketplace and undergo non-bind-ing pre-approval processes to deter-mine the family’s tolerance for bor-rowing.”

The brochure does contain a list of loan programs “with which Brown University is most familiar.” That list does not include Student

continued from page 1

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Humanities essential, Simmons says

Financial aid scandals will not touch U., offi cials say

we kill, we’re saving a Marine’s life. And I believe that.”

Fielder drew chuckles from the audience when describing the in-adequacies of Iraqi security forc-es, recalling an instance in which a member of the Iraqi “special spe-cial forces,” as he said they called themselves, shot one of his subor-dinates in the leg.

“The Iraqi police and the Iraqi army have nowhere to go but up,” he noted, adding that Iraqis are increasingly willing to work with American forces as they grow more frustrated with conditions under the insurgency.

Drew said Fielder’s down-to-earth perspective is what attracted the Brown Republicans to bring him to speak on campus. “He pres-ents a very realistic point of view, a reasonable point of view — typi-cal of a soldier, I guess, or a Ma-rine. Not overly pessimistic, not overly optimistic, just very realis-tic,” Drew said.

In a question-and-answer ses-sion following his presentation, Fielder addressed questions about how Marines deal with the pre-texts for the Iraq war, including intelligence fallouts on the issues of Iraq’s possession of weapons of

mass destruction and Saddam Hus-sein’s link to al-Qaida.

“The hardest part is talking to Marines about this,” Fielder said, “because they’re not stupid.” Still, he said, he believes that the invasion was initiated with good intentions.

Fielder also showed photo-graphs from everyday life as a Ma-rine in Iraq, pointing out amenities sent by U.S. citizens and others that Marines acquired in Iraq. He also noted pastimes and distractions from Iraqi politics, such as watch-ing baseball games.

“I don’t smoke. I never smoked. But when I was over there, I prob-ably smoked every night. I don’t know, I guess it relaxed me,” he said.

Now that he’s back in the United States, though, Fielder said those distractions have fallen by the way-side as he’s forced to answer tough questions about the war when visit-ing college campuses.

Fielder said much of the infor-mation that students and citizens in the United States get about the situ-ation in Iraq is incomplete.

“I think there’s a lot of media there but not much journalism go-ing on,” he said, adding that he nev-er actually talked to any reporters while in Iraq.

Though his sniper platoon’s operations made media tagalongs diffi cult, one British photographer was embedded with his unit, Field-er said.

“He would come popping around the corner with his camera like it was a weapon,” Fielder recalled.

Drew agreed with Fielder’s opin-ion of press coverage of Iraq.

“The problem is not in what they present. I’m sure what they present is very accurate,” he said. “The problem is the balance.”

“Everybody realizes why they do it — it’s for the ratings,” Drew said of 24-hour news coverage of the war. “It’s infotainment,” he said.

Drew added that campus con-servatives face diffi culty promoting a balanced dialogue about the war.

“You can’t expect a liberal arts institution with very liberal profes-sors and a very liberal student body to have even an intelligent dialogue about the war. A lot of people aren’t willing to concede that there’s an-other side or another view,” he said.

“This wasn’t a terribly politi-cal lecture,” Drew added, “but I thought it was necessary and use-ful for the Brown community to hear the Marines’ point of view of why they’re there.”

continued from page 1

Marine recalls two tours in Iraq in campus speech

from individuals who believed that this event was inappropriate at this time and with the given circum-stances.”

Izmailyan wrote that the musi-

cians pulled out of the concert be-cause many members of the Arme-nian community expressed con-cern about the “potential misuse of the event.” The musicians “did not wish to participate in an event that the Armenian community was not

united behind,” he wrote.Izmailyan added that he was the

only person who spoke to the musi-cians about their decision to with-draw from the concert.

— Debbie Lehmann

continued from page 1

Concert not canceled due to threats, ASA president says

CAMPUS NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 5

so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past

Five Brown faculty members are among the 189 people awarded Guggenheim Fellowships this year, the most ever for the Univer-sity in a single year.

The fi ve recipients are Associ-ate Professor of Mathematics Jef-frey Brock, Professor of Religious Studies Susan Harvey, Associate Professor of Judaic Studies Mi-chael Satlow, Associate Professor of History Robert Self and Profes-sor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sci-ences Michael Tarr.

The fact that Brown boasts so many winners this year is “an indi-cation that there’s a lot of terrifi c work being done here,” Self said.

“It’s just wonderful to have re-ceived it,” Harvey said of the fel-lowship. “I’m astonished.”

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has been awarding fellowships in its Ameri-can and Canadian competition for 83 years. Fellowships are award-ed to “scholars and artists” who conduct “research in any fi eld of knowledge (or) creation in any of the arts,” according to the founda-tion’s Web site. Though typically the fellowship’s recipients are affi l-iated with a university, the founda-tion also recognizes independent researchers and artists.

This year the foundation grant-ed a total of $7.6 million in awards, with the amount granted varying for each individual recipient. The winners, selected from almost 2,800 applicants, were announced April 5. Among institutions, only Princeton University had more winners than Brown, with six pro-fessors receiving fellowships. The Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology, Harvard University, Uni-versity of Michigan and Universi-ty of California, Los Angeles also each had fi ve awardees.

Brock conducts research on low-dimensional geometry and to-pology, according to the Universi-ty’s Web site, and will work on a project titled “Models, Bounds and Effective Rigidity in Hyperbolic Geometry” with his Guggenheim award.

Brock likens his project to a ge-nome project for three-dimension-al spaces. “Every three-dimension-al space has its own best geome-try,” he said.

During his fellowship, Brock will spend time at the Mathemati-cal Sciences Research Institute in California, which he said has “great working conditions.” After his fellowship, Brock plans to re-turn to Brown, where he has been teaching since the fall of 2004.

Self, who has been teaching at Brown for three years, is a histo-rian specializing in 20th-century U.S. history, political movements and culture. As a Guggenheim fel-low, Self will work on a book called “The Politics of Gender and Sexu-ality in America from Watts to Rea-gan,” which he said will explore subjects from “welfare to abortion to … gay rights.”

Harvey will work on a book called “Teaching Women: Biblical Women and Women’s Choirs in Syriac Tradition.” Syriac is a dia-lect of Aramaic that Harvey said is “still a spoken language in the Mid-dle East among Christians.”

In her book, Harvey will exam-ine how Syriac hymns “create en-tire lives for these Biblical charac-ters” and portray women in “hero-ic terms,” she said.

Harvey has been teaching at

Brown for 20 years and special-izes in late antique and Byzantine Christianity. Her fellowship will allow her to write her book more quickly than her last, she said, which took 14 years to complete.

Tarr is “trying to synthesize what we know about the neural basis of object recognition with recent computational approaches” in humans with his fellowship, he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Tarr will work with peers in ap-plied mathematics, neuroscience and computer science to create a model of object recognition in a project called “Statistical Models of Structured Visual Object Recog-nition in Humans.”

The record number of Gug-genheim fellows from Brown “ap-pears to be an indication that Pres-ident (Ruth) Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment is bearing fruit,” Tarr wrote. “The realization of this plan makes it an exciting time to be at Brown. … Of course, it could also be random variation (one should always test one’s theo-ries!).”

Satlow will work on a project called “Jewish Piety in Late Antiq-uity” with his award. He will “in-vestigate how the Jews of late an-tiquity understood their relation-ship with God,” according to the University press release.

BY RACHEL ARNDTSENIOR STAFF WRITER

5 professors awarded Guggenheim fellowships

Next year, 18 students may study Persian at Brown if a proposed Group Independent Study Proj-ect is approved by the College Curriculum Council — a deci-sion offi cials say is contingent on being able to bring a Ful-bright foreign language teach-ing assistant in the language to campus.

Alex Ortiz ’09, one of the GISP organizers, said students interested in studying Persian met last fall with Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 to present over 100 signa-tures and statements from 15 students interested in studying the Middle Eastern language. The group got “a very good re-ception,” Ortiz said.

Bergeron and Kertzer were “impressed” with what the stu-dents had to say, said Assistant Provost Shelley Stephenson. The University was interested in providing instruction in Persian “at least in a provisional way” by the Fall 2007 semester, Stephen-son said.

After that meeting, Stephen-son said, she began to look for a faculty member at Brown fl uent in Persian who might be able to lead a class but was unsuccess-ful. When she was unable to fi nd a donor to provide the instruc-tor’s salary and course materi-als, the decision was made to ap-ply for a Fulbright teaching as-sistant to lead the GISP.

The Fulbright teaching assis-tant — part of the Foreign Lan-guage Teaching Assistant pro-gram, sponsored by the State Department and administered by the Institute of International Education — would be a foreign graduate student for whom the Fulbright program would pro-vide funds for travel, room and board. The Offi ce of the Pro-vost would waive tuition for the

scholar, who would take gradu-ate-level courses, and provide funding for class materials.

While the Fulbright teach-ing assistant will actually teach the class, an external supervi-sor from the University of Penn-sylvania who knows Persian will be hired to provide the syllabus and write the exams — a nec-essary measure for students to earn credit for the GISP.

The GISP is also required to have a faculty sponsor — a po-sition fi lled by Merle Krueger, associate director of the Center for Language Studies.

Belinda Navi ’09, one of the GISP’s organizers, said she was initially interested in Persian be-cause the language is part of her cultural heritage. She said offer-ing Persian courses at Brown would be a step toward fostering intercultural understanding.

“With the current state of our politics and foreign affairs, it’s really vital for this language — this cultural gateway — to be available at Brown,” she said.

Of the 18 students signed up for the GISP, two are gradu-ate students. One is a fi rst-year medical student and another a fourth-year doctoral student.

Since the Fulbright teaching assistantship is a one-year pro-gram, the University is seeking donations to establish a more permanent Persian program. Stephenson said she hopes a successful GISP will demon-strate serious interest among students to potential donors.

“We’re trying to make a case for bringing instruction to cam-pus on very solid footing, and we’re trying to do that quickly,” she said.

After the funding for a per-manent program is available, the University can begin to search for an instructor. Ste-phenson said she is looking for an instructor willing to make at least a three- to fi ve-year com-mitment.

BY PATRICK COREYCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Persian GISP in the works for next year

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GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS AMONG IVIES

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007PAGE 6

dents with nature, the program has evolved to promote overall aware-ness of nature and the environment.

Rebecca de Sa ’09, co-coordina-tor for OLEEP, explained that the group’s emphasis on science is part-ly a refl ection of the Met Center’s educational requirements and re-

quests from Met students.She said the Met Center has a

highly individualized approach to learning. Students typically partici-pate in internships in several differ-ent fi elds, acquiring skills necessaryfor a well-rounded education, such as empirical and quantitative reason-ing. Met student participants want-ed to apply OLEEP to their quanti-

tative reasoning requirement, so the group shifted its emphasis accord-ingly to focus more on science, de Sa said.

But OLEEP is working to keep in touch with its original goals, Son-shine said.

“The science curriculum, in the end, is really rewarding,” Sonshine said. “But fi guring out how to inte-grate leadership training and envi-ronmental awareness with that is a real challenge.”

One of the ways the group keeps in touch with its roots is by taking weekend hiking trips to surround-ing parks and trails. The group goes on several trips a semester — for example, later this month, Met stu-dents and their mentors will head to the Massachusetts-Connecticut bor-der to hike part of the Appalachian Trail. Other activities have more of a focus on environmental awareness, such as a recent trip to the Provi-dence Water Supply branch in Sci-tuate.

Sixteen Met students are cur-rently involved in the program, paired with 15 Brown student men-tors — the 16th Met student helps coordinate the Met side of the pro-gram. Castleman estimated that more than 100 students from the Met have been involved in the pro-gram in its history.

“It’s humbling to think that, 10 years after we began OLEEP, it’s still going strong,” Castleman said.

Both current student coordina-tors agreed that one of the most fulfi lling aspects of the program is meeting the volunteers and partici-pants.

“The people that I’ve met through OLEEP are terrifi c, and they really make the program. There is a seri-ous aspect to what we do, but we have a lot of fun as well,” de Sa said.

continued from page 3

After 10 years, OLEEP still building bridges between Met students, outdoors

of people in Sudan.”General Treasurer Frank Caprio

told The Herald that the divestment bill would close the “loophole for interna-tional investors,” explaining that while U.S.-based companies that the state may invest in are not allowed to contract with or make investments in Sudan, an international company has no such re-strictions.

The bill would “defi nitely” put pres-sure on the Sudanese government and “substantially weaken their hand,” Caprio said, noting that “governments like Sudan are only as strong as the eco-nomic conditions in the country.”

While Caprio said he was not sure whether or not Carcieri would sign the bill, he said he plans on meeting with the governor to give him background infor-mation and urge him to sign the bill.

Xay Khamsyvoravong ’06, Caprio’s deputy chief of staff, called the bill “very intelligent legislation.” He said the bill removes about $2.1 million of state pen-sion funds from investments in Rolls-Royce and Petronas and reinvests the money elsewhere. Rolls-Royce pro-vides engines to Sudanese oil refi ner-ies, and Petronas produces fuel for Su-danese government aircraft, according to Khamsyvoravong.

“With such a blatant connection,” he said, “the only debate was over what the best way to (divest) was.”

A divestment bill was introduced in the General Assembly last year but did not pass. Carcieri’s offi ce did not re-spond to requests for comment.

fense from the previous innings gave up fi ve runs on fi ve hits in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the offense couldn’t capital-ize in the end, leaving two on base to end the game, 5-4.

Against Penn, Brown lost another close one, 3-2, in the fi rst game of its doubleheader on Sunday. The freshman class powered Brown on offense once again. Browne tripled to left and then scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to tie the game up at one. Amanda Asay ’10 went 2-for-3 on the day and hit her fi rst home run of her ca-reer in the fi fth to put Bruno up by one.

“The pitcher made a mis-take, and I hit it over left cen-ter,” Asay said.

But the Quakers responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to stay up for good. Jessica Iwasaki ’10 put in a solid effort on the mound for six in-nings, striking out fi ve, allow-ing fi ve hits and walking only one batter.

“The main thing was that we’re able to do one thing well in a game, either our defense or our hitting,” Iwasaki said. “We haven’t been able to combine the two — it’s a little frustrat-ing.”

In the fi nal game, Brown

once again started out on top with a 5-0 lead in the fi rst. The Bears played small ball to score three runs, and Kelsey Peter-son ’10 topped off the inning with two RBIs on a double to left.

“We batted through the en-tire line-up in just the fi rst in-ning,” said Michelle Moses ’09 who pitched three solid in-nings in the game, striking out three and allowing only four hits. “Unfortunately, Penn re-sponded with three home runs of their own in the fi rst inning. It knocked our spirits down a little, but we still fought hard.”

Brown went on to lose 14-6. However, the chances for a divi-sion title are still within reach. Brown plays two doublehead-ers against Dartmouth Satur-day and Sunday.

“It’s always nice to be home, not as chaotic (as road trips),” Asay said.

The Big Green is only one game ahead of Brown in the North Division standings, so Bruno could jump into second place with a successful week-end.

“We’re going to do really well against Dartmouth,” Lewis said. “We’ve been steadily im-proving — we just have to focus on stringing together a couple hits together and playing as a team on the fi eld.”

Softball tamed by Lions, quelled by Quakers

continued from page 12

continued from page 3

Rhode Island set to divest from Sudan

suggested he was intimidated.On the other hand, I do agree that

Tiger choked a little bit, but if there was a moment or two where he truly lost the Masters, it was not on Sun-day, as some pundits would suggest. It was at the end of Thursday’s and Saturday’s rounds, both of which fi n-ished with him bogeying 17 and 18. Take away those four extra strokes, and Tiger fi nishes at 1 under par in-stead of 3 over. Yes, his Sunday round was mediocre, but he would have been in much better position to begin with had he not hiccupped at the end of two of his fi rst three rounds.

Those who follow golf should give Zach Johnson his due and recognize what he did: He took Tiger’s best punch and never looked back. But do not count on a similar scenario play-ing itself out for the rest of the major season. Tigers rarely choke on their prey.

Could this be the end of Mickelson?Phil Mickelson’s name was absent

from the water-cooler talk surround-ing the Masters this past weekend. In fact, he has failed to even sniff the top of the leader board at any signifi -cant tournament for what seems like the past year. When he choked at last year’s U.S. Open, I didn’t think then that it would set him back, but he clearly has not been the same golf-er since. When he was asked about his meltdown at Winged Foot and its effect on his psyche following his fi -nal round Sunday, he hesitated for a good 10 seconds, which was enough for me to believe that he has not re-covered. It’s good that he got over his slump at the majors, because I’m not sure he will win another one.

Some suggest changes to televised golf

While it souands like he has a true passion for the game, Jim Nantz just does not do it for me as lead commentator for the Masters. Come to think of it, I’m not his biggest fan when it comes to his work in football or college basketball either. Don’t get me wrong — I think the man has a nice voice and good command of his surroundings — but he’s like vanilla ice cream, satisfactory at fi rst, but af-ter a while, you start yearning for al-ternatives.

Those of you who read the Sports Guy blog are aware of how much mo-mentum the Gus Johnson Bandwag-on has gained in recent weeks follow-ing yet another stellar showing on his part during the NCAA basketball tournament. Though I’m not the fi rst to suggest it, I would like to restate how fantastic it would be to get him covering golf. He would add some se-rious color to the game — both liter-

ally and fi guratively — and the fans would be worked up into the same frenzy that surrounds constant-ac-tion sports like football and basket-ball.

Speaking of college basketball announcers who would make great golf broadcasters, I would love to see Verne Lundquist team up with Bill Raftery on the 16th hole of Au-gusta National. Lundquist has al-ready proved to be one of the best overall play-by-play men in the busi-ness (he’s the best in my opinion), and Raftery’s catch-phrases of “A lit-tle kiss” and “Send it in, big fella” are perfectly applicable to a fi nesse sport like golf.

All I can say is that if Gus Johnson is seen roaming the fairways at the U.S. Open, someone up there likes me.

Chris Mahr ’07 and his columns are never absent from the water-cooler talk — among his friends, anyway.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 7

continued from page 12

Mahrtian Encounters: Refl ections on the Masters

But Pautler felt the team put up a good fi ght against the talented Quakers.

“We were very much the underdog. Two girls on the Penn team are from the (Wom-en’s Tennis Association),” she said. “Our general goal was to let them beat us and not us beating ourselves. We wanted to make fewer errors and not give them free points. I think we did that.”

In singles play, Mansur had the closest match for the Bears. She almost won her fi rst set at third singles, but ended up losing the match 7-6, 6-1 to the Quakers’ Yulia Rivelis. At fi rst singles, Paut-ler fell to Ekaterina Kosmin-skaya 6-1, 6-3 and at number two singles, Ames lost to Ju-lia Koulbitskaya 6-2, 6-2. Fin-kelstein took a shot at Lenka Snajdrova at third singles, but was defeated, 6-1, 6-4. Penn’s Charlotte Tansill defeated El-lis, 6-0, 6-2 at fi fth singles and Tansill’s teammate, Lauren Sadaka, dismissed Sorokko, 6-3, 6-0 at sixth singles.

Teaming up for doubles did not help Bruno’s battle against Penn. Pautler and Mansur were close to earning a win but were unable to achieve a victory, falling 8-6 to Snajdro-va and Rivelis at fi rst singles.

“We played a good match and worked hard,” Pautler said about her doubles match with Mansur. “We played smart and played out of our comfort zone. We adapted well despite

the loss. We did what we want-ed to do.”

At second singles, the duo of Kirkpatrick and Ellis lost 8-1 to Kosminskaya and Koul-bitskaya. Finkelstein and So-rokko were overwhelmed by Amanda Avedissian and Tans-ill, falling 8-1.

The Bears will try to bounce back from the dismal weekend and gain an Ivy win this weekend. Brown will play host to Cornell at 2 p.m. on Friday and will take on Colum-bia at noon on Saturday. Both Cornell and Columbia will be worthy opponents, but the Bears hope playing on their own territory will give them the advantage.

While the team is excited to battle Columbia because both teams have a historic ri-valry, Brown must not forget about Cornell. The Big Red is traditionally an automatic win for many teams, but Dubusk-er said Cornell is a much-im-proved squad and will not be a pushover this weekend.

Dubusker feels the success of the team lies in a change in its current attitude.

“We need to think, ‘We are the better team today,’” she said. “Anything can happen on any given day. We can’t let our past results predict our fu-ture results.”

Despite the tough week-end, Brown hopes to defeat its opponents next weekend.

“We’re not a team full of ex-pros or full of superstars,” she continued. “But we’re a team that can surprise people.”

W. tennis loses to Princeton and Penncontinued from page 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007PAGE 8

play by sweeping the doubles matches against the Tigers. At fi rst doubles, the No. 53 duo of co-captain Dan Hanegby ’07 and Saurabh Kohli ’08 defeated Ted Mabrey and George Carpeni 8-4, and at second doubles, co-cap-tain Eric Thomas ’07 and Chris Lee ’09 also triumphed 8-4 over Peter Capkovic and Alex Vuckov-ic. Zack Pasanen ’07 and Noah Gardner ’09 took an 8-4 win of their own at third doubles against Alex Krueger-Wyman and Sratha Saengsuwarn.

But in singles play, the Bears dropped their fi rst four matches to give Princeton the four points it needed to win. At fourth singles, Kohli fell to Krueger-Wyman 6-3, 6-3, and at third singles, Thomas dropped his match 6-4, 6-4. Mean-while, Hanegby faced off against No. 125 Capkovic at fi rst singles, but after losing the fi rst set in a tiebreaker, he dropped the sec-ond set as well to give Capkovic the 7-6, 6-3 win. At second singles, Basu Ratnam ’09 battled Saengsu-warn in a three-set contest, which he eventually lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

“We didn’t win the big points,” Thomas said. “That’s what we re-ally need to work on.”

Pasanen gave Brown its only singles victory of the day, defeat-ing Charlie Brosens 6-3, 6-4 at fi fth singles. Lee, who competed while wearing a back brace after recently being diagnosed with stress fractures in his lower back, was forced to retire from the sixth singles match with Mabrey ahead 6-3, 2-2.

“We fought hard,” said Joe Scott ’08. “But I think we were just a little bit rusty in a few spots.”

The next day, the Bears dropped the doubles point to be-gin their match against Penn. At second doubles, Thomas and Lee overpowered Jonathan Boym and Mikhail Bekker 8-4, but losses at fi rst and third doubles gave the

Quakers the point.Brown had some closer match-

es in singles play. At fi rst singles, Ratnam fell 6-2, 6-2 to No. 71 Ja-son Pinsky, but at fourth singles, Thomas soundly defeated Justin Fox 6-2, 6-3 to bring the score to 2-1.

“I jumped ahead early,” Thom-as said. “I didn’t let (Fox) get into the match.”

However, after Hanegby lost the second singles match 6-4, 6-2 to Boym, Kohli narrowly dropped the third singles match 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to Bekker, giving Penn the win.

At sixth singles, Gardner gave Brown another win, prevailing 6-4, 6-4 over Alex Vasin, and at fi fth singles, Pasanen lost a close match 6-3, 7-6 to Joseph Lok.

“It’s tough, when the match is already over, to will yourself to win,” Pasanen said.

The weekend’s two losses put Brown into sixth place in the Ivy League. After Penn and Harvard tied at No. 1, Columbia and Princ-eton are tied for third, and Dart-mouth is in fi fth place. This will be the fi rst time since 2000 that the Bears will fi nish with more than one loss during the Ivy League season.

“We’re a long shot to win the Ivy League title,” Pasanen said. “But this is the deepest I’ve seen the Ivy League.”

Thomas echoed the senti-ments of his teammate. “It’s hard for one team to go undefeated,” he said. “We just need to focus on one match at a time and regain our focus.”

Next weekend, the Bears will travel to New York to compete against Cornell on Friday and Co-lumbia on Saturday.

“We have a really tough trip next weekend,” Harris said. “The bottom line is to fi nd a way to play to our potential. We have to fi nd that next gear. Right now, we’re stuck in fourth gear in a fi ve-gear car. Hopefully, we’ll fi nd a way to move into fi fth gear.”

continued from page 12

M. tennis trounced by Tigers, Quakers

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 9

happy lottery

the fourth.The score remained tied at 3-3

until the top of the seventh and fi nal inning. After starting the inning by walking designated hitter Tim May, Bears starter Will Weidig ’10 got two quick outs. After an intentional walk to right-fi elder Jarron Smith, closer Rob Hallberg ’08 entered the game and gave up a two-run double to shortstop William Gordon.

Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the inning, the Bears got off to a prom-ising start after centerfi elder Steve Daniels ’09 led off with a double and advanced to third on left-fi eld-er Ryan Murphy’s ’08 single. But Quakers starter Todd Roth recov-ered to strike out Thomas, fi rst baseman Jeff Dietz ’08 and short-stop Matt Nuzzo ’09, with the last strikeout coming with the tying run at second after Murphy stole sec-ond. In all, the Bears stranded eight runners on base.

“I thought Weidig pitched es-pecially well,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “But you got to give (Roth) credit. Runners on fi rst and third, and he strikes out our three, four, fi ve batters. He might have thrown the best nine pitches of the game” in the bottom of the seventh, he added.

“We talked about it after the game,” Thomas said. “It was a good opportunity for us with the middle of the lineup coming up, (but) that’s just how the ball rolls sometimes.”

The second game was as tense as the fi rst but without the solid pitching. Again, the Bears took a 2-0 lead in the fi rst inning, this time off Thomas’ RBI triple and Nuzzo’s sacrifi ce fl y. After Penn responded with two runs in the top of the sec-ond, Thomas hit his second homer of the day in the bottom of the in-ning, this one a three-run shot to dead center to give Brown a 5-2 lead.

The Bears added three runs in the third, with two coming off a double by third baseman Rob-ert Papenhause ’09. Penn added a run in the fi fth and two more in the sixth off Smith’s deep home run to right-center.

With Brown leading 9-7 with one out in the top of the seventh and a Penn runner on second base, Drabinski called on Hallberg to en-ter the game. The coach said he told the closer they needed two and two-thirds innings out of him, even though he had pitched in the fi rst game.

Hallberg got the Bears out of the seventh, but after the Bears scored three in the bottom of the inning off a homer by tri-captain second base-man Bryan Tews ’07, Hallberg gave Penn those three runs back in the eighth. With two outs and runners at the corners, Hallberg got out of the jam with help from Daniel’s spectacular diving catch in right-

center fi eld, which likely prevented two runs from scoring. After Brown scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth, Hallberg gave up two more runs in the top of the ninth before striking out the last batter to earn his fi rst save of the season.

“He really sucked it up and gave us what we needed,” Drabinski said of Hallberg.

Drabinski said he was pleased with his team’s performances this weekend, especially with Dietz and tri-captain starter James Cramphin ’07 pitching deep into their respec-tive games on Saturday. He was also especially impressed by Thomas, who fi nished the weekend with 10 hits, three home runs and 12 RBIs in 15 at-bats. Thomas attributed his productive weekend to being more patient at the plate.

“Thomas had a hell of a week-end,” Drabinksi said. “The (Penn) coach thought Devin was the best player in the league.”

“He’ll sorely be missed” after he graduates this year, Drabinski added.

In addition to Thomas, Murphy hit the ball hard this weekend. He went 6-for-9 against Penn yesterday to become the team’s batting leader with a .358 average.

“I had no idea,” Murphy said when he was told of his feat. He said increased playing time has helped him at the plate.

Drabinski and Murphy said the team, which is now tied with Har-vard for the Red Rolfe Division lead, wants to win three out of four games in the remaining series with Ivy League teams. If the Bears can do that, Drabinksi said the Bears “can write our own ticket” to the playoffs.

The Bears are scheduled to play a doubleheader with the University of Maine at a neutral site in Maine on Wednesday, but the game will probably be moved or canceled, ac-cording to Brown Sports Informa-tion. If that’s the case, the team will next play at Dartmouth, with a dou-bleheader scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

continued from page 12

Brown splits pair with Penn

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To the Editor:

I’m the nutritionist at the University, and I’m writ-ing in response to a recent Herald article (“Pressure mounts as theses crunch time nears,” April 6).

As the article pointed out, this is the time of year when student schedules become maximally packed, and nutrition and self-care can take a backseat to dead-lines. But eating well and academic productivity don’t have to be mutually exclusive — a relatively minimal investment of time in meals and snacks allows stu-dents to perform signifi cantly better by decreasing fa-tigue, boosting cognitive functioning and maintaining stable moods.

Probably the most helpful thing students can do during crunch times is keep their rooms or kitchens well-stocked. Carbohydrate-rich choices like whole-

grain crackers and fruit, partnered with protein-rich options like hummus and yogurt, provide long-lasting mini-meals that are fast and fi lling, and the East Side Marketplace and Peapod Express both allow students to order groceries and have them delivered for a mini-mal fee. I cordially invite anyone who wants to know more about balancing nutrition and deadlines to join me on April 12 from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Wellness Cafe(Memorial Room, 2nd Floor Faunce) for a discussion of food and mood.

Heather Bell, NutritionistBrown University Health Services

April 9

Eat healthy during crunch time

Two years ago, apparently in response to the rising cost of tuition and consequent fi nancial strain on students, Columbia University changed how it informed students about private student loan lenders.

Last week, as part of an ongoing investigation by New York Attor-ney General Anthony Cuomo into the relationship between university administrators and private student loan lenders, it was revealed that offi cials at three different institutions of higher education — includ-ing Columbia’s executive director of fi nancial aid, David Charlow — that had listed Student Loan Xpress as a preferred lender had profi ted handsomely from stock in the private lender, in effect, making money off of their power to advise students.

What seemed like an isolated anomaly may soon expand in scope to touch other institutions. Along with these three incidents at Colum-bia, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California, university administrators who were well-paid to serve as “consultants” to Student Loan Xpress or companies like it have come under scrutiny. Days before the Columbia scandal broke, Cuomo’s of-fi ce settled an investigation into fi ve other universities’ practice of tak-ing commissions based on the number of student loans they directed to various private lenders. Continued investigation has also implicat-ed an employee at the Department of Education.

We’re glad the University has safeguards in place to prevent such an astounding confl ict of interest — Brown participates in the Fed-eral Direct Loan Program and simply offers a list of private lenders that the University is “most familiar” with. In addition, the University requires fi nancial aid offi cers to sign a confl ict of interest statement, banning them from owning shares in student loan companies. These are good, pro-active measures and deserve to be applauded.

Yet when Columbia “reorganized” its practices two years ago, that university intended to “ensure that we identifi ed lender sources who could provide the most favorable terms and services for our students” and “ensure a competitive process,” according to an e-mail adminis-trators sent to all undergraduates in the current scandal’s wake.

It appears that, in the student loan industry — it is, after all, an in-dustry designed to turn a profi t — an ill-defi ned line has been crossed. And in turn, this opaque area of university fi nance has been exposed to perhaps overdue scrutiny. We are pleased that, though other attor-ney generals may not follow suit, at least some offi cials and journal-ists will not let this stop here. Instead, we hope they will push for in-creased transparency in fi nancial aid administration and the practices of private lenders. Light is the best disinfectant.

This scandal’s nature suggests the complex nature of an industrythat remains a mystery for those of us most affected by undergradu-ate fi nancial aid. Struggling through competing university packages is hard enough, but speculating about the veracity of and motivations behind a school’s recommendations and policies adds undue bur-den to what is already a complicated process for students and their families. We commend Cuomo for bringing these issues to light, and we look forward to continued reassurance from Brown — and our own director of fi nancial aid, James Tilton, who formerly worked in Columbia’s fi nancial aid offi ce — that students on College Hill won’t someday wake up to the news that just recently rocked Morningside Heights.

Making aid transparent

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The American news media has long held ob-jectivity as a tenet of journalistic integrity. While, of course, this is never fully attain-able — bias creeps in through the selec-tion of headlines and photographs, through word choice, through the internal ordering of quotes in the report and so on — the goal of attempting to keep journalists’ personal opinions out of their reporting is a noble one.

However, this ideal has been redefi ned by a tendency to navigate the middle ground of all debates, most perniciously in a sort of “he said/she said” journalism. This tech-nique, which has become practically ubiq-uitous, involves “presenting both sides of the issue:” giving equal airtime to opposing viewpoints without ever attempting to inves-tigate the facts of the matter. While some-times more voices allow for a fuller under-standing, often this method is misleading, as it gives a facade of validity to unsupport-ed or simply false arguments.

Consider, for instance, an event gener-ally held as a paragon of journalistic accom-plishment — the media exposure of the Wa-tergate scandal. It cannot be denied that that journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bern-stein played a primary role in bringing down a Republican administration — tarnishing the reputations of numerous right-wing of-fi cials, setting into motion a chain of events that led to the impeachment and resigna-tion of the Republican president and linking the party with scandal and corruption in the minds of innumerable Americans for God-only-knows-how-long. It would be absurd, however, to claim that the story should have been suppressed for the sake of “ob-

jectivity.” History lauds these reporters for their actions. Today, however, they would probably be denounced for their “partisan attacks” and “biased, activist journalism” — not only by those threatened by their cover-age but also by the very news media they represent. Can you imagine how the story would play out if it happened in today’s cli-mate of overzealous, misguided “fairness?” It would be a farce: Woodward on one half of the screen, presenting his case, with some

Nixon aide on the other half, denying every-thing. No matter that one man has extensive research, reliable sources and, in short, the facts on his side, while the other man is ly-ing like a rug. The news media would pres-ent both and consider it a job well done — thorough and balanced coverage.

In addition to failing in the primary pur-pose of journalism — ferreting out the truth of current events and presenting them to

the public — this “he said/she said” presen-tation engenders a further problem. By only giving airtime to the opposing extremes of any issue, the media sets up a false dichot-omy and showcases an artifi cially polarized depiction of the range of opinions involved. There are often more than just two sides to a story, and most alternative views are less extreme than those presented by talking-head pundits vying for the best sound bite.

Furthermore, the strange parity cre-

ated by this presentation makes the entire concept of truth seem nebulous. As Lewis Black puts it, “If everything seems credible, then nothing seems credible. You know, TV puts everybody in those boxes, side-by-side. On one side, there’s this certifi able lunatic who says the Holocaust never happened. And next to him is this noted, honored his-torian who knows all about the Holocaust. And now, there they sit, side-by-side, they

look like equals! Everything they say seems to be credible. And so, as it goes on, nothing seems credible anymore! We just stopped listening!”

The gist of objectivity is not to make sure you are representing viewpoints differ-ent from your own but rather to make sure that, as far as possible, your personal opin-ions don’t infl uence your presentation. The media these days, however, has confl ated the admirable precept of avoiding support of one particular side due to personal be-liefs with the misguided notion of avoiding bolstering a side because the evidence de-mands it. One cannot juxtapose facts with falsehoods as though both were of equal va-lidity. Sometimes the facts of the case hap-pen to come out for or against a particular “side” of a debate. To obscure that is dis-honest.

Objectivity should entail a search for the objective truth. Debates about the nature of ontology aside, this goal, however unfea-sible in reality, is a worthy one, which has unfortunately been all but replaced by the mantra of “fairness.” Are we being fair to both sides? Are we giving them equal rep-resentation? If the media wants to present multiple opinions on a story, fi ne — but the journalistic responsibility does not end there. There is also the obvious necessity of actually going out into the world and as-certaining the facts of the matter, as well as they can be reckoned. They’re supposed to be journalists, for God’s sake. Slapping two opposing opinions up on the screen is not the same as reporting the news. That is not objectivity — it is intellectual laziness, it is deception and it is doing a great disservice to the American people.

Karla Bertrand ’09 is a big fan of “facts,” de-spite being an opinions columnist.

OPINIONSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 11

‘Objective’ journalism does not mean ‘balanced’ journalism

Down the hatch

Have you ever found yourself with a baby that you just couldn’t be bothered to keep? Maybe you had it in the bathroom at your high school prom and had to ditch the little bugger to go dance with your sweetie. Per-haps your baby momma up and died on you like Carey Lowell in “Sleepless in Seattle.” The baby might have outlived its appeal and reached its expiration date, like a carton of cottage cheese left out in the sun.

Hell, it could have been just plain old butt-ugly.

Well, if you fi nd yourself in this situation and live in Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan, you’re in luck. Jikei Hospital has installed Ja-pan’s fi rst so-called “baby hatch,” an alcove in the hospital’s wall where would-be moth-ers can anonymously dump their unwanted offspring. Any children left there are sup-ported by the Catholic Church until Ange-lina Jolie can fl y in and adopt them.

The baby hatch, euphemistically deemed the “cradle of storks,” is equipped with a warmer to keep deposited children from getting too cold. When a baby is placed in the slot, an alarm sounds inside the hospi-tal, much like the way Cold Stone Creamery employees sing obnoxiously when you put money in their tip jar.

All in all, the baby hatch is a pretty bril-liant idea. It gives doomed babies a chance at redemption. Most importantly, it adds a new,

ironic twist to the phrase “down the baby hatch,” often used to feed assorted mashed vegetables to children.

Despite these painfully obvious benefi ts, conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has publicly voiced his opposition to the instal-lation of the hatch, citing his campaign plat-form of bringing “family values” back to Ja-pan.

Although Abe and his cohorts can’t fi nd a law under which to block the opening of the hatch, their vehement disapproval of the

plan baffl es me. In an effort to change Mr. Abe’s mind, I have done a little research into this invention’s illustrious history.

The fi rst proto-baby hatches on record are from Italy around the year 1198. Sanc-tioned by Pope Innocent III, these so-called “foundling wheels” acted as revolving doors where women could stuff their babies in one side and get a fat load of nothing out the oth-er — a benefi cial exchange for both sides.

The Pope justifi ed his support for the wheels by saying that it kept women from killing their babies. Given what we know

about popes from this era (in the words of Britney Spears, they were “not that Inno-cent”), he may have sanctioned the invention because there were a few too many little In-nocent IV’s running around the Holy See.

Over the next seven centuries, new found-ling wheels rolled out all over the world. From Flanders to France and from Britain to Brazil, these wheels proved a wild success. Several had to close down because too many women left too many babies in too few baby hospitals: Apparently, dumping your spawn

into a little device that ensured it would be someone else’s problem forever was a pretty attractive prospect even in less enlightened times. Foundling wheels eventually fell out of use, due to a combination of the aforemen-tioned overuse and some moral misgivings about encouraging child abandonment.

Modern baby hatches made their debut in Germany in 2000. Instead of being a revolv-ing-door affair, they involve a heated cradle with motion and weight sensors. They are, to say the least, a tech-savvy way to throw away your seed.

In German, these high-tech hatches are called “babyklappe.” Since their debut, more than 80 babyklappe have sprung up all over the country, giving innumerable women the opportunity to klappe on or klappe off. After all, they’re the klappers.

Once a woman leaves her baby in the babyklappe, she is given an eight-week grace period to come and reclaim her baby without any legal repercussions whatsoever. This window gives the fraulein in question a chance to decorate the baby’s room, work off all the baby weight, or maybe just take a little “me” time before committing to her in-fant. What more could a worried new mother need?

If she decides that she rather prefers not having to deal with the drive to the hospital to pick her little one back up, that’s fi ne too. Then the child is put up for adoption, while it’s still small and cute.

So, Shinzo, let’s talk. You may have some lame reason like “family values” to protest the opening of Jikei Hospital’s baby hatch, and that’s all well and good. But just think about it — ditchin’ babies is a rich and sto-ried tradition, and maintaining tradition is what conservatism is all about.

Besides, in a country where the popula-tion is stagnating, abandoning youngsters is, at the very least, an improvement over abor-tion.

It’s time to swallow your pride and take a big ol’ bite of realism pie, right down the hatch.

Adam Cambier ’09 would have made a good medieval pope.

ADAM CAMBIEROPINIONS COLUMNIST

One cannot juxtapose facts with

falsehoods as though both were of

equal validity. Sometimes the facts of

the case happen to come out for or

against a particular “side” of a debate.

To obscure that is dishonest.

BY KARLA BERTRANDOPINIONS COLUMNIST

All in all, the baby hatch is a pretty

brilliant idea. It gives doomed babies a

chance at redemption.

SPORTS TUESDAYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007 PAGE 12

BY STU WOO

Brown splits Penn doubleheader, ties Harvard for Rolfe lead

The baseball team followed its im-pressive doubleheader sweep of Columbia on Saturday by splitting a doubleheader with the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania (13-13, 7-5 Ivy League) at home Monday. Brown is now 10-14 overall and 5-3 in the An-cient Eight.

The Bears dropped the day’s fi rst game, 5-3, after failing to drive in runners from scoring position, but they rebounded to win an ugly 15-12 slugfest in game two.

As they did in the two Colum-bia games on Saturday, the Bears took a lead in the bottom of the fi rst inning in the fi rst game. Catcher Devin Thomas ’07, who went 7-for-7 against Columbia with six RBIs and a homer, continued his hot hitting by belting an opposite-fi eld two-run homer. The Quakers tied the game in the third on two sacrifi ce fl ies, and Brown traded runs with Penn in the bottom of the third and top of

FEATURES EDITOR

Softball tamed by Lions, quelled by Quakers

The winter gloom of Rhode Island extended to New York and Philly this weekend with the softball team. The Bears came back win-less, though they only lost three of their four games by a combined score of fi ve runs against Colum-bia and the University of Pennsyl-vania.

“We’re up and down game-to-game, and we’re either having trouble right off the bat or stay-ing in it in the end,” said co-captain Amy Baxter ’08.

Against the Lions on Saturday, Bruno was down 6-0 by the sixth inning before it started generating some offense. After reaching fi rst on an error, second baseman An-drea Browne ’10 scored the fi rst run for the Bears on excellent base-running off of consecutive grounders by her classmates cen-terfi elder Brittany Lavine ’10 and shortstop Katie Rothamel ’10.

“Andrea did a great job at lead-off this weekend,” Baxter said. “She was fi nding ways to steal and was a big part of the runs we scored.”

Another excellent freshman ef-fort came from Whitney Lewis ’10 in the seventh, who came to the plate after a single by Baxter and hit her fi rst home run of her ca-reer, over the left center-fi eld wall for Brown’s third and fi nal run.

“I was really excited ... I’m not usually a home-run hitter,” Lewis said. “I’m more focused on getting contact with the ball, but the pitch was inside and up in the zone, and I just hit it.”

In the second game against the Lions, the Bears took an early 4-0 lead into the sixth off of RBI sin-gles from Kelsey Wilson ’09, Bax-ter and Lewis.

However, Brown’s stellar de-

BY AMY EHRHARTSPORTS STAFF WRITER

W. tennis swept off the court by Princeton and Penn

The women’s tennis team trav-eled to Princeton and the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania this weekend in the hopes of drawing some blood from its Ivy League rivals. However, the Bears could not muster any strength against the Tigers and the Quakers, and both opponents swept Brown, 7-0. Bruno’s record now stands 0-3 in league play and 5-11 overall.

Assistant Coach Cecily Du-busker said she was disappoint-ed with the weekend’s results. She attributed her team’s lack-luster performance largely to low morale.

“The results are much lower than we are capable of,” she said. “We are a young and inexperi-

enced team, and we are battling injuries, but we are not letting excuses get in our way … We have issues with belief. We need to continue to work on competi-tiveness and not fall into resigna-tion.”

The Bears faced Princeton on Friday and did not put up much of a fi ght. In singles play, every player lost in straight sets except rookie Emily Ellis ’10 at fi fth position. Ellis dropped the fi rst set against Sarah Huah, 6-4, but fought back to take the second set, 7-5. However, she could not close out the match, losing the tie-break, 1-0 (14-12).

Her teammates also struggled through their matches, with Mi-chelle Pautler ’07 falling to Melis-sa Saiontz 6-4, 6-2 at number one singles and captain Daisy Ames

’07 losing to Ivana King, 6-2, 6-1, at number two singles. At third singles, Princeton’s Darcy Rob-ertson defeated Sara Mansur ’09 6-4, 6-4, while Blakely Ashley dis-missed Bruno’s Alexa Baggio ’09 6-3, 6-1, at fourth singles. At fi fth singles, Tanja Vucetic ‘10 lost 6-0, 6-1 to Kelly Stewart.

Kathrin Sorokko ’10 and Brett Finkelstein ’09 produced the Bears’ best performance in doubles play, but the effort still was not strong enough to earn them a victory. The duo bowed to Ashley and Kristen Scott, 8-6, at third doubles. At fi rst dou-bles, Pautler and Mansur could not muster a winning game, los-ing 8-0 to King and Saiontz. Kel-ley Kirkpatrick ’08 and Ellis lost at second doubles to Huah and Robertson, 8-3.

Princeton’s victory over Brown was the Tigers’ fi rst league win. Princeton now stands 1-2 in league play.

On Saturday, the sun did not shine on the Bears either. In singles play, Penn swept every Brown player in straight sets. With their victory over Brown, the Quakers improved to a per-fect 3-0 league record.

The Bears knew they had their work cut out for them en-tering the match, as Penn is the strongest team in the Ivy League, according to Pautler. “It was hard to come off of a 7-0 loss to Princeton and be excited for the match (against Penn),” she said. “We could have used some more energy.”

BY MADELEINE MARECKIASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

M. tennis trounced by Tigers, Quakers

For the past two years, the men’s tennis team has ruled the Ivy League, but over the weekend, the Bears’ sovereignty was bro-ken by two losses against Ivy League foes. After taking a 5-2 loss to No. 75 Princeton in its Ivy League opener on Friday, No. 69 Brown had another 5-2 loss to No. 74 University of Pennsylva-nia, with whom they shared last year’s Ivy League title, on Satur-day. Penn now shares fi rst place with Harvard in the Ivy League standings, while Brown shares sixth place with Yale and Cornell.

“It wasn’t our best weekend,” said Head Coach Jay Harris. “We just couldn’t fi nd a way to play our best tennis. We fought hard and played pretty well, but it wasn’t enough. Both matches were ex-tremely tight. We just couldn’t fi nd a way to push through that door.”

The Bears began Ivy League

BY ERIN FRAUENHOFERASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo

Chris Lee’s ’09 two doubles wins were not enough to help Brown overcome Princeton or Penn over the weekend.

Refl ections on the MastersI doubt that anyone, save Nick Faldo of CBS, could have foreseen the conclusion of the Masters

two days ago. Ti-ger was one off the lead and in the fi nal pairing on Sunday, and most people just expected him to intimidate the rest of the fi eld into folding like a

lawn chair. Though he had never come back in a major tournament after trailing through the fi rst three rounds, you would fi gure that this scenario rendered that bit of trivia harmlessly moot.

Yet instead of a coronation for Tiger’s 13th major victory, golf viewers were treated to the sight of a 31-year-old, balding Iowan named Zach Johnson slipping his arms into his very own green jacket. What made the fi nish all the more surreal was that every-one had this feeling — even when Tiger had to eagle the par-4 18th hole just to force a playoff — that Tiger would squash this Cinderel-

la story. And yet for Johnson, the clock never struck midnight.

Immediately after the Mas-ters coverage had concluded, I debated with my suitemate Brian whether Johnson had in fact won the Masters or whether Tiger had simply lost it. Johnson had the low score by the end of 72 holes, but at the same time, Tiger had numer-ous opportunities to close the gap and surge to the top of the leader board. As much as it is a cop-out answer, I felt that Johnson won it and Tiger lost it simultaneously.

This was the fi rst time in quite a while that I have watched a golf-er in the fi nal round trade blows with Tiger and come out on top. When Tiger eagled on 13 to cut Johnson’s lead from four strokes to two, I naturally assumed this was the beginning of the end — ei-ther Johnson would falter or Ti-ger would surge. Instead, John-son birdied three out of four holes from 13 to 16 and fi nished with a 69 on the day. I saw a steely de-termination in his eyes that never

Ashley Hess / Herald File PhotoCatcher Devin Thomas ’07 went 10-for-15 against Penn and Columbia, including three home runs and 12 RBIs.

Chris MahrMahrtian Encounters

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