friday, september 14, 2012

8
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 daily THE BROWN since 1891 vol. cxxii, no. 66 herald INSIDE A new leaf Herbarium moves to new space in Bio-Medical Center Salary increase Ruth Simmons’ compensation rose in 2010 Page 3 Good stem cells Biology professor’s methods identify usable stem cells Page 4 Page 2 72 / 49 TOMORROW 79 / 59 TODAY By AUSTIN COLE STAFF WRITER e Watson Institute for International Studies is implementing several pilot initiatives this semester to further the institute’s integration into related Uni- versity departments and student life. e pilot initiatives include under- graduate and graduate fellows’ pro- grams, an internal faculty sabbatical program and three lecture series on global security. e institute will also expand its funding for faculty under- taking research in line with its goals and for international relations and development studies concentrators traveling abroad for research. “ere’s been a perception across campus that the institute has not been sufficiently linked up across various levels of the University,” said Peter An- dreas, interim director of the institute, adding that he hopes the changes will help make the Watson Institute a more inviting place for students and faculty. ough the institute has always involved students informally in proj- ects, Andreas said, the Undergraduate Fellows Program will look to involve students more fully in the institute. Cameron Parsons ’14, an under- graduate fellow, said this formal rela- tionship is what sets apart the fellows program from his past involvement with the institute. Noting that the institute was one of the motivating factors in his choice to attend the Uni- versity, Parsons said the program will allow him to form a “close relationship with Watson.” Colby Smith ’13, also an under- graduate fellow, said the program will transform the institute into “a new community for students,” rather than just an office or event space, adding “another dimension to the academic experience.” ough the exact mission of the undergraduate program has yet to be solidified, the fellows have met each other and others affiliated with the in- stitute, which fellow Kathy Nguyen ’13 said will help Watson Institute seeks to integrate with departments, students CORRINE SZCZESNY / HERALD The Watson Insitute aims to gain a greater campus presence with several new initiatives that will involve more students and faculty. By SAHIL LUTHRA SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR e University will not take action against former Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Martin Keller, despite acknowledgment by pharma- ceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline that Keller co-authored a fraudulent study advocating adolescent use of the anti- depressant Paxil. In a record- breaking $3 bil- lion settlement this July, GSK pleaded guilty to selling the misbranded prescription drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia. According to the plea agreement, GSK’s promotion of Paxil was largely based on Keller’s “false and misleading” article, published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Since the article’s publication, the ethics of the study -— commonly re- ferred to as Study 329 — have been scrutinized in a book, a BBC documen- tary and a Senate Finance Committee investigation. Critics have said the study inappropriately characterized the drug’s effectiveness while downplaying the risk of adolescent suicide associated with Paxil — a significantly larger number of patients treated with Paxil had “a possibly suicidal event” than patients treated with a placebo did, according to the government complaint against GSK. e complaint also claimed that Keller’s article was ghostwritten by GSK representatives. Following allegations of research misconduct, the University conducted an internal investigation into Keller’s article but has never publicly discussed its findings, citing confidentiality. “e fact that Professor Keller has continued to be chair and continued research and continued to get grants speaks for itself,” then-Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 told e Herald in 2009. “e University has fully reviewed this issue, and there is nothing that emerged from the recent announce- ment by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding (Keller’s) research that would prompt any further reviews of the paper by the University,” wrote Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sci- ences, in an email to e Herald. Keller, who stepped down as chair of the psychiatry department in 2009 but stayed on as a professor, announced his retirement earlier this year and stepped down in July. Pending approval from the National Institutes of Health, the Uni- versity will transfer his grants to multiple investigators, Wing wrote, calling this a “standard practice” at Brown. Keller did not respond to multiple requests for comment. e government’s charges against GSK came under the interstate com- merce clause. According to a govern- ment official speaking anonymously, the government cannot charge the in- dividual researchers who co-authored the study because the research was not funded by federal dollars, the Chroni- cle of Higher Education reported last month. When Study 329 was initially con- ducted, researchers found that Paxil did not perform better than placebos on the measures the researchers had outlined beforehand. In internal documents, GSK called the results of the study “commer- cially unacceptable,” according to the government complaint. Aſter viewing the results, the company introduced additional measures on which Paxil performed better than the placebo. Paxil U. forgoes action against prof aſter study fraud By PALAK WALIA CONTRIBUTING WRITER Punk band Titus Andronicus will per- form on Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle Sept. 15, preceded by opening act TO- KiMONSTA, at this year’s Fall Con- cert. e concert will officially be held outside, the Brown Concert Agency announced via its blog Wednesday. “We bring people that we know will put on a good live show,” said Emma Ramadan ’13, BCA Booking Chair. “e purpose of the Fall Con- cert is to reach out to people who can’t be catered to in Spring Weekend.” BCA chose these two acts aſter circu- lating a poll of five different acts on Blog- DailyHerald. Neon Indian and Black Lips came in first and second place, respectively,but aſter both declined, BCA booked Titus Andronicus, which came in third in the poll. BCA members selected DJ Jennifer Lee, also known as TOKiMONSTA, for the opening act. Her music is “relentlessly fun experimental elec- tronica,” the BCA’s blog reads. Rajan Mittal ’13, BCA’s administra- tive chair, said TOKiMONSTA’s name came up previously in the group’s dis- cussions. TOKiMONSTA has said she wants to play at Brown, Ramadan said. “We thought it would be a good balance between electrical and punk music,” Ramadan said. “It’s going to be a really good show.” “It’s the best lineup for the Fall Concert in a while,” Mittal said. BCA’s budget for the event was $20,000, but since this year’s acts are more expen- Fall concert to be held outdoors By JAKE COMER SPORTS EDITOR e football team will travel to Worcester, Mass. tomorrow to kick off its season against a College of the Holy Cross squad that may still be reeling from its heart- breaking 20-13 loss at Brown Stadium last season. Bruno conquered the Crusaders last October with a 99-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, and a demanding preseason this year has the Bears looking to rise to the occasion once more and set their campaign in motion. “Our team is really, really fired up right now,” said Ross Walthall ’13, defen- sive lineman and co-captain. “We had a tough preseason … I think we all are just really ready to get it started.” Head Coach Phil Estes said the sea- son opener is the most important game of the year. “It tells you a lot about your team,” he said. “It tells you what your strengths are, it tells you what your weaknesses are and how teams are going to exploit you.” e Crusaders, who hold an all-time 32-23-3 record over the Bears, will test Bruno on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Patrick Donnelly ’13 said he is confident in his squad’s of- fensive skill and its ability to “mix things up” by gaining yards with both running and passing plays. A balanced offensive strategy would contrast with last season’s matchup, where both teams relied heav- ily on aerial attacks — the Bears passed for 229 yards, and the Crusaders passed for 243. But this year, the Bears hope to wield a double-edged sword on offense. On the ground, the Bears have Mark Kachmer ’13, a two-time All-Ivy tailback who carried the ball 124 times for 569 yards last season, and Bruno to kick off season against Crusaders in Worcester COURTESY OF ALYSON GOULDEN After conquering the Crusaders 20-13 last year, Bruno hopes to set up the season with another win tomorrow in Worcester. / / Watson page 2 / / Fraud page 3 / / BCA page 5 SCIENCE & RESEARCH ARTS & CULTURE FOOTBALL / / Bruno page 5

Upload: the-brown-daily-herald

Post on 09-Mar-2016

220 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

DESCRIPTION

The September 14, 2012 issue of the Brown Daily Herald

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Friday, September 14, 2012

friday, september 14, 2012dailythe Brown

since 1891vol. cxxii, no. 66herald

iNside

A new leafHerbarium moves to new space in Bio-Medical Center

Salary increaseRuth Simmons’ compensation rose in 2010

Page 3

Good stem cellsBiology professor’s methods identify usable stem cells

Page 4

Page 2

72 / 49

tomorrow

79 / 59

today

By Austin ColeStaff Writer

The watson Institute for International Studies is implementing several pilot initiatives this semester to further the institute’s integration into related Uni-versity departments and student life.

The pilot initiatives include under-graduate and graduate fellows’ pro-grams, an internal faculty sabbatical program and three lecture series on global security. The institute will also expand its funding for faculty under-taking research in line with its goals and for international relations and development studies concentrators traveling abroad for research.

“There’s been a perception across campus that the institute has not been sufficiently linked up across various levels of the University,” said Peter An-dreas, interim director of the institute, adding that he hopes the changes will help make the watson Institute a more inviting place for students and faculty.

Though the institute has always

involved students informally in proj-ects, Andreas said, the Undergraduate Fellows Program will look to involve students more fully in the institute.

Cameron Parsons ’14, an under-graduate fellow, said this formal rela-tionship is what sets apart the fellows program from his past involvement with the institute. noting that the institute was one of the motivating factors in his choice to attend the Uni-versity, Parsons said the program will allow him to form a “close relationship with watson.”

Colby Smith ’13, also an under-graduate fellow, said the program will transform the institute into “a new community for students,” rather than just an office or event space, adding “another dimension to the academic experience.”

Though the exact mission of the undergraduate program has yet to be solidified, the fellows have met each other and others affiliated with the in-stitute, which fellow Kathy nguyen ’13 said will help

Watson institute seeks to integrate with departments, students

CORRINE SZCZESNY / HERald

the Watson insitute aims to gain a greater campus presence with several new initiatives that will involve more students and faculty.

By sAhil luthrAScience & reSearch editor

The University will not take action against former Professor of Psychiatry and human Behavior Martin Keller, despite acknowledgment by pharma-ceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline that Keller co-authored a fraudulent study advocating adolescent use of the anti-

depressant Paxil.In a record-

breaking $3 bil-lion settlement this July, GSK

pleaded guilty to selling the misbranded prescription drugs Paxil, wellbutrin and Avandia. According to the plea agreement, GSK’s promotion of Paxil was largely based on Keller’s “false and misleading” article, published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Since the article’s publication, the ethics of the study - — commonly re-ferred to as Study 329 — have been scrutinized in a book, a BBC documen-tary and a Senate Finance Committee investigation. Critics have said the study inappropriately characterized the drug’s effectiveness while downplaying the risk of adolescent suicide associated with Paxil — a significantly larger number of patients treated with Paxil had “a possibly suicidal event” than patients treated with a placebo did, according to the government complaint against GSK. The complaint also claimed that Keller’s article was ghostwritten by GSK representatives.

Following allegations of research misconduct, the University conducted an internal investigation into Keller’s article but has never publicly discussed its findings, citing confidentiality. “The fact that Professor Keller has continued

to be chair and continued research and continued to get grants speaks for itself,” then-Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 told The herald in 2009.

“The University has fully reviewed this issue, and there is nothing that emerged from the recent announce-ment by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding (Keller’s) research that would prompt any further reviews of the paper by the University,” wrote edward wing, dean of medicine and biological sci-ences, in an email to The herald.

Keller, who stepped down as chair of the psychiatry department in 2009 but stayed on as a professor, announced his retirement earlier this year and stepped down in July. Pending approval from the national Institutes of health, the Uni-versity will transfer his grants to multiple investigators, wing wrote, calling this a “standard practice” at Brown. Keller did not respond to multiple requests

for comment.The government’s charges against

GSK came under the interstate com-merce clause. According to a govern-ment official speaking anonymously, the government cannot charge the in-dividual researchers who co-authored the study because the research was not funded by federal dollars, the Chroni-cle of higher education reported last month.

when Study 329 was initially con-ducted, researchers found that Paxil did not perform better than placebos on the measures the researchers had outlined beforehand. In internal documents, GSK called the results of the study “commer-cially unacceptable,” according to the government complaint. After viewing the results, the company introduced additional measures on which Paxil performed better than the placebo.

P a x i l

U. forgoes action against prof after study fraud

By pAlAk WAliAcontributing Writer

Punk band titus Andronicus will per-form on ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle Sept. 15, preceded by opening act to-KiMonStA, at this year’s Fall Con-cert. The concert will officially be held outside, the Brown Concert Agency announced via its blog wednesday.

“we bring people that we know will put on a good live show,” said emma ramadan ’13, BCA Booking Chair. “The purpose of the Fall Con-cert is to reach out to people who can’t be catered to in Spring weekend.”

BCA chose these two acts after circu-lating a poll of five different acts on Blog-Dailyherald. neon Indian and Black Lips came in first and second place, respectively,but after both declined, BCA booked titus Andronicus, which came in third in the poll.

BCA members selected DJ Jennifer Lee, also known as toKiMonStA, for the opening act. her music is “relentlessly fun experimental elec-tronica,” the BCA’s blog reads.

rajan Mittal ’13, BCA’s administra-tive chair, said toKiMonStA’s name came up previously in the group’s dis-cussions. toKiMonStA has said she wants to play at Brown, ramadan said.

“we thought it would be a good balance between electrical and punk music,” ramadan said. “It’s going to be a really good show.”

“It’s the best lineup for the Fall Concert in a while,” Mittal said.

BCA’s budget for the event was $20,000, but since this year’s acts are more expen-

fall concert to be held outdoors

By JAke ComerSportS editor

The football team will travel to worcester, Mass. tomorrow to kick off its season against a College of the holy Cross squad that may still be reeling from its heart-breaking 20-13 loss at Brown Stadium last season.

Bruno conquered the Crusaders last october with a 99-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, and a demanding preseason this year has the Bears looking to rise to the occasion once more and set their campaign in motion.

“our team is really, really fired up right now,” said ross walthall ’13, defen-sive lineman and co-captain. “we had a tough preseason … I think we all are just really ready to get it started.”

head Coach Phil estes said the sea-son opener is the most important game of the year.

“It tells you a lot about your team,” he said. “It tells you what your strengths are, it tells you what your weaknesses are and how teams are going to exploit you.”

The Crusaders, who hold an all-time 32-23-3 record over the Bears, will test Bruno on both sides of the ball.

Quarterback Patrick Donnelly ’13 said he is confident in his squad’s of-fensive skill and its ability to “mix things up” by gaining yards with both running and passing plays. A balanced offensive strategy would contrast with last season’s matchup, where both teams relied heav-ily on aerial attacks — the Bears passed for 229 yards, and the Crusaders passed for 243.

But this year, the Bears hope to wield a double-edged sword on offense. on the ground, the Bears have Mark Kachmer ’13, a two-time All-Ivy tailback who carried the ball 124 times for 569 yards last season, and

bruno to kick off season against Crusaders in Worcester

COuRtESY Of alYSON GOuldEN

After conquering the Crusaders 20-13 last year, Bruno hopes to set up the season with another win tomorrow in Worcester.

/ / Watson page 2

/ / Fraud page 3

/ / BCA page 5

science & research

arts &

cultureFootBAll

/ / Bruno page 5

Page 2: Friday, September 14, 2012

campus news2 the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

12 P.m.

“Places for the Living and the Dead”

Giddings House 212

8 P.m.

Nudity in the Upspace

TF Green Hall

1 P.m.

Providence Walking Tours

Swearer Center

4 P.m.

A Reading by Paul Legault

McCormack Family Theater

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

lunCh

Dinner

Eggplant Parmesan, Grilled Cilantro Chicken, Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

Grilled Turkey Burger, Spinach Pie Casserole, Tortellini Italiano with Sausage, Foccacia with Rosemary

Tuna Noodle Casserole, Tilapia with Provencale, Vegan Tofu Veggie Ravioli with Sauce, Magic Bars

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Vegetarian Baked Beans, Peanut Butter Sandwich Bar

TODAY SEPT. 14 TOmORROW SEPT. 15

c r o S S W o r d

S u d o k u

m e n u

c a l e n d a r

Claire Peracchio, Presidentrebecca Ballhaus, Vice President

Danielle Marshak, treasurerSiena DeLisser, Secretary

The Brown Daily herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during orientation by The Brown Daily herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. PoStMASter please send corrections to P.o. Box 2538, Providence, rI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, r.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.browndailyherald.com195 angell st., providence, r.i.

editorial(401) 351-3372

[email protected]

bUsiNess(401) 351-3260

[email protected]

daily heraldthe Brown

them take advantage of networking opportunities at the institute.

Unlike its undergraduate coun-terpart, the institute’s Graduate Fel-lows Program has been more fully developed. The program provides its fellows with office space, research funds and travel support. There are currently seven fellows from the an-thropology, economics, sociology and political science departments, all at various stages in their graduate studies. The program allows graduate students “to be engaged in the life of the institute … in a more systematic way,” said Angelica Duran Martinez GS, a graduate fellow and doctoral student in political science. Duran

Martinez said the program will sup-port her writing process, while also allowing her to “exploit the potential … and take advantage of the human capital” at the institute.

watson is also sponsoring a sab-batical program that enables pro-fessors to spend their sabbaticals at Brown — away from their depart-ments — while engaging in “policy-relevant research in international studies,” Andreas said. esther whit-field, assistant professor of compara-tive literature, will be the first faculty member to take part in the program this spring.

The institute will also focus on bridging the gap between itself and related University departments, such as the william r. rhodes Center for

International economics and Finance, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the India Initiative and the Middle east Studies Program.

The goal of the Latin American center is “globalized area study,” which will be better facilitated by the center sharing a space and partnering with watson, said richard Snyder, profes-sor of political science and the center’s director.

Ashutosh Varshney, professor of political science and director of the India Initiative, said that housing the initiative in the watson Institute’s facilities allows the two to “build bridges and create synergy” within the University. The India Initiative is at the “intersection of policy and research,” Varshney said. “our goals connect well with watson.”

As part of the efforts to better in-tegrate with institutional partners and the student body, Andreas is also try-ing to revitalize the institute’s global security profile by supporting three new speaker series related to global security, which he hopes will also help “bridge the policy-academia divide.”

“For watson to function mean-ingfully it has to connect better with Brown, Brown’s research and Brown’s pedagogical aims,” Varshney said. Though these initiatives have garnered much support from watson affiliates, Andreas said, “any initiatives’ continu-ation is up to the next director. … There is no long-term commitment.”

/ / Watson page 1

By sArAh perelmAncontributing Writer

The University’s little-known Stephen t. olney herbarium will begin its move this month from its current location in the cramped and gloomy basement of Arnold Laboratory on waterman Street to a brand-new, glass-encased room on the second floor of the BioMedical Cen-ter. The herbarium houses over 100,000 dried and pressed plant specimens, 10 percent of which are the first-recorded collection by any botanist of their species.

This move is a large step in Assis-tant Professor of Biology erika edwards’ project to restore the herbarium to a place of active research and to digitize the specimens it houses.

“I want all of the Brown community to feel (the herbarium) is accessible to them and for it to be a general resource to the whole community for anything about plants,” edwards said.

herbarium Collections Manager Kathleen McCauley said she is cur-rently packaging the specimens for the move, and edwards said she is arrang-ing the final touches on the new space. The move will start in a few weeks and continue for approximately six months, edwards said.

once the move is complete, edwards and her team will begin to create a digi-tal library of the specimens, which will be online and accessible to research-ers all over the world. A joint grant with harvard, yale, University of new hampshire, University of Vermont and University of Massachusetts at Amherst will provide funding for the digitization. edwards said she plans to hire another curator to join McCauley to embark on this project next summer.

edwards also said she plans to hire

students to assist with research in the herbarium and said she wants to open it as a working herbarium for local bota-nists throughout Providence to collect and document new specimens.

Professor of Biology Mark Bert-ness said he hopes the increased activ-ity and research at the herbarium will “support the growth of phylogenetics” — the study of evolutionary relations among different species of plants — at the University.

In addition to its role as a histori-cal resource, the new herbarium will provide enough space and the proper equipment for scientific research, in-cluding in areas of DnA sequencing and global climate change, edwards said. McCauley said the airtight metal cases and temperature controlled environ-ment will prevent future damage to the

collection, a third of which was ruined by bugs in the old wooden cabinets in the basement.

“I think the scientific world is going to blush at so many treasures stowed away here that nobody knew about,” McCauley said. Since she began work-ing at the herbarium in 2009, McCauley has taken on the daunting task of sifting through the materials in the herbarium, which has had no curator since 1930. Though she started the project without a computer and with overhanging pipes blocking access to some of the cabinets, she has now made some rewarding dis-coveries. She said she found the first specimen ever documented of Castilleja guadalupensis, a species of Indian paint-brush, which is now extinct, and said she is excited to see what else is hidden in the cabinets.

Herbarium to move to biomed Center

tOM SullIVaN / HERald

the stephen t. olney herbarium will move to the Biomedical Center later this semester, taking a step toward digitizing the specimens it houses.

Page 3: Friday, September 14, 2012

campus news 3the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

By tonyA rileySenior Staff Writer

Former President ruth Simmons’ total compensation rose to $863,684 in 2010, a jump from $656,683 in the year prior when Simmons took a voluntary sal-ary cut following the 2008 economic downturn. Simmons’ compensation in 2010 was closer to the levels seen in 2008 when her total compensation reached $884,771.

Salary and compensation figures for 2010 appear in the most recently released Internal revenue Service’s Form 990, which all nonprofits are required to file in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. The filing includes a list of the base salaries and total compensation for 14 of the University’s highest compensated employees in addition to the University’s endowment values.

Due to salary freezes and voluntary salary cuts in 2009 as a result of the finan-cial crisis, the fluctuations between 990 filings for 2010 and 2008 do not represent any significant change in compensation trends, said Beppie huidekoper, execu-tive vice president for finance and ad-ministration.

It is important to look at the base salaries as well as total compensation, she said. total compensation can include health insurance, deferred compensation, previously reported compensation and other benefits, such as the President’s house.

Simmons’ base compensation rose from $549,158 in 2009 to $606,306 in 2010. The number is less than the $611,139 Simmons made in base com-pensation in 2008.

the list of highest-paid employ-ees included not just administrators, huidekoper said, but employees who are considered to have “substantial influ-ence” on the University.

The employees on the list are consid-ered “disqualified persons,” which means they would be imposed with sanctions if excessive compensation occurred, ac-cording to the Internal revenue Service.

The process the Corporation un-dertakes to determine the salaries for employees that make more than about $120,000 relies on a number of deter-minants, huidekoper said, including comparative salaries at other universities. This differentiates the decision-making process from the one for administrative salaries, which may be influenced by fluc-tuations in the capital market, she said.

Cynthia Frost, vice president and chief investment officer, made $1,098,265 in total compensation in 2010, an $86,914 increase from the $1,011,351 she made in 2009. rajiv Vohra, former dean of fac-ulty, made $570,333 in 2010, an $80,338 increase from $489,995.

“It’s about the IrS looking for trans-parency and to ensure that we’re operat-ing efficiently and with integrity,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

simmons’ compensation rose in 2010 after voluntary cut in 2009

By sorA pArkcontributing Writer

In a reading of his newest novel, “Swal-lowing a Donkey’s eye,” science-fiction author Paul tremblay described the pro-cess of writing the book as “an oddly per-sonal journey, although not biographical in any way.” tremblay addressed a small crowd at the Brown Bookstore wednes-day evening.

tremblay, who has been nominated

for two Bram Stoker Awards, has also authored two mystery novels, “The Little Sleep” and “no Sleep till wonderland.” But “Swallowing a Donkey’s eye,” a dysto-pian political satire, is a different work altogether. Its nar-rator is trapped at a mega-conglomerate farm simply called “Farm.” Farm is the sole food provider for the technocratic “City” for the next six contractual years.

when he finds out that his mother, whom he left behind, is homeless and is set to be deported to the “Pier,” he decides to take action. “Swallowing a Donkey’s eye” follows the narrator through this serious but hilarious journey.

The reading, punctuated by trem-blay’s dry humor, featured various parts of the novel in which the different set-tings — the Farm, City and Pier — were brought to light.

“I hope to have delivered exaggerated, over-the-top satire, but also humorous nonetheless,” he said.

one of the passages he read explained the rules and regulations of the Farm in great detail, showcasing his intricate and sometimes overwhelming use of language.

“If we don’t smile, if we don’t follow the tour Protocol to the capital P, if we break any rules, if we’re late for any shifts, if we swear at supervisors, if we swear at the animals, if we’re caught having sex on the job with co-worker or animal, if we’re caught stealing or eating or sabo-taging the animals, we’re contractually and severely punished,” tremblay read.

Compared to his previous novels, tremblay described the process of writing “Swallowing a Donkey’s eye” as “free-wheeling.”

“I didn’t have a set time agenda, and I could add and change parts as I went along,” he said. “For my other two novels, I had to write a 10-page synopsis before-hand to get my story straight. The fun part of writing this novel was letting go and trusting my subconscious.”

Though his novels primarily deal with fantastic settings, tremblay said he seeks

to write stories with characters readers can feel empathy for.

“It’s about learning about other people and wanting to understand and empa-thize for them,” he said.

tremblay said he hopes this freeing process continues in his next novel, which will also be a satire, focused on the pub-lishing industry and education.

science-fiction author describes ‘oddly personal’ journey

10 highest-paid university employees (2010)

Cynthia FrostVice President and Chief Investment Officer $1,098,265 $465,723

ruth simmonsPresident $863,684 $606,306

kenneth shimbergManaging director of Private Equity $826,428 $327,001

edward Wingdean of Medicine and Biological Sciences $614,067 $561,222

rajiv Vohradean of faculty $570,333 $416,157

David kertzerProvost $545,920 $409,901

elizabeth huidekoperExecutive Vice President for finance and administration $404,278 $361,222

Clyde BriantVice President for Research $397,452 $308,395

stephen maiorisiVice President for facilities Management $256,001 $207,666

margaret klawunnVice President for Campus life and Student Services

$251,705 $208,306

total Compensation

Base Compensation

CORRINE SZCZESNY / HERald

science-fiction author paul tremblay reads a passage representing the dystopia of his novel, “swallowing a Donkey’s eye.”

would soon become one of the 10 most prescribed drugs in the country, accord-ing to the plea agreement. As part of its promotion of Paxil, GSK would regu-larly invite physicians to conferences in resort locations, providing fine dining and expensive forms of entertainment, according to the government complaint.

Keller acknowledged in 2006 that

over the years, he had received tens of thousands of dollars from GSK and its affiliates.

In recent years, groups such as the Project on Government oversight have written to the University requesting that action be taken against Keller.

The global nonprofit healthy Skepti-cism wrote to administrators last year, requesting the University’s help in an effort to have the article retracted. wing

responded that the University would not support a retraction, adding that the University takes allegations about faculty research very seriously.

healthy Skepticism plans to write the University again this year, in the hopes that a new president might be more inclined to support its efforts, said Jon Jureidini, a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia who co-authored last year’s letters.

/ / Fraud page 1

arts & culture

Page 4: Friday, September 14, 2012

science & research4 the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

By sArAh leWincontributing Writer

As a potential method for producing cells to repair failing systems in human bodies, many scientists are looking to stem cells — cells that have the power to differentiate or transform into many different cell types. Scientists already know how to extract stem cells from adult human fat and hope they will someday be able to take a person’s own cells and develop the tissues they need.

But there is a major constraint to this plan — out of all the cells drawn from adult fat, only a small percentage can successfully turn into the desired cell type. Some could even turn into harmful cell types. to tackle this chal-lenge, eric Darling, assistant professor of biology, and his lab are working to produce two methods to sort the useable cells from the chaos.

“you’re reliant on these cells,” said hetal Desai GS, lead researcher on one of the projects. “If you’re try-ing to grow a bone, you’re reliant on how well the cell’s going to respond to (the chemical stimulus), how well they’re going to accomplish turning into (something like) bone. So if you have a bunch of cells that are essen-tially going to just hang out and not do anything, that’s bad. If you can weed those out and keep the ones that are optimal — that’s where these tech-niques really have a lot of power.”

Desai’s research, published Sept. 5, focused on developing a probe that

would light up when stem cells were transforming into the correct cell type. The lab’s other recent project in the area took a different tack — measur-ing the physical properties of cells to see their potential to turn into bone, cartilage or fat.

glowing beaconswhen a stem cell is differentiating,

it sends messenger rnA signals that produce specific proteins and help it transform. Darling’s team created a probe that binds to specific rnA and lights up — showing when specific cells are beginning to differentiate specifically into bone.

“we were basically able to quantify, in living cells and in real time, how many of these cells are expressing the genes at different stages of turning into bone,” Desai said. She started work on the project while she was on rotation in Darling’s lab and stayed on to make it a main research focus.

The probe, which was developed in 1996 and can be designed to respond to any specific gene, was dispatched into two groups of stem cells derived from fat — one which had been treat-ed by a chemical to induce differentia-tion into bone and one that had not. Looking at the cells, an observer could immediately tell by the glow which cells were responding positively to the chemical signals. over the course of three weeks, the group watched the waves of fluorescence mark the differ-ent stages in the cells’ transformations.

Desai said the hardest part of the study was designing the probe. “we needed it to be a fly on the wall of the process,” she said. “we didn’t want it to interfere with the cell, but we wanted to make sure we had a really clear signal that we could assess re-ally easily.”

The team designed the probe to only interface with the specific rnA that indicated differentiation, and they ran several experiments to ensure the probe was not blocking the cells from using the rnA normally.

eventually, the researchers hope the probe can be used to pick out cells responding well to the chemical sig-nals in a clinical setting, providing a mechanism for sorting between cells. richard Freiman, associate profes-sor of biology at Brown who was not involved in the study, called this the most exciting aspect of the research.

“In thinking about therapy, mea-suring changes on those cells before you actually put them back into a patient is absolutely essential,” he said. “It’s rare to be able to do that with living cells — if one can, it’s very powerful.”

a predictive approach In addition to developing the mo-

lecular probe, Darling’s lab tackled the sorting from a predictive angle in a study published this May. The idea came to Darling during his post-doctorate at Duke University, when he used an atomic force microscope

to examine the physical properties of cells. Darling said he found that stem cells had a wide variation and won-dered whether that variation could predict the cell’s ability to turn into different kinds of tissue.

Darling took that question to Brown, where he also took on research assistants rafael Gonzalez-Cruz GS and Vera Fonseca. he said he thought that the physical properties of a stem cell pulled from fat might reflect in-ternal features that would make the cells more amenable to differentiation into specific types.

“right now, when people do en-richment of stem cells, they often look at surface markers that are associated with certain lineages,” Darling said. “It works great for identifying very specific populations, but stem cells sometimes share markers with other types of cells.” The worry is that these stem cells would be discarded, even if they could still be useable.

“we’re looking at trying to use more of the cells that we have,” Dar-ling added. “Some of the cells might only be able to become bone. So they truly aren’t stem cells, but if you’re trying to create bone tissue, you can still use them.”

The lab used cells from a set of donors that had been cultivated into a large population of potential stem cells. Ultimately, they were able to get 36 individual cells to grow into stem cell populations. The idea was, even if the original stem cells came in many physical forms, each population grown from a single cell would have a common structure.

next, they used an atomic force microscope to poke at individuals from the different populations, de-termining how stiff they were, their size and their internal consistencies. They separated the populations into groups and gave them the chemical signals to differentiate — measuring how well each population turned into bone, fat and cartilage cells.

Sure enough, a trend was revealed. Stiff cells were best at differentiating into bone, soft and large cells were best at differentiating into fat, and

viscous cells were best at differentiat-ing into cartilage.

Attributing differentiation capabil-ities to mechanical properties of these stem cells is a unique idea, Freiman said. “This study sits at the intersect between biology and engineering,” he said. “Darling’s looking at stem cell replacement therapies using theories from the discipline of engineering — something that many biologists never consider thinking about.”

But a lot of work is needed before this research can be applied clinically.

“For a clinical application we would need to sort large numbers of cells that could be useful for therapy or tissue engineering applications,” said Gonzalez-Cruz, the study’s head author. “we could use the properties that we found here to measure large numbers of cells and see if the trends still hold with these large numbers.” The cells the team analyzed were all drawn from a relatively similar popu-lation, but they need to see if varia-tions are still predictive for more di-verse stem cells. This could potentially allow scientists to sort any population of fat-derived cells to function most effectively.

“Actually doing the sorting — that’s going to be the hard part,” Darling said.

future plans

Since both of these approaches have worked in the lab, a next step is to turn them into tools that can be used with patients. A sorting method that combines multiple approaches could be tremendously helpful.

“you can enrich cells based on gene expressions, and you can enrich them based on mechanical proper-ties, and hopefully down the road we can merge these two techniques and sort cells based both on mechanical properties and on gene expressions in a very high-throughout way,” Desai said. “we’re working towards a situa-tion where a patient is in the hospital, we can isolate their cells, quickly as-sess them and place them right back into the patient for therapy. That would be the real goal of all of this.”

biology prof finds methods of identifying usable stem cells

Page 5: Friday, September 14, 2012

arts & culture 5the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

Join the Club | Simon Henriques

co m i c

By emily Boneycontributing Writer

Stepping into the Sarah Doyle Gallery to see work created by painter Julie Gearan is comparable to watching one’s own dreams. The exhibit features familiar landscapes in paintings that are offset by mysterious subjects. Gearan’s palette is composed of soft, cool pastels and deep, nebulous blacks and grays. Subject matter varies from pensive dancers with dark eyes to beached whales, and many paintings have Providence landmarks lurking in the background.

The exhibition, “now Again: Paint-ings by Julie Gearan,” includes “quiet metaphoric still lifes” as well as “large narrative compositions,” Gearan said. It has a wide scope and covers many different themes. “It’s popular right now to have thematic shows,” Gearan said. “But even to title my show seems kind

of funny.” Gearan said that unlike some artists,

she does not paint to meet a deadline for an exhibition. “I paint until the painting is done,” she said.

Gearan said she draws from a “his-torical art theme” or from her own life for inspiration. “Usually these things come from moments in time as a seed, and … if they stay there for long enough I start painting them,” she said. her recent work has been most heavily influenced by winslow homer, a 19th century American painter best known for painting oceanside scenes, she said. other artists who have inspired her include Guido reni and Balthus.

Gearan said she hopes those view-ing her art draw their own conclusions and create their own narratives. her artist statement reads, “I expect the reading of my work to be open … al-lowing a sense of mystery and stirring

curiosity.” She said her work is rooted in human experience and added that she often dwells on “the connection between the past, present and future … that ‘looping’ that happens.”

A wide range of patrons came to ex-perience Gearan’s work. Local resident Don Schim said he was particularly im-pressed by Gearan’s artistic talent. “This is better than most (shows),” he said.

“I love what she does with color and light,” said Shelby wilson ’15, who said she was inspired by Gearan’s work to improve her own art.

The Sarah Doyle Gallery itself is unorthodox. Gearan called the colonial house-turned-gallery “domestic and intimate.”

Gearan has been a member of the rhode Island School of Design faculty since 2010 and also teaches at roger williams University. her paintings will be on display until Sept. 29.

exhibit brings dreams to life

between the Phoenician and nuragic cultures on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, aiming to answer the question, “how can we gauge transfer of knowledge between different cultural situations?”

The research centered on two differ-ent ways of attaching a handle to a piece of pottery. In the traditional Phoenician manner, the handle was attached directly to the outside of the piece, while nuragic potters first made a hole in the pot, in-serted the handle and attached it from the inside, he said.

Though this might seem like a mun-dane detail at first, van Dommelen said, it turns out to be important in that different traditions of attaching handles reflect cul-tural choices. For example, this summer Phoenician-style ceramics with handles attached in the nuragic way were discov-ered on the central west coast of Sardinia. Van Dommelen concluded this indicated a high level of interaction between the two cultures, a reflection of “long-term working and living together,” because pottery depends so much on apprentice-ship and the sharing of knowledge.

“Ceramics traditions are about cul-tural traditions,” he said.

A very different type of investiga-tion took place in France, where Sheila Bonde, professor of archaeology and art and architecture, engaged in what she termed rescue archaeology, which in-

cludes studying sites that have been previ-ously excavated, overlooked or built over. In particular, Bonde talked about three sites where she concentrated her work.

This included a site in Paris, where Bonde investigated fragments of the Grande Chapelle de la Vierge, a chapel built under Louis IX, remnants of which are now scattered in various locations. The measurements she made helped cre-ate a map of the chapel through what is now modern Paris. Bonde noted that while she had to get special permission to touch the fragments, several local chil-dren were using the site as an improvised playground.

“I am trying in my modest way to save all three (sites),” she said.

Assistant Professor of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient world omur harmansah took on a third season of a survey project in the Konya province in turkey. he and his team discovered a neolithic cave, excavated an archaeological landscape with a hel-lenistic and hittite fortress and series of springs, and found hittite pottery and hellenistic material.

Alcock and her team continued work started by Martha Joukowsky, who was present in the audience, on the Petra Great temple in Jordan. They conducted geophysical and excavation work on the upper market and did a survey of 600 hectares, which included shrines, tombs, quarries, walls and a dam.

/ / Digs page 8

sive, tickets — which were free last year — will cost $12. The ticket rev-enue will help BCA pay back their production loan to the Undergraduate Finance Board, ramadan said.

Dana Goplerud ’15 said she lis-tened to titus Andronicus after Fall Concert’s lineup was announced. “I’m super excited,” she said. “There are really good bands I’ve never seen

before.” ticket purchasing will take a dif-

ferent form than previous years, serv-ing as a test run for Spring weekend’s ticketing system. to buy tickets, stu-dents click on a link on BCA’s blog, after which they will receive a secret code that they can enter on Brown Student Agency’s Marketplace site.

Doors open Saturday at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 7:15.

/ / BCA page 1

daN fEtHkE / HERald

Julie Gearan’s exhibit, which draws from a historical art theme, explores human experience and the connection between past, present and future. the exhibit will be on display in the sarah Doyle Gallery until sept. 29.

Spiro Theodhosi ’12.5, a strong rusher who sat out the last two seasons with an injury.

Though the receiving corps lost valu-able seniors — including All-Ivy wideout Alex tounkara-Kone ’11.5 — veteran receivers such as tellef Lundevall ’13 and Jonah Fay ’12.5 will be ready when Donnelly takes to the air.

Leading the Crusaders’ offense will be senior quarterback Kevin watson, who made his college debut two weeks ago in a season-opening 38-17 loss to the University of new hampshire. he registered 271 yards and two intercep-tions and will be looking to rebound and throw his first touchdown of the year.

“(watson) is a big, strong kid that has a great arm, and we certainly want to make sure that we put some pressure on him,” estes said.

walthall said the Bears’ defensive line is eager to shake up watson.

“we’re fired up at any opportunity to get after a quarterback,” walthall said.

But watson will have a capable group of Crusader receivers from which to choose. Senior wideout Gerald Mistretta caught six touchdowns last season and racked up 723 yards, and junior wide receiver Mike Fess had 417 yards and two touchdowns.

In contrast to the Crusaders’ season opener — they ran for only 75 yards against Unh — and last year’s matchup against the Bears, estes said he foresees an emphasis on the holy Cross running game Saturday.

“we’re going to have to do a good job of shutting the run down,” he said.

That will mean bottling up senior running back eddie houghton, who led the Crusaders in rushing last season with 506 yards and four touchdowns. he faces a daunting Bears defense with plenty of experience, including co-captain A.J. Cruz ’13, a three-time All-Ivy and pre-season All-American defensive back, as well as a veteran defensive line.

But even with these strengths on the Bears’ side, stopping the Crusaders’ attack will take “mistake-free football,” walthall said.

“They always have a good quarter-back, and they’re a really balanced team,” walthall added.“we just have to be on top of our game and do our job.”

estes underscored those goals.“It’s not about holy Cross … it’s about

what we do and how we execute,” he said. “My main concern is just us play-ing together as a team and executing, doing our job.”

the stakes at tomorrow’s season opener are high, estes said — the game will set a tone that will affect the team’s outlook not only on the Sept. 22 harvard game, but on the season as a whole.

“our challenge is to establish our-selves as a football team,” he said.

to make that happen, Defensive Coordinator Michael Kelleher said the team’s aspirations for now will have to begin and end with the battle against the Crusaders.

“The first game is holy Cross. The only game,” he said. “The only one that matters.”

/ / Bruno page 1

Page 6: Friday, September 14, 2012

diamonds & coal6 the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

C o r r e C t I o n S P o L I C yThe Brown Daily herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C o M M e n tA r y P o L I C yThe editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L e t t e r S t o t h e e D I t o r P o L I C ySend letters to [email protected]. Include a telephone number with all letters. The herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

A D V e r t I S I n G P o L I C yThe Brown Daily herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

e d i to r i a l c a r to o n b y a l e x y u ly

“I paint until the painting is done.”— Julie Gearan, artist

See exhibit on page 5

d i a m o n d S & co a lA diamond to the Brown engineering department for changing the department’s introductory class to require that all students attend a Friday “grand lecture,” a policy intended to build community among engineering students. It could have been worse — their original ideas for community-building included solo backpacking ventures, forced cubicle-sitting and re-enacting scenes from the life of emily Dickinson. Coal to east Side Pockets manager Paul Boutros, who said of opening a restaurant on Thayer Street, “when you come to the street, you’ve got to do something unique.” Just ask the now-defunct toledo, purveyor of pizza cones, how well that worked out.

A diamond to herbarium Collections Manager Kathleen McCauley, who said of the University’s dried and pressed plant collection, “I think the scientific world is going to blush at so many treasures stowed away here that nobody knew about.” That’s exactly how we felt when residential Life inspected our dorm room freshman year.

Cubic zirconia to former Brown undergraduate and Thiel Fellowship winner Dylan Field, who said, “I think computer science is pretty much the closest thing we have to magic.” The inventor of the Sharpe refectory’s magic bars might beg to differ.

A diamond to the orchestrators of the plea deal under which an Alpert Medical School professor must write an article to “raise needed awareness of unprov-enanced coins” and “promote responsible collecting about numismatists” as part of his punishment for illegally possessing ancient Greek coins. But whose punishment will it be to read that article?

Coal to stoke the fires of Aaron Fitzsenry, Brown’s culinary manager of retail operations, who said he has “gotten to play with fire in public, which is always a good time.” we’ll support your pyromania as long as we get s’mores out of it.

A diamond to ted widmer, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, who said “academics … have a lot of trouble expressing what they’re meaning to say.” we know. we’ve been to office hours.

Coal to rose McDermott, the professor of political science who co-authored a study that found genetics to play a role in dictating political preferences, for saying, “It’s hard to get people to admit they’re animals.” we think she underestimates Brown students — anyone who’s been to rush hour at the ratty knows it’s a zoo.

A diamond to the student producer and writer of the Brown television pro-duction “two hearts,” who said the film required music that fell somewhere between dubstep and classical. we salute her specificity.

q u ot e o f t h e d ay

facebook.com/browndailyherald @the_herald thebdh.org

the brown daily herald

Sarah manconeJoseph rosaleselizabeth carramy rasmussenaparna bansalJordan hendrickslucy feldmanShefali luthraalexandra macfarlaneSahil luthraJake comerlindor qunajSam rubinroitdan Jeonannika lichtenbaumlucas hustedgarret Johnson Jared moffatgreg Jordan-detamore

emily gilbertSam kasetom Sullivanrachel kaplanJonathan bateman

Photo EditorPhoto EditorPhoto Editor

Photo Training ManagerSports Photo Editor

Graphics & photos

BUSINESS

olivia conettakyle mcnamaraJulia Shubebrisa bodelleinat brennerneal poole

productionCopy Desk Chief

Design EditorDesign Editor

Assistant Design EditorAssistant Design Editor

Web Producer

EDIToRIALArts & Culture EditorArts & Culture Editor

City & State EditorCity & State Editor

Features EditorFeatures Editor

News EditorNews EditorNews Editor

Science & Research EditorSports EditorSports Editor

Assistant Sports EditorEditorial Page EditorEditorial Page Editor

Opinions EditorOpinions EditorOpinions EditorSpecial Projects

Editor-in-chiEf

claire peracchio

sEnior Editors

tony bakshinatalie Villacorta

ManaGinG Editors

rebecca ballhausnicole boucher

BLoG DAILY HERALD

matt klimermanmeredith bilski

Editor-in-ChiefManaging Editor

GEnEral ManaGErs

Siena delisserdanielle marshak

officE ManaGEr

Shawn reilly

dirEctors

Julia kuwaharaSamuel plotnernikita khadloyaangel lee

ManaGErs

Justin leekaivan Shroffgregory chatzinoffluka ursicalison pruzanelizabeth gordondavid Winer

SalesFinance

Alumni RelationsBusiness Development

Human ResourcesResearch & Development

CollectionsFinance Operations

Alumni EngagementFundraising

Marketing

PoST- MAGAzINE

clay aldernJenny carr

Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

Create editorial cartoons for the herald!

Contact [email protected] for more information.

Want to report for The Herald? Get writer trained!

Writer training sessions will be held at 195 angell Sunday and tuesday at 8 p.m.

Page 7: Friday, September 14, 2012

taking sides 7the Brown DAILy herALDFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

I would like to start by saying that I do not oppose the idea of pre-profession-alism. I think that it is critically impor-tant to train individuals for the “real world,” whether this means careers in business, law, medicine or anything else. I staunchly believe, however, that Brown is not the place for this — out-side of the standard set of pre-profes-sional programs that prepare students for graduate study.

Simply put, a pre-professional atmo-sphere is antitheti-cal to what makes Brown so appealing, namely, our open curriculum and our non-competitive environment. these noble attributes of our community do not just emerge from thin air. they ex-ist because we, as a school, strive to “serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicat-ing and preserving knowledge and un-derstanding in a spirit of free inquiry.” these words might not be familiar to many of you, but they are the central tenet of our mission statement. If our school promoted, instead, a commit-ment to making students employable at all costs, something would seem just a little wrong.

to those of you who are good at math, imagine if your high-school teacher had let you use a calculator to do all of your work. your method of solving problems

would resemble the “real world” much more, but your math skills, and your theoretical grasp on problem solving would not be nearly as good. Similarly, Brown should arm you with the tools to understand the world for yourself, not just the ability to follow directions.

Given the amount of money people pour into their education, the pressure to seek high-paying jobs after gradua-tion becomes even greater. But colleges would do well to continue to promote the arts and the humanities. As Claire Gianotti ’13 pointed out in a column this week, these fields put ideas in con-text and help people think more broad-

ly (“A humanist’s call to arms,” Sept. 10).

while chal-lenging con-ventional ideas isn’t a skill that Morgan Stanley values in its ap-plicants, Brown

would fail you if it didn’t teach you how to formulate your own opinions. If we change our courses to fit the needs of employers, and thus move away from our spirit of open inquiry and discov-ery, then we pay the price of having big corporations engineer our curriculum. Forget Latin and Greek, we will soon learn the finer skills of how to be an ef-fective desk monkey. Brown is a won-derful place, after all, and I would hate to see it offer classes that amount to lit-tle more than training programs.

lucas Husted ’13 doesn’t hate the other Ivies as much as his first two columns of the semester indicate.

He can be reached at [email protected].

yes

At first glance, Brown’s academic ethos and pre-professionalism might seem incompat-ible. Lucas husted ’13 highlights a compro-mise whose virtue I myself questioned. yet upon further consideration, I reaffirmed my conviction that our University would be an ideal host for classes that expose undergrad-uates to pointed concepts they will face in their careers. Beyond our scholastic liberty, I would argue that Brown students are most distinguished by our robust passion for our interests and our drive to deeply explore those affinities. hence, furnishing students with more pre-professional options would only help accelerate our journey into the oc-cupational realms that we Brunonians com-monly lead and expand.

I want to note that pre-professional does not mean anti-intellectual. Learning con-cepts applied on the job does not signify a total rejection of the theoretical underpin-nings of those ideas, nor does it preclude students from questioning the material they absorb. even in my securities regulation class at wharton, which was “pre-profes-sional” insofar as we examined specific stat-utes related to cases such as the lawsuit over Facebook’s founding, the class’ professor, Andrea Matwyshyn, entertained thought-provoking discussions concerning the ap-plicability and jurisprudence of financial regulations. we also hypothesized the fad-

ing relevance of existing SeC mandates re-garding high-frequency trading. you might think this example only constitutes “deep thought” in the minds of Gordon Gekko-aspirants, but it nonetheless illustrates how pre-professional courses are not devoid of the intense scholastic inquiry that Brown encourages. Furthermore, to argue that pre-professionalism in and of itself signifies cut-throat competition is a misplaced attack on the educational approach. Brown’s classes are often curved anyway, so a latent compet-itiveness does exist. Given Brown’s aptitude for attracting talented, dedicated professors and motivated, inquisitive students, I do not doubt Brown’s prospects for success in the pre-professional realm.

Paxson’s term “constructive irreverence” is part of Brown’s DnA, and I am not advo-cating its temperance. I love Brown’s respect for individualism and the curricular liber-ty we enjoy. I believe the open curriculum should remain intact but should include more opportunities to take specialized classes. If anything, this expansion would sharpen our interests and add another di-mension to our already multi-faceted char-acters. would taking corporate valuation, constitutional law or physiology drastically diminish your chance to read Pliny with classmates? I think the answer is no.

Fuerbacher’s Rebuttal

every family has its cast of characters whose DnA matches but whose personalities di-verge, and the Ivy League is no exception. Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, harvard, Penn, Princeton and yale all pro-mote educational excellence and intellectu-al innovation, yet our attitudes toward the pursuit and applications of these goals dif-fer. If Brown’s open curriculum and theo-retical approach to curricular design epitomize the “lib-eral arts” philoso-phy of undergradu-ate education, then Penn — with its four distinct under-graduate schools and career-driven course catalogue — embodies the soul of pre-professionalism. Given today’s com-petitive workplace and Brown’s own interest in its graduates becoming leaders in their chosen fields, the University should behave more like our pre-professional Ivy League peers.

I transferred to Brown from Penn’s wharton School of Business. Though I em-brace Brown’s scholastic liberty and dynam-ic student community, I unwaveringly extol the career-focused intent of the wharton curriculum. I am not disparaging the qual-ity of a Brown education — on the contrary, I boast to my Penn friends that Brown’s eco-nomics classes are more rigorous than their wharton analogs. And by Brown’s own ad-mission, we should not mistake the Busi-

ness, entrepreneurship and organizations concentration’s mix of economics, engi-neering and sociology classes — interesting as they are — for bona fide business-prep. harvard, Columbia and Dartmouth, which are genuinely liberal arts institutions, offer specific, practical classes on managerial ac-counting, marketing principles and busi-ness leadership.

The defense of pre-professionalism does not solely cushion future barons of business. For pre-medical students, Brown might of-fer a rudimentary course on diagnostics, for which physiology would be a prerequisite. while Brown graduates’ medical school ad-mission rates are nearly double the nation-al average, allowing undergraduates to ex-

plore medicine ear-ly would only ben-efit our students. The same philoso-phy holds for the many Brunonians who enter Ameri-ca’s most esteemed law schools.

For budding an-esthesiologists and architects alike,

Brown should afford students the class-room-based luxury of developing skill sets that are pertinent to endeavors we face fol-lowing graduation. Am I trying to convert every Applied Math-economics concentra-tor into a Jerome Fisher Management and technology wharton grad? no. Am I em-bracing pre-professionalism so that our al-ready passionate students can more rigor-ously exercise their interests? Absolutely.

Elizabeth fuerbacher ’14 doesn’t believe latin is completely dead and still

remembers how to decline nouns. She can be reached at

[email protected].

no

I agree with some of the arguments my op-ponent has made. She stresses the need for pre-medical students to learn more about diagnostics to help with medical school. As far as training for continued schooling is concerned, I am in full support of pre-professionalism. This edification is funda-mentally different from the pre-profession-alism encouraged by the crux of her argu-ment, though — that Brown should offer more career-focused classes. In my opin-ion, Brown should not encourage the use of class time for learning business leader-ship. In fact, we have resisted the tempta-tion of having a business school altogether, and this is quite intentional. This defines Brown’s identity and makes it a truly won-derful place.

So what is wrong with business or pre-professional programs? As a wall Street Journal article pointed out in April, un-dergraduate business degrees “focus too much on the nuts and bolts of finance and accounting and don’t develop enough criti-cal thinking and problem-solving skills through long essays, in-class debates and other hallmarks of liberal-arts courses.” According to the same article, many com-panies that used to look for business ma-jors are now “looking for candidates with a broader academic background.” This sounds like the education that Brown tries

hard to foster.Indeed, Brown stresses creativity, prob-

lem-solving and collaborative work. These are qualities that make our students happy, flexible and open-minded members of so-ciety, people that can come into a new ex-perience and find great success. Though many Brunonians may find themselves mildly ill-prepared for mundane office work right after college, they will surely be well suited for greater life challenges, where creativity and critical thinking are stressed.

So my fault with Fuerbacher’s argument is that it is too myopic. Could Brown stu-dents be a little more prepared for the first few years after college? Perhaps. would Brown students be ill-prepared for gradu-ate school, higher levels at companies or more creative fields if they wasted class time learning things you can pick up in training? Absolutely.

At the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie. Brown has no trouble placing kids into medical schools or law schools. Applied Math-economics graduates have no trou-ble finding finance or consulting jobs either — they will in fact have faced a much more rigorous math and economics curriculum then their business counterparts. Thus the Brown curriculum should continue to re-main informed by research and discovery rather than by the needs of companies.

Husted’s Rebuttal

should brown embrace pre-professionalism?

forget latin and Greek — we will soon learn the finer skills

of how to be an effective desk monkey.

Given today’s competitive workplace … the university should behave more like our pre-professional Ivy league

peers.

ElIZaBEtH fuERBaCHER

opinions Columnist

luCaS HuStEdopinions Editor

Page 8: Friday, September 14, 2012

daily heraldthe Brown

sports fridayFrIDAy, SePteMBer 14, 2012

By sAm ruBinroitaSSiStant SportS editor

The women’s volleyball team topped Prov-idence College (1-13) in straight sets dur-ing the squad’s home opener wednesday, improving to .500 on the season.

“It was nice to beat the PCs because they’re our inter-city rivals,” said Alexandra rieck-hoff ’14. “we get pretty fired up for our home games, and we always try to get our best friends out there in the stands.”

wednesday’s showdown came after two tough match-ups for the Bears (3-3) at the yale Invitational Sept. 7 and 8. The squad fell to both northwestern Univer-sity (8-0) and Villanova University in straight sets.

nonetheless, head Coach Diane Short said she was happy her team rose to the competition’s level and used the tourna-ment as a learning experience.

“we played some top teams, and we competed well against them,” she said. “we can really hit against any team we play, which is one area we really improved on.”

rieckhoff noted that while the Bears were clearly outmatched in height at the

yale Invitational, she was impressed by how competitive they remained.

“(northwestern and Villanova have) big, tall girls,” rieckhoff said. “In the Ivy League, we’re just smaller teams than they are. Playing northwestern and hanging in there, even though we lost, was actually a big confidence boost for us because they got some votes for top-25 in the nation.”

with the momentum from their victory over the Friars behind them, the Bears look to improve their record as they head to Southern California for the Ful-lerton Classic Sept. 14 and 15.

with 16 of the 20 girls on the Bears’ roster hailing from California, the trip will be a sort of homecoming. The girls played a part in planning the trip and helped to raise money for travel and ac-commodations.

“we pushed really hard for this one,” rieckhoff said. “we fundraised as a team, and we’re excited because we have friends (that we’ll compete against).”

Venturing westward may have an extra benefit for the team: a boost in supporters.

“Most of the team is from California, so it’s like going back home for them,” Short said. “we’ll actually probably get more fans out there just because of family, friends and alums.”

bears get friar’d up at home opener

By nikhil pArAsherSportS Staff Writer

Men’s soccer team defender Dylan remick ’13 has been named this week’s Athlete of the week for his strong play so far in the Bears’ young season. remick,

a unanimous selection for last year’s First team All-Ivy squad, was named Most Valuable Player of the ocean State Soccer Classic over Labor Day weekend, where the team (4-1) won with a pair of 1-0 victories. remick also scored the game-winning goal in Brown’s 2-0 win

against Cleveland State (5-2) last week. For his stellar play, remick has been named The herald’s first Athlete of the week for this fall season.

Herald: Who’s your all-time favor-ite soccer player?

remick: I really, really like David Villa and Gareth Bale. David Villa plays for Barcelona, and Gareth Bale plays for tottenham.

do you support any professional soccer teams?

yes. I sort of support teams in each league. I support tottenham in the ePL (english Premier League), which is what most people watch anyway. And then I support rayo Vallecano in the Spanish league.

Who’s your all-time favorite ath-lete?

I’d say Michael Jordan. I grew up in Chicago. his willingness to compete and win is just unlike any other I’ve ever seen.

do you have any superstitions or game rituals?

yeah, I’ve got a few. I like to listen to some taylor Swift before the game, and then I have a lucky pair of socks that I wear for each game.

What’s your proudest soccer-relat-ed achievement?

I’d have to say winning the Ivy League last year was probably my proud-est, just because we hadn’t won it in so long. The seniors last year really, really wanted to win one because each Brown class has won one for men’s soccer. So, they really wanted to continue that tradi-tion. So, being a part of that — winning

my first Ivy League — was a big accom-plishment for us all.

What’s on your ipod?I like a lot of country — taylor Swift.

I listen to her before the games — (that’s) the reason why I really like her. I also have some hip-hop on there, a little bit of some jazz music for relaxing days. But I like pretty much everything. I’ll sort of listen to anything.

What are some of your favorite movies?

It sort of depends on the genre. Let me think. “Miracle” is obviously a great inspiration movie of course … “Shaw-shank redemption” is a great movie. I like all the classics … Godfather, Scar-face.

How did you get into playing soc-cer?

My family’s a very athletic bunch. Both my mom and my dad played sports in high school. I have a twin brother, so we pretty much grew up playing ev-ery sport imaginable: baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis, golf. And we both really enjoyed playing soccer. So, I just continued to play and as I got better, older, it became more enjoyable. So I just stuck with it from there and haven’t looked back since.

if you weren’t playing soccer, what would you play?

well, I ran track in high school and I ran for my freshman year at Brown. So, I’d assume that it’d be running track. It’s always fun to compete and run in the races in track. It’s a different kind of sport because it’s more individual, whereas soccer’s a team, so I sort of like a little bit of that aspect as well.

remick ’13 leads team toward fast start to season

By mAriyA BAshkAtoVAStaff Writer

From measuring fragments of monas-teries in Paris to performing some of the first archaeological explorations of the tiny Caribbean island of Montser-rat, professors inBrown’s archaeology department has had a busy sum-mer. Speaking to a packed audience in rhode Island hall wednesday, six archaeologists presented the work they and their teams completed this season in an attempt to concisely answer the oft-asked question, “So what’s the best thing you found?”

Answers to this question were nu-merous and highlighted the diversity of projects undertaken by the department.

A high point of the talk was a presen-tation by Stephen houston — professor of archaeology, anthropology and social science — on his fieldwork at the Mayan temple of the night Sun.

Many of the projects continued work from past years. Professor of Archaeol-ogy, Anthropology and Classics John Cherry and his team completed year three of the Survey and Landscape Ar-chaeology on Montserrat (SLAM) project this summer.

The people of the small island of Montserrat in the west Indies have shared a home with an active volcano since 1995, when the Soufriere hills vol-cano came out of dormancy and began erupting, causing a mass evacuation of the southern half of the island and bury-ing the capital city of Plymouth under 40 feet of ash. The volcanic activity and relocation of people and infrastructure to the north of the island have threatened the island’s archaeological sites, many of which are undocumented.

The aim of the SLAM project is to find and catalogue these sites and decide how much risk is posed to each site by the mass relocation of people and the con-tinually erupting volcano, Cherry said.

The team spent the summer trekking around the accessible half of the island cataloguing and exploring sites. Thus far, the team has found and explored about 45 sites and several hundred cultural landscape features, finding pieces like a 17th century Dutch pipe stem. An excit-ing discovery made by the team, Cherry said, included a site with artifacts dated from 2000-800 BC, making Montserrat one of only five islands in the eastern Caribbean on which artifacts from this period have been found.

Prior to SLAM, the island had seen few archaeological projects and had no basic inventory of historical and prehis-torical sites and cultural resources. to that end, the team also set up a temporary archaeological exhibit of artifacts in the island museum, taught archaeology in grade schools and represented archaeol-ogy at the island’s career fair.

Another cross-section of artifacts and culture was embarked upon by Peter van Dommelen, professor of archaeol-ogy and anthropology, who spent the summer studying knowledge and cul-ture exchange

archaeology profs present summer dig findings

/ / Digs page 5

SaM RuBINROIt / HERald

the Brown women’s volleyball team beat providence College during the home opener after losses to northwestern and Villanova last week.

VolleyBAll

PcBrown

113

Athlete oF the Week

JONatHaN BatEMaN / HERald

Athlete of the Week Dylan remick ‘13 scored the game-winning goal against Cleveland state for the men’s soccer team last week.

science & research