tuesday, february 6, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 10 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891TUESDAY, FEBR UAR Y 6, 2007TUESDAY, FEBR UAR Y 6, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Facilities Management chases mice in dorms

Facilities Management is playing a game of cat and mouse — with real mice.

This semester, there have been mice sightings in Goddard House and Graduate Center, but the problem is not serious, said Donna Butler, the director of custodial services. The staff is promptly responding to calls about mice in dormitories, she said, but despite their efforts, the rodents still manage to make their way into students’ rooms.

Monthly baiting in trash rooms and kitchens catch some mice, and a monthly contract with New England Pest Control brings an extermination team to campus on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, said Tony Batista, oper-ations and services manager for Facilities Management. He said prevention efforts are under con-trol, and on days that the exter-minators are not on campus, he usually looks into the call within hours.

“When Tony is made aware

of a mouse issue, he addresses it immediately,” Butler said.

But mice are still scurrying into students’ lives. Last semes-ter, Jeremy Stricsek ’09 discov-ered a mouse in his room in God-dard. Facilities Management re-sponded by laying down traps and putting steel wool in holes in the room, since mice can get into rooms through holes as small as a dime, according to Stricsek.

Stricsek didn’t notice any mice getting caught in the traps, but he assumed it wouldn’t be too much of a problem when he got back from winter break. But when he returned, he found large amounts of mouse droppings on shelves, the ground and other surfaces.

He quickly requested tempo-

BY NICOLE DUNGCASTAFF WRITER

RUF back on campus

Reformed University Fellowship, a Christian student group that was suspended in September, has been re-affi liated with the Offi ce of the Chaplains and Religious Life, al-lowing it to resume its on-campus activities.

RUF, whose parent organiza-tion is affi liated with the Presby-terian Church of America, was suspended because of “non-com-pliance with University policy and procedure,” according to a Sept. 13 e-mail sent by University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson to RUF Pres-ident Ethan Wingfi eld ’07. The e-mail also stated that the chaplains’

BY SARA MOLINAROMETRO EDITOR

Haxton ’08 amasses $1.3 million playing poker

When Isaac Haxton ’08 was a freshman, he spent winter break outside his native Syracuse, N.Y., playing poker at the Turn-ing Stone Resort and Casino. He came away with a respectable $1,500. This year, Haxton spent part of the winter playing poker in the Bahamas, and this time, he fi nished $861,789 richer.

A member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Haxton won the whopping sum when he placed second in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in early January. He said his life-time poker earnings now amount to approximately $1.3 million.

This tournament, which drew 937 players, was one of a series facilitated by the World Poker Tour for a TV show that airs on the Travel Channel.

“Filming for that was a sur-real experience,” Haxton said. “I found out I had made the fi nal table, and I get a stack of forms. … The fi rst thing I see is ‘10:00 a.m.: play starts, 8:30 a.m.: make-up call’ … what?!”

Haxton’s success in the world of poker has been growing steadi-ly over the past four years, ever since he began playing when he was 17, during his senior year of high school. At fi rst, he played only socially with friends but soon began frequenting Turning Stone, which is a 20-minute drive from his house.

When he returned home for winter break after his fi rst se-mester at Brown, Haxton played poker at Turning Stone almost every day. At the start of spring semester, he deposited his $1,500

winnings into an online poker ac-count and began playing online for about 20 hours a week, fi nish-ing the semester with a few thou-sand dollars in winnings.

“I didn’t sleep very much that semester,” he said. “But I got all A’s.”

Following his success, Haxton decided to spend the following summer living at home, playing online poker full-time.

“My parents were pretty okay with it, “Haxton said. “It took some effort to convince my mom that it was real money, but once the fi rst check showed up at the house, she believed me.”

That summer, Haxton won $40,000. The next summer, he stayed in Providence and did the same thing, winning $100,000.

Haxton said he has read about 30 books on poker. “I read ev-erything I could fi nd about the game,” he recalled. In addition to reading, he played the game a great deal and discussed poker strategy on an Internet forum.

“The forum is just fi lled with

BY HANNAH LEVINTOVASTAFF WRITER

Faculty to vote today on new Orientation schedule

The faculty will vote at a meeting this afternoon on whether to short-en next year’s Orientation schedule by three days, as recommended last month by a review committee and University offi cials.

If approved, Orientation would begin on Sunday, Sept. 2, and class-es would begin Wednesday, Sept. 5. First-years would move in over Labor Day weekend, according to the plan. If the faculty rejects the proposal, Orientation would begin Wednesday, Aug. 29, and classes would begin Tuesday, Sept. 4, a schedule similar to previous years.

The University’s academic calen-dar is part of the faculty rules and regulations, so any change requires a vote of approval by the faculty.

The proposal to change Orienta-tion from six days to three is a result of recommendations from a review committee formed last October by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Interim Vice Presi-dent for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06.

Carey wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he couldn’t predict how the faculty would vote on the proposal, but he added that “the feedback we have received so far from faculty on the review com-mittee, department chairs and the Faculty Executive Committee has been favorable.”

BY ROSS FRAZIERNEWS EDITOR

News tips: [email protected] Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Islandwww.browndailyherald.com

Courtesy of Isaac HaxtonPoker player Isaac Haxton ‘08

Eunice Hong / HeraldA military recruiting station on Weybosset Street in downtown Providence.

FEATURE

Military e-mails confl ict withU.’s nondiscrimination policy

Hundreds of Brown undergradu-ates received e-mails from mili-tary recruiters last month be-cause the University released student contact information to the Department of Defense.

A 1996 federal statute requires the Offi ce of the Registrar — and similar offi ces at other universi-ties — to provide military recruit-ers with student directory infor-mation, even though the Univer-sity’s nondiscrimination policy bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The mili-

tary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” pol-icy prohibits openly homosexual men and women from serving.

The federal law, known as the Solomon Amendment, permits the U.S. Secretary of Defense to deny federal funds — includ-ing research grants — to any high school or college that does not disclose students’ e-mail ad-dresses, permanent and on-cam-pus mailing addresses, home and campus phone numbers and col-lege concentrations or majors.

“We have to comply with the federal law, even if it’s in confl ict

BY ABE LUBETKINCONTRIBUTING WRITER

continued on page 6

continued on page 4 continued on page 4

continued on page 8

Christopher Bennett / Herald

The Gate, right, and Urban Environmental Lab are among the campus buildings with traps for rodents.

continued on page 8

REEFER IN RHODE ISLANDA law permitting the use of medical marijuana is up for renewal in the state’s Gen-eral Assembly, eral Assembly, eral Assembly prompting a look at its pros and cons

THE SILENT TREATMENTRenowned Buddhist med-itation teacher Shinzen Young led 60 participants through the basics of mind-fulness meditation

MARCH ON PROVIDENCEKailin Clarke ’08 encourages you to join him at the Rhode Island State House tomorrow to demand publically funded elections

3METRO

5 CAMPUS NEWS

11OPINIONS

INSIDE:

VAULTING TO VICTORYVAULTING TO VICTORYVAULThe women’s tracThe women’s tracThe women’ k and fi eld team performed strongly at the Geigengack Invitational— especially Ariel Wright ‘10 and the pole vaulters

12SPORTS

How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

Deo | Daniel Perez

12 Pictures | Wesley Allsbrook

Jellyfi sh, Jellyfi sh | Adam Hunter Peck


Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

Eric Beck, President

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President

Ally Ouh, Treasurer

Mandeep Gill, Secretary

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

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and

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Homefries | Yifan Luo

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

ACROSS1 In a fog6 Memo letters for

“I need it now!”10 “Bonanza”

brother14 Like logical

reasoning15 Wedding shower16 Moniker17 “That’s not funny,

young man!”20 Draft choice21 Comfort22 Follows the

advice of23 More dweeblike26 Mailer of many a

promotional CD27 Do a crime

scene job33 Boston hockey

player35 Oft-stubbed digit36 Kind of salmon37 Outplay38 Lab personnel42 It’s “the word”43 Versatile

vehicles45 Lao-tzu’s “way”46 Put up with48 Give the “no go,”

à la NASA52 Wacko53 Transfers to a

larger computer56 Frightening59 Julie’s “Doctor

Zhivago” role61 Tyke62 Fine-tune a

written work66 “Sorry to say”67 Eve’s second68 Singer Carpenter69 Lion’s tresses70 Like morning

grass71 Tempera

painting surface

DOWN1 Nile dam2 Complex

decorativepattern

3 Marvelous4 Opposite of

WSW

5 “Much __ AboutNothing”

6 Pound yapping7 Poses8 Throbbing pain9 Little legume

10 Like a sleepingnewborn

11 Have the nerve12 In the thick of13 Type of club or

room18 Stocking

stuffers?19 Norse god of

thunder24 One weaving on

the rd., perhaps25 “__ It Romantic?”26 Mimic28 10th-century

emperor29 __ v. Wade30 Ones whose

proposals areseconded

31 Fall sound32 “__ Guys Have

All the Luck”:Rod Stewart hit

33 A/C units34 Campus mil.

group

39 French state40 Pointing Uncle41 Breeze (through)44 Daybreak47 Ghostly greeting49 Purchases50 Word that may

elicit theresponse “Anddon’t call meShirley”

51 Mineral springs

54 Prescribedamounts

55 Shorthand whiz56 E-junk57 Pepsi or Coke58 Alda of

“M*A*S*H”59 Earring site60 Once again63 Was stricken with64 FedEx dely.65 “Norma __”

By Chuck Hamilton(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 2/6/07

2/6/07

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

[email protected]

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

M E N U

C R O S S W O R D

S U D O K U

TODAYW E A T H E R

mostly sunny27 / 11

mostly sunny24 / 13

TODAY TOMORROW

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007PAGE 2

SHARPE REFECTORY

LUNCH — Vegan Savory Plantains with Garbanzos, Philly Cheese Steak Calzone, Parslied Rice, Chicken Noodle Soup, Vegetarian Corn Chowder, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting

DINNER — Beef Stir Fry, Sticky Rice, Egg Foo Young, Ginger Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots, Whole Beets, Honey Batter Bread, Ice Cream Sundae Bar

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Vegetarian Spinach and Mushroom Soup, Chicken and Rice Soup, Beef Stew, Tomato Quiche, Italian Vegetable Saute, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream

DINNER — Baked Chicken Parmesan, Vegan BBQ Tempeh, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Baked Spaghetti Squash, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting

METROTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 3

Robert Flanders ’71 has been un-sure of his future as a federal judge for almost a year. Former Republi-can Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, who is a visiting fellow at the Watson Insti-tute for International Studies, rec-ommended Flanders — an adjunct assistant professor of public policy at the University — for a seat on the First Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2006, but Flanders has not yet been formally nominat-ed for appointment by President Bush.

On Jan. 9, President Bush pre-sented 30 names to be consid-ered for judicial positions around the country. Flanders, a former Rhode Island Supreme Court Jus-tice, was not included in the list. But the seat he was recommended for is still vacant.

“(The candidacy) is really in

limbo,” Flanders said. “(The White House) has yet to act on this va-cancy.”

After the White House received Chafee’s recommendation, Flan-ders was interviewed by U.S. At-torney General Alberto Gonzales and White House Counsel Harriet Miers in April 2006. That was the last Flanders heard from the Bush administration.

“I was told not to call them, they would call me,” Flanders said.

Chafee said the appointment has been unusually problematic, but he is unsure why.

“I’ve had some conversations with many members of (Bush’s) administration,” Chafee said. “I don’t feel I’ve been dealt with squarely on this.”

Flanders said the delay might have something to do with Chafee’s relationship with the president.

“It’s very hard to get into an ex-clusive club when your sponsor is

at odds with the admissions com-mittee,” he said. “Senator Chafee and the president were at odds on

BY ZACHARY MCCUNESTAFF WRITER

Federal judge appointment stalled for Flanders ‘71

Medical Marijuana Act up for review

Since the implementation of the Medical Marijuana Act last spring, Rhonda O’Donnell, a 44-year-old former registered nurse with multiple sclerosis, has used marijuana to alleviate her pain without fear of breaking the law.

O’Donnell, the fi rst person in Rhode Island to apply for the Medical Marijuana Program, praised the therapeutic effects of marijuana. “It’s instantaneous cooling of the burning,” she said. “I don’t need it that often, but when I do, it works for me.”

O’Donnell is one among near-ly 200 individuals who currently qualify to use medical marijuana in Rhode Island. The Medical Marijuana Act, which allows in-

dividuals suffering from chronic or debilitating conditions to use marijuana with their physicians’ certifi cation, will be evaluated this spring as legislators decide whether to renew the act. The act, which was passed last Janu-ary, includes a sunset provision mandating its repeal on June 30.

The Medical Marijuana Pro-gram began issuing registration cards last May, and 192 regis-tration cards were issued by De-cember, according to a report by the Rhode Island Department of Health. The report shows that nearly 57 percent of registered patients are suffering from a “chronic or debilitating disease or condition,” with the remaining patients suffering from Hepatitis C, cancer, HIV, AIDS or glauco-ma.

The major concern the report raises is the availability of mari-juana for registered patients. “The most frequent request to the department is for information regarding the purchase of mari-juana,” the report stated.

The act does not specify where patients can get access to mari-juana. Patients can grow marijua-na themselves, have caretakers grow it for them or buy it from the black market.

O’Donnell said she gets mari-juana for her pain from a friend who got it from a source unknown to O’Donnell. “I don’t know any-one who grows it,” she said.

Jesse Stout ’06, the founder of Rhode Island Patient Advoca-cy Coalition, a network of Rhode

BY THI HOSTAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Jim FeeneyRobert Flanders ‘71 has been recommended for a seat on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.

N E W S I N B R I E F

Soliciting sex indoors, now legal through a loophole in Rhode Island law, may soon be banned. The law currently bans prostitution by pro-hibiting loitering for the purposes of soliciting sex but does not al-low for arrests to be made if solicitation of sex occurs indoors.

There are 10 to 11 “spas” in Providence where prostitution takes place, and the majority of workers are illegal South Korean immi-grants who are forced into the practice, according to a press release by the General Assembly about the bill, which is sponsored by State Rep. Joanne Giannini, D-Dist.7. Giannini said the intention of the pro-posed bill is to protect these women, not to punish them.

The bill would make solicitation of sex indoors a misdemeanor that would result in the same punishment as loitering outdoors for prostitution. There would also be equal punishment for “johns” who engage the services of a prostitute and for people who knowingly permit sexual solicitation on their property.

— Sara Molinaro

R.I. brothels to become illegal

This afternoon, students in the Brown chapter of Democracy Mat-ters, a national student group concerned with campaign fi nance re-form, will march from Sayles Hall to a press conference at the State House to support proposed legislation creating a publicly fi nanced election fund.

They will join other supporters of “clean elections,“clean elections,“ ” including State ” including State ”Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Dist. 3, and State Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Dist. 3, the General Assembly representatives who are sponsoring the bill. Perry and Ajello, who both represent Brown’s campus, will fi le the ’s campus, will fi le the ’bill today.

Student leaders are hoping 50 Brown students will join the march to the State House, where about 20 Providence College students are expected to join them.

The legislation stipulates that a candidate who chooses to par-ticipate in the public fi nancing of his election must collect a certain number of $5 contributions to prove interest in their candidacy and refuse to collect any further private donations in order to qualify for a grant from the election fund. If the candidate runs against a pri-vately funded opponent, the public fi nancing fund will match the money spent by the opponent above the initial grant, capping mon-etary support at three times the amount of the initial grant.

Organized with the help of Democracy Matters, the press confer-ence is intended to show legislators that there is public interest in the bill, which has been introduced by Perry and Ajello for the past two years but has never left committee, said Jon Bogard ’09, a mem-ber of Democracy Matters.

“At the end of last year, having testifi ed before the House and “At the end of last year, having testifi ed before the House and “the Senate, we became aware of the fact that this wasn’t going to get anywhere unless legislators were delivered a strong public mes-sage,” Bogard said. In March and April 2006 he testifi ed in the Senate ” Bogard said. In March and April 2006 he testifi ed in the Senate ”and House to help legislators understand how publicly funded elec-tions would work. The press conference was “cobbled together by “cobbled together by “our contacts and our brainstorming,” he said.” he said.”

If passed, the legislation may inspire Brown students to lobby for similar laws in their home states, noted member Greg Anderson ’10.

The press conference will begin at the rotunda of the State Houseat 3 p.m.

— Simmi Aujla

Students to march to State House for campaign fi nance reform

continued on page 7

continued on page 7


with our nondiscrimination policy,” said Michael Chapman, vice presi-dent for public affairs and Univer-sity relations.

Senior Associate Registrar Rob-ert Fitzgerald said his offi ce gives student contact information only to the military, not to other organiza-tions. Organizations wishing to for-mally recruit at Brown through the Career Development Center must sign a form that includes the Uni-versity’s nondiscrimination policy, according to the CDC’s Web site.

“We’re required to give (mili-tary recruiters) what they ask for,” Fitzgerald said, noting that recruiters don’t always ask for all the information they are entitled to collect. He said some recruit-ers do not ask for concentrations, but “almost all of them request e-mail.” Recruiters request informa-tion for domestic undergraduates only — not foreign or graduate students.

Kent Greenfi eld ’84, a profes-

sor at Boston College Law School, led a legal challenge against the Solomon Amendment on behalf of several law schools, claiming it violated universities’ First Amend-ment rights. In March 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against his organization, the Fo-rum for Academic and Institution-al Rights.

Last week Greenfi eld said Brown and other institutions are obligated to cooperate with the military, though he still believes the legislation is unconstitutional.

“Any research institution worth its salt has to get federal funds,” he said, adding that forgoing federal money is “not really an option.”

In early January recruiters from at least two branches of the military — the Marine Corps and the Air Force — e-mailed form recruitment letters advertising offi cer training courses to Brown students.

A Jan. 9 e-mail from the Air Force touted a twelve-week-long basic offi cer training program, during which participants “will

learn exactly what you’re made of and how committed you are to be-coming the best.” Air Force Tech. Sgt. Larry Behrens Jr., a recruiter in Providence, sent the e-mail to a portion of his list of 5,408 Brown students — he sent out 1,800 e-mails, and roughly 900 bounced back.

Behrens said he might e-mail additional Brown students if the response from his initial e-mail is strong, but he will not send addi-tional e-mails to students who did not respond to his fi rst attempt.

“Awareness is the key,” he said.

Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Victor Zavala e-mailed Brown students a recruitment letter on Jan. 4 inviting Brown students to a six-week-long platoon leaders class. The e-mail declared: “You will come away from this training with valuable leadership skills that will set you apart from your peers at Brown.”

Zavala was out of his offi ce and could not be reached for comment.

continued from page 1

Military e-mails legal but confl ict with U.’s nondiscrimination policy

Carey said last month that in order for administrators to imple-ment the new Orientation schedule this year, the faculty must approve the calendar change at today’s meeting. If the faculty rejects the proposal today, a new Orientation schedule could not be implement-ed this fall, he said.

The committee also recom-mended that incoming fi rst-years be assigned required summer reading but only briefl y discussed the pos-sibility of some type of community-building, service-oriented or arts-based pre-orientation program, cit-based pre-orientation program, cit-based pre-orientaing cost concerns. The committee also declined to change the sched-ule for the Third World Transition Program, a four-day pre-orientation program geared toward students of color, which will now be longer than the general Orientation.

“The committee did not feel the

need to spend a great deal of time on the issue of the TWTP as this has been the subject of much de-bate in the past and was reviewed in January 2005,” the committee’s report said. “The overall feeling of the committee was that the TWTP should be revisited in the future to see how well it relates to the new confi guration of Orientation.”

Offi cials have cited several rea-sons why a shorter Orientation would benefi t the College, includ-ing lower costs, less unscheduled time in which students might con-sume alcohol, a more convenient move-in schedule and greater fac-ulty involvement in advising.

Administrators say the in-creased advising would be facili-tated by an organized “First Week-end” — the fi rst weekend after Ori-entation — which would include departmental open houses and co-curricular activities that were pre-viously included in the full six-day Orientation.

Also, most faculty would be needed on-campus on the Saturdayand Sunday after Labor Day week-end instead of the Thursday and Friday before, meaning a short-

ened Orientation could extend professors’ Labor Day holiday.

The Undergraduate Council of Students’ executive board dis-cussed the proposed changes sev-eral times, and the issue came up once at a general body meeting, but ultimately UCS decided not to plan any action supporting or challenging the changes, said Bri-an Becker ’09, chair of the UCS Campus Life committee and a member of the Orientation review committee.

“I don’t think most students who are here already will really care because it doesn’t affect them. I do think it will create a better at-mosphere for the fi rst few weeks of school,” Becker said.

But some students say a short-er Orientation would reduce fi rst-years’ opportunity to build confi -dence by acquiring some measure ownership of the campus. “I really don’t think a shorter Orientation is a good idea because it’s imperative that we have time to get used to the campus and each other,” Kara Segal ’10 said. “It helps develop a strong sense of what it means to go to Brown.”


Proposed Orientation schedule goes to faculty vote

P R O P O S E D O R I E N TAT I O N S C H E D U L E , AU G . - S E P T. 2 0 0 7

29

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

30 31 126 27 28

5 6 7 82 3 4

PROPOSED ORIENTATION 2007

PROPOSED FIRST DAY OF CLASSES 2007

EXISTING ORIENTATION

EXISTING ORIENTATIONFIRST DAY OF

CLASSES NOW

www.browndailyherald.com

CAMPUS NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 5

Despite some professors’ com-plaints about the availability of graduate student teaching assis-tants this semester, University offi -cials say the overall number of grad students serving as TAs has not changed.

Some professors worry that the number of grad TAs will take a hit when the Graduate School imple-ments a new grad student funding policy next semester. But Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde told The Herald that the total num-ber of grad TAs has remained simi-lar to the numbers from the last two years and that no signifi cant im-pact is expected from the funding change.

Each semester, grad students re-ceive a specifi c type of fi nancial sup-port, such as a teaching assistant-ship or a fellowship to work on their dissertation. Currently, the Grad School gives each department a set amount of money based on depart-ment size, and departments divide the funds into teaching assistant-ships and dissertation fellowships.

But under the new policy, which was announced last semester, the Grad School will no longer allocate funding based on department size but will instead assign funds for each doctoral student for a total of fi ve years per student. Departments will still divide the funds among teach-ing assistantships and fellowships as they choose, Bonde said.

Change in Grad School policy won’t alter TA numbers, offi cials sayBY CAITLIN BROWNECONTRIBUTING WRITER

Tai Ho Shin / HeraldThough CH 35: “Organic Chemistry,” pictured here, does not have a shortage of teaching assistants, some professors of large courses have voiced complaints about fi nding enough grad student TAs.

Instead of holing up in the Rock on Saturday afternoon, some stu-dents kicked off their shoes and joined a silent meditation retreat sponsored by the Contemplative Studies Initiative. Renowned Bud-dhist meditation teacher Shinzen Young led 60 students, faculty and community members through the basics of mindfulness medi-tation on Saturday at Brown Hil-lel, and about 30 participants who registered for the two-day retreat returned for further meditation on Sunday.

Mindfulness meditation helps a person focus on his or her inter-nal sensory experience by build-ing concentration, Young said. “All forms of meditation build concentration power, the most universally applicable skill a hu-man being can attain,” he said. “In mindfulness you use the con-centration like a microscope to observe the fi ne structure of your sensory experience.”

On Saturday morning par-ticipants gathered on meditation cushions and listened as Young explained basic meditation posi-tions and the importance of prop-er posture for meditation. He also described exercises designed to make participants more aware of their bodies.

“I had people analyze what

part of (their experience) is phys-ical touch and what part is emo-tional feeling,” Young said.

As participants meditated, Young answered questions but asked the students to avoid un-necessary social chatter. “Exter-nal speech scatters our attention,” Young said. “When you fi rst learn to drive a car, you start in a sim-plifi ed environment like an empty country road. You start meditat-ing in silence to simplify the pro-cess in the same way.”

Over a silent lunch, partici-pants tried to increase their awareness of the sensory eating experience. “(It was) a chance to have a different experience and get out of our normal habits,” said Seth Izen ‘08, an event organizer.

Those who registered for the two-day retreat returned on Sun-day and spent the day focusing on their mental experiences, which Young said involves analyzing the visual and verbal elements of their thinking. He said dividing the retreat up in this way allowed participants to take a close look at both the physical and mental ex-periences that constitute all of hu-man experience.

“The goal is to help students understand the nature of their own conscious experience,” said Harold Roth, professor of reli-gious studies and East Asian stud-ies and an organizer of the event. “We learn a lot about the external

world at Brown, but one of the most important dicta about how to live a fulfi lling life is to know thyself.” Roth directs the Contem-plative Studies Initiative, a faculty initiative that seeks to establish “contemplative pedagogies” by sponsoring relevant courses and hosting events like the weekend retreat.

Interest in the contemplative studies has grown due to recent “advances in research on the cog-nitive effects and also clinical ap-plications of contemplative prac-tices,” Roth said. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is used to treat a wide variety of ailments such as high blood pressure and depression, Izen said. The funda-mental meditation technique be-hind these clinical applications was taught to participants during the retreat.

The retreat was the fi rst Con-templative Studies program for many of the participants. “It’s great that they’re making it ac-cessible and affordable to the Brown community,” said Van-essa Little, house staff offi cer in family medicine.

Before he left campus, Young also gave a lecture comparing mindfulness, Zen and Vajrayana meditation practices on Monday night and visited UC 54: “Intro-duction to Contemplative Stud-ies,” in which students are read-ing his works.

Students meditate at silent retreatBY JONAH FABRICANTCONTRIBUTING WRITER

www.browndailyherald.comcontinued on page 6


Though most doctoral students will receive fi ve years of funding, some students will be eligible for a sixth year of funding.

Bonde said the procedural change in how grad students are funded shouldn’t affect the number of teaching assistants.

Some professors of large lecture courses, including Senior Lecturer in American Civilization Paul Buhle, have voiced complaints this semes-ter about diffi culty fi nding enough grad student teaching assistants for their courses. Buhle said his under-standing was that “due to complex decision-making by the Graduate School … it’s no longer possible to get enough graduate student TAs for the number of students who want to take the class.”

But many department adminis-trators interviewed by The Herald, including those in classics, sociol-ogy, biology and medicine, cogni-tive and linguistic sciences, com-parative literature and geological sciences, reported using the same numbers of grad student TAs this semester as in the past.

The perception of a decline in the number in TAs may stem from the policy changes made last fall. The long-term effects of the new funding policies are still unclear.

Professor of History Engin Akarli, who serves as the gradu-ate adviser for the history depart-ment, expressed concern about the pressure on grad students to fi nish their degrees in fi ve years. Finish-

ing a dissertation in fi ve years is diffi cult for history students, espe-cially those working with foreign language sources in their research, Akarli said. The need to fi nish in fi ve years means that grad students have to dedicate time and energy to their dissertations when they might otherwise have been able to serve as teaching assistants.

Although availability of grad student teaching assistants is not a problem this semester, it “will be a problem in the coming years,” Akar-li said. The overall number of teach-ing assistants in the department, 26, is the same this semester as in the fall. However, since there are more large courses offered in the spring, the department is two teaching as-sistants short of its desired number. AF 16: “Twentieth-Century Africa,” taught by Associate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs, and HI 163: “Modern Latin America I,” with As-sociate Professor of History James Green, are each missing one teach-ing assistant, Akarli said.

Akarli said he worries that un-availability of grad student teach-ing assistants in the history depart-ment may force professors either to run more discussion sections themselves, which could decrease the amount of time they spend con-ducting research, or allow sections to be larger than usual. According to Akarli, however, the problem lies not with the grad school’s poli-cies, but with a larger issue. “The University is not devoting enough resources to graduate students,” Akarli said.


Despite policy change, TA numbers won’t change

offi ce would consider reinstating the group for the 2007-2008 aca-demic year.

The group, which was not al-lowed to reserve meeting space on campus or recruit new mem-bers during its suspension, has already held two regular Sun-day meetings on campus and is currently attempting to reserve space for its more popular Friday evening meetings.

An e-mail to Wingfi eld from Associate Protestant University Chaplain Allen Callahan, stated that RUF was suspended because it fi led necessary paperwork late, lost the sponsorship of Trinity Presbyterian Church and main-tained a “culture of contempt and dishonesty.”

But Wingfi eld disputed the University’s claims. He acknowl-edged that the group fi led paper-work late, but he said the Trin-ity Presbyterian Church never withdrew its support and that the chaplains’ offi ce refused to clari-fy their allegation of a “culture of contempt and dishonesty.”

Cooper Nelson, who previ-ously declined to comment on RUF’s suspension, told The Her-ald yesterday that the suspen-sion of RUF — the fi rst suspen-sion of a religious student group in the 17 years she has worked at the University — was due to

a lack of communication from the group. Cooper Nelson said her offi ce did not receive the an-nual application required of all religious student groups from RUF until February, long after the August deadline. She called this non-communication “not a minor failure” and said the chaplains’ offi ce tried numerous times to communicate with the RUF leadership before deciding to suspend the group.

All religious student groups must renew their affi liation with the Offi ce of the Chaplains and Religious Life annually, a pro-cess that allows the offi ce to ap-prove of the advisers that each group chooses. According to Cooper Nelson, these advisers are usually “young profession-als” unaffi liated with Brown. She said this approval process was necessary to maintain “cur-rent knowledge and regular re-lationships” with groups and to ensure that the advisers under-stand that they are “being asked to support the University’s poli-cies and structures.”

Cooper Nelson said the rela-tionship between the group and the chaplains’ offi ce before the suspension “didn’t bring us to a place where we felt we had an understanding,” though she said “we hold ourselves accountable also.”

The suspension was not meant

to be a punishment, Cooper Nel-son said, but rather a “time for correction” for the relationship between the chaplains’ offi ce and RUF. She said she and Rus-sell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and stu-dent services, met with RUF lead-ers in September to warn them of RUF’s upcoming suspension and tell them that they were “eager to work with them to remedy the situation,” but neither Wingfi eld nor other RUF leaders ever con-tacted her for a meeting follow-ing the suspension, Cooper Nel-son said.

Callahan’s claim that RUF had a “culture of contempt and dis-honesty” was “his description,” Cooper Nelson said, adding that his words were chosen to convey “a sense of the situation, which was serious.”

Now that the group has been reinstated, Wingfi eld told The Herald that RUF “never did get an explanation” about the causes of its suspension. But he said, “At this point, all RUF wants is to exist on campus as a student group.”

Cooper Nelson emphasized that the suspension of RUF was due to the group’s non-compli-ance with policies, rather than any religious or doctrinal differ-ences. “It’s not okay at Brown ever for any opinion to be si-lenced,” she said.


www.browndailyherald.com

Reformed University Fellowship back on campus

Court hears beginning of Libby grand jury tapes

W O R L D I N B R I E F

WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Lewis “Scooter’’ Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney did not encour-age him to provide information about an undercover CIA offi cer to the media, but also said he did not believe the information was se-cret and had to be safeguarded, according to audiotapes of Libby’s testimony played in court Monday.

Testifying to the grand jury in the probe that eventually led to criminal charges against him, Libby, Cheney’s then-chief of staff, said he remembered Cheney telling him in June 2003 that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. Libby said it was the fi rst time he had heard that, but that Cheney said it in “sort of an offhand manner, as a curiosity.’’

Libby also testifi ed that he “could not recall’’ details of events and conversations he had that summer with Cheney and other adminis-tration offi cials regarding the war critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson that summer accused the administration of twisting intelligence he had gathered about Iraq’s efforts to develop a nucle-ar weapons program as the White House launched the invasion of Iraq and sold it to the public.

The eight hours of audiotapes, most of which are to be played Tuesday, are intended to back up the government’s claims that Lib-by lied to investigators about his role in disclosing the identity of undercover CIA offi cer Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife. Prosecutors have alleged Plame’s name was leaked as part of a campaign to discredit Wilson by spreading the idea that his CIA-sponsored trip was the re-sult of nepotism.

Russian tycoons who opposed Putin face new charges

MOSCOW (Washington Post) — Russian prosecutors have leveled new charges against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and one of his partners, accusing the fallen businessmen of money laundering and embezzlement in the theft of $20 billion from Yukos, the company they ran.

Khodorkovsky called the charges “insane and absurd,” according to one of his foreign attorneys, Robert Amsterdam. In a conference call with reporters, Amsterdam said the charges are an attempt to keep Khodorkovsky in prison through presidential elections in early 2008 and legitimize the state’s seizure of Yukos’ remaining assets.

The defendants, already serving eight-year terms, pleaded not guilty at a hearing Monday in Siberia. If convicted of the new charg-es, they could be sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison.

Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, were eligible for parole this October. The very slim chance that they might have been released has now vanished, Amsterdam said.

Island groups supporting medi-cal marijuana, said the proposed 2007 renewal should include a clause on the availability of mari-juana, but he doesn’t think it will happen. “Ideally, there should be state-funded programs to get marijuana,” Stout said.

Trevor Stutz ’07, former president of Students for Sen-sible Drug Policy, also believes sible Drug Policy, also believes sible Drug Policya government-controlled source of marijuana isn’t a realistic goal right now. “Dispensaries were defi nitely considered but at this point don’t look like the best model given the nature and size of Rhode Island and the ac-tive patient groups,” he said. “It seems like organizing through the patient groups informally and through RIPAC may be the best model,” Stutz added.

Although she doesn’t need to obtain marijuana often, O’Donnell said it would be “nice for safety and consistency’s sake” if there were regulated dispensaries.

The report listed only one in-cident of abuse of marijuana by a registered patient. Steven Tri-marco of Exeter was arrested last October and charged with 19 counts of delinquency with a minor, three counts of posses-sion of narcotics with intent to deliver and two counts of posses-sion of fi rearms or armor-pierc-ing bullets. Though patients are allowed only 12 plants under the act, police took 72 marijuana plants from his home.

The Providence Journal re-ported Jan. 17 that Trimarco had two Myspace.com pages show-ing him posing amid marijuana plants. The article cited police reports stating that Trimarco smoked marijuana on multiple occasions with at least four teen-age girls, ages 13 to 15.

Aside from inquiries over ac-cess to marijuana, the report stated there has been “mini-mal community response to the implementation of the medical marijuana program.”

An Oct. 2006 poll conduct-ed by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research of Washington, D.C., showed that 79 percent of Rhode Islanders support the legislation. The poll had a 4 per-cent margin of error.

“Passage (of the act) is itself a big success. Nothing’s really gone wrong,” Stout said. “Inclu-sion of the sunset clause is the biggest failure of the law.”

Stutz also called the legis-lation a relative success so far. “There have been no problems with the legislation itself. The cost of implementing it has been very low. Patients are being pro-tected from arrest, which is the ultimate goal,” Stutz said.

O’Donnell called the bill “compassionate.”

“It’s a relief for people who are suffering already from pain. It’s just one less thing they have to worry about. They’re suffer-ing enough,” she said.

The new medical marijuana act will go to the floor of the General Assembly this spring,

according to Stout. Currently, the patient advocacy coalition is building support for the pas-sage of the bill. “We’re building a grassroots network of people who are interested in support-ing the bill, including patients, doctors and nurses,” Stout said.

“Given the 79 percent of public support and the success of the program, it was a good idea then and a good idea now,” Stutz said.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Mari-juana Policy Project, a national marijuana policy reform orga-nization, said although over-all response to the bill has been positive, some people still have reservations. “People just aren’t over their fears yet. This is something that will happen over time as this becomes more a part of people’s daily lives,” Mirken said. But the bill will likely pass because of support in the legislature, he added.

For her part, O’Donnell said it would be unfortunate if the bill does not pass again because lobbyists for the legislation would have to start over.

“I’m hopeful. I think it should fl y no problem because it had so much support last year in both the House and the Senate,” she said.

Jeff Neal, press secretary for Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, did not return calls for comment. Carc-ieri vetoed the initial legislation but was overridden by the Gen-eral Assembly in January 2006.


Medical Marijuana Act to expire this yearmany policy matters.”

The position Flanders hopes to fi ll on the fi rst circuit — which hears cases from Maine, Mas-sachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico — was vacated by Bruce Selya. Se-lya reached senior status on the court, a form of semi-retirement.

Despite the delay, Flanders’ nomination may not be on hold for-ever. On Jan. 4, Miers offered her resignation, leaving both Chafee and Flanders to wonder whether the appointments process will be affected.

“Maybe the new (counsel) will look more favorably on the Flan-ders nomination,” said Chafee.

If formally nominated as a can-didate by President Bush, Flan-ders would require confi rmation by the U.S. Senate. Though Flan-ders is a Republican, he is popu-lar on both sides of the aisle. Ac-cording to Chafee, Rhode Island’s current Sens. Jack Reed and Shel-don Whitehouse are supportive of Flanders’ bid.

“Justice Flanders is a solid pick and a worthy successor to Judge Selya,” Reed said in a press release when Flanders was fi rst recom-mended last year. “He has a keen legal mind and has demonstrated an understanding of the law’s role in society.”

As a member of the Senate Judi-ciary Committee, Whitehouse will play a role in judicial appointments.

“Senator Whitehouse is work-ing with his colleagues on the Sen-ate Judiciary Committee and with Senator Reed … and hopes that

Rhode Island’s federal court va-cancies can be fi lled expeditious-ly,” wrote Whitehouse’s spokes-man Alex Swartsel in an e-mail to The Herald.

Flanders’ popularity across party lines is one of the reasons Chafee believes the former R.I. Supreme Court Justice is an obvi-ous pick for the President.

“I would think that the Presi-dent would want someone who would have smooth sailing in the Senate,” Chafee said.

Thanks to this bipartisan sup-port, Flanders’ candidacy can re-main under consideration follow-ing Chafee’s defeat by Whitehouse in the 2006 midterm elections.

“I didn’t want to see Senator Chafee lose,” Flanders said. “But if he did lose, I’m happy he lost to someone as qualifi ed as Sheldon Whitehouse.”

According to the Providence Journal, Chafee’s decision to rec-ommend Flanders upset U.S. Dis-trict Judge William Smith, another Rhode Islander who was interest-ed in the position.

“I just don’t see his resume, at least on the merits, as good as Flanders’,” Chafee said of his choice not to recommend Smith over Flanders. Chafee had spon-sored Smith as a U.S. District Judge in 2002.

Still, even after months in lim-bo, Flanders remains optimistic and willing to serve if appointed.

“I’m hopeful, but it’s also of concern that it’s taken this long. I’ve had no contact with the White House for a long time,” Flanders said. “I would be honored to be nominated by President Bush.”


Flanders ’71 awaits judicial nomination

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 7

Bush plan expands military, trims domestic spending, aims at balanced budgetBY MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ AND LORI MONTGOMERYWASHINGTONWASHINGTONW POST

WASHINGTON — President Bush took aim Monday at domestic spending as part of a plan to balance the budget in fi ve years without rais-ing taxes while increasing funding for the Iraq war and permanently expanding the military.

With the $2.9 trillion budget he submitted to Congress, Bush sig-naled he would attempt to squeeze spending on health care, education, housing and other domestic pro-grams important to the Democratic majority for the duration of his term. Overall domestic spending would be held below the rate of infl ation in the fi scal year that begins Oct. 1 and fro-zen thereafter.

The new Bush budget would also seek to reduce the rapid rate of growth in Medicare and Medicaid, trimming $101 billion from the two programs over the next fi ve years by reducing payments to health care providers and forcing wealthi-er seniors to pay more for physician services and prescription-drug cov-erage. It would provide additional funds for a children’s health insur-ance program, but not enough to maintain the same enrollment over the next fi ve years, according to in-dependent analysts.

Bush said his plan would bolster national security while “keeping the economy strong with low taxes and keeping spending under con-trol.’’ But Democratic leaders, who will control the budget process for the fi rst time since Bush took of-

fi ce, immediately denounced the plan as an irresponsible attempt to make permanent costly tax cuts for the wealthy and to fi nance the war by shortchanging children, the el-derly and the nation’s long-term fi s-cal health.

“It is disingenuous for the Pres-ident to suggest cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that he knows the Congress will not support,’’ said House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “It’s not go-ing to happen.’’

Some Democrats questioned the president’s math, saying his budget plan relies on a series of rosy eco-nomic assumptions to transform the nation’s $248 billion defi cit into a $61 billion surplus by 2012. Even

37 die in Baghdad as U.S. readies security crackdown BY JOSHUA PARTLOWWASHINGTON WASHINGTON W POST

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Bombs and mortar shells killed more than 37 people in Baghdad on Monday, as U.S. offi cials said that the command structure for the new security crack-down in the capital was ready.

In the deadliest attack, a small truck rigged with explosives was detonated near a gas station in the Bayya neighborhood, killing 15 peo-ple and wounding 58, according to Col. Fakher Hussein of the Interior Ministry. A car bomb that exploded in an industrial area of central Bagh-dad took the lives of 13 people, he said.

The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have for months been preparing a mas-

sive security initiative aimed at quell-ing the daily killing in the capital. A spokeswoman for the U.S. military, Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, said Monday that the command structure and per-sonnel leading the effort have now been established.

Iraqi forces in the capital will be led by Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, a former naval commander in the mili-tary of deposed president Saddam Hussein. Gambar was taken pris-oner by U.S. forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

A Shiite from the southern city of Amarah, he will report directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose viability as Iraq’s leader hing-es on his ability to temper the vio-lence in Baghdad.

The selection of Gambar, a rela-

tively unknown offi cer, was greeted with skepticism by some Iraqi and U.S. offi cials. But an aide to al-Ma-liki said the prime minister remains confi dent in his choice and that Gambar has the support of coalition commanders. During a meeting last month between al-Maliki and the se-nior British general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, Lamb pronounced Gambar a “good man,’’ the aide said.

Gambar will have deputies in charge of the east and west sides of Baghdad, which is divided by the Ti-gris River, and will oversee the nine security districts recently established in the capital. President Bush has pledged an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, and thousands of them have already arrived in Baghdad.

continued on page 9


rary housing and was able to move into Hegeman. The room was cleaned in less than two days, but Stricsek was still un-happy with the situation, and though his roommate has re-mained in the room, he has moved out.

“If it were someplace else, I wouldn’t care so much. But it’s my home, so it’s different,” Stricsek said.

Stricsek said other friends in the same area of the dorm have also noticed mouse droppings, but Batista said no one else has moved from their rooms this year specifi cally because of problems with mice.

Grad Center Tower C had similar problems in some rooms because a former resident did not remove food from her room before she moved out, accord-ing to Batista. Students leav-ing food out is one of the main reasons mice are attracted to rooms, he said, adding that al-

though some of the rooms he visits for mice inspection are very neat, many of the rooms with mouse sightings tend to be messier and often have food left out in the open.

But despite those incidents, there has been no signifi cant increase in the number of prob-lems this year, according to Fa-cilities Management staff.

“We’ve been luckier than usu-al because we have less construc-tion on campus,” Butler said, not-ing that construction often in-creases the number of mice that end up in the dormitories.

Last year, Hope College had problems with mice because a burst pipe required work that disturbed the mice’s under-ground nest, Butler said, and when the Shell Station on An-gell Street was demolished last semester, a number of mice were spotted in the Brown Of-fi ce Building, next to the con-struction site.

Cold weather generally drives mice into the dorms,

Butler said, but that has not been as much of an issue in recent years due to a series of mild winters.

Though the mice are an an-noyance, Facilities Management says there is no way to totally eliminate the problem. “I don’t really think there is a way to prevent every mouse from en-tering. There’s no way you can seal every opening in a house,” Batista said.

Batista said residents can avoid gaining furry roommates by using rubber containers for leftover food and by taking out the trash regularly. “Students not regularly taking out the trash is one of the biggest rea-sons there are mice in rooms,” Batista said.

Stricsek said he wished he had gotten that advice earlier, and he had a number of his own suggestions for those facing a rodent invasion, including re-porting it immediately.

“Also, wash the (soiled) clothes in hot water,” he said.


Mice plague some campus residence halls

18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids who have made millions of dollars playing poker. … There will be posts like, ‘I made $100,000 dollars this month, which of these cars should I buy?’”

At the end of his junior year, feeling burnt out by school, Hax-ton contemplated taking some time off from Brown. When legislation was proposed this past August that could soon make online gambling in the United States illegal, Haxton made the decision to take the year off to play poker full-time and cash in while he still could.

He has been living in an apart-ment in Boston and continues to play poker online.

Live tournaments are still fairly new for Haxton, who only became eligible to play this past Septem-ber after his 21st birthday. He said they are very different from the on-line poker to which he has grown accustomed.

“When I’m playing online, I wake up at three in the afternoon, have a cup of coffee, play for about

three hours, then hang out, have dinner, watch some TV, play for another three hours, and that’s a day’s work,” he said. “When I go to a tournament, play starts at some ungodly hour, like 11 or noon.”

Haxton said live poker tourna-ments consume much more time because the cards are dealt manu-ally, meaning a competitor can play fewer hands in an hour.

“A day of playing a tournament is minimum nine, sometimes up to 14, 15 hours a day, and the tourna-ments can be up to six days long. … There’s barely enough time to sleep — certainly not enough to eat three meals a day.”

The World Poker Tour Web site, which classifi es Haxton as one of today’s “Young Guns of Pok-er,” also states that one of his most striking skills is his “chill factor,” the ability to maintain calm during the game.

“It’s nothing that complicated,” Haxton said. “Keeping calm in those situations has always come fairly easily to me.”

Haxton has recently been nicknamed the Lizard King after Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors. He got the name after Pok-erStars.com noted Haxton’s physi-cal resemblance to the late rock star in a photograph caption.

With a new nickname and an upcoming appearance on the Trav-el Channel, Haxton has found him-self increasingly in the spotlight. After the Poker Stars tournament, Haxton was approached at the ca-sino’s restaurant by a few waiters who had heard about his victory. They wanted him to sign dollar bills.

“I think they were just hoping that in fi ve years I’d be famous and the autographs would be worth something,” Haxton said.

A few weeks later, at a tourna-ment in Atlantic City, a fan asked Haxton to autograph his own pho-tograph.

“He goes ‘Yeah, Isaac Haxton, the Lizard King!’ … I didn’t know what to do. Do I sign it to someone? ... It was surreal. He had planned to fi nd me. He said ‘I’m going to go fi nd Isaac Haxton’ and printed a photograph of me.”

But Haxton said he maintains his signature “chill factor” both at the poker table and away from it.

“The attention is directed more at the character that World Poker Tour is marketing as a character on their show than it is attention di-rected at me,” Haxton said.

He added that fans like the man in Atlantic City often care only about his capacity as a poker player. “He just wants me to look cool in my sunglasses and sign the thing,” he said.


Haxton ’08 wins $1.3m playing poker

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 9

its second goal just 57 seconds after its fi rst tally. Likewise, on Saturday, less than two minutes after taking the lead 5-4, Quinni-piac struck again to increase its advantage to two goals.

“We’re a very young team, so we often have to put four fresh-man players on the line,” Murphy said. “When one bad thing hap-pens, they don’t bounce back as a team full of seniors would, because many of these girls don’t have a lot of experience playing in games where their team is behind.”

The Bears had hoped to se-cure wins at Princeton and Quin-nipiac. After losing the fi rst nine games of the season, Brown en-joyed a remarkable 7-3-2 stretch entering the weekend, dating back to its Nov. 24 upset victory over Providence College for the Mayor’s Cup. The stretch includ-ed several improbable wins over such teams as Boston University and Yale.

The weekend saw more strong play from Moore, who, with an assist at Princeton and two goals at Quinnipiac, extend-ed her point streak to 11 games. Murphy said that Moore, who is

slated as a future U.S. Olympian, is “defi nitely the future of our team.” Murphy also praised Ole-winski’s play, noting that she has “really stepped up to the plate this season,” and lauded the lead-ership of the senior captains.

The losses were even more disappointing, since the Bears have an extremely diffi cult schedule for the rest of the sea-son. On Wednesday they face University of Connecticut, whose 15-10-2 season includes wins over Dartmouth and Harvard, currently the top two teams in the ECACHL.

The Bears then face Union College on Friday and Rens-selaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, both at home. Finally, they will close out the regular season on the road the following weekend, battling Dartmouth and Harvard, currently ranked No. 3 and No. 6 in the nation re-spectively.

“All of the games are winna-ble,” Murphy said. “Hockey is a game of momentum swings, and I’m going to try to instill enthu-siasm in our team, because ev-ery time you step out of the gate wearing that Brown jersey, you should play with pride.”


Women’s hockey loses ground

O’Mara placed second in the 100-yard breast, swimming a time of 59.04, with Ray Grant ’10 fi nish-ing just behind him in third with a time of 59.42. Richard Alexander ’09 took second in the 200-yard fl y, leading the Bears with a time of 1:53.74. Kelly followed suit in the 50-yard free, checking in at 21.22 for another second-place fi nish. David Koweek ’09 fi nished just behind Kelly, recording a time of 21.62.

“It was disheartening to get second place in so many close events,” Volosin said. “It really crushed us.”

Although the Bears realized their chances of winning the meet were bleak by the time the fi rst dive break got underway, Brown’s performance on the one-meter board sparked the team. William Kai Robinson ’09 won the event with a score of 285.89. C.J. Kambe ’10 took third in the event, record-ing a score of 258.44.

After the fi rst diving event, Kelly nabbed fi rst place in the 100-yard free with a time of 46.17. Trent Huxley ’10 took third in the event posting a time of 47.27. Hug was Brown’s top fi nisher in the 200-yard backstroke, swim-ming a time of 1:55.54. Grant led the Bears in the 200-yard breast, taking third place with a time of 2:10.54. Christopher Elsworth ’09 then took fourth in the 500-yard free, clocking in at 4:48.52. Rick-

etts earned second in the 100-yard fl y with a time of 51.34, while Alexander fi nished right behind him, checking in at 51.64.

Robinson was also the Bears’ top performer in the three-me-ter dive, fi nishing in second place with a score of 282.90. Matthew Freitas ’07 took third, recording a score of 273.08.

O’Mara won the last individual event of the day, posting a time of 1:55.56 in the 200 IM. Brown then took second in the fi nal event of the meet, with the 400-yard free relay team of Huxley, Hug, Rick-etts and Kelly recording a time of 3:08.22. Despite the Bears’ valiant efforts at the end, it was not quite enough, and the Lions prevailed.

After his win, O’Mara summed up his last meet at the Smith Swim Center. “It was exciting but sad,” he said. “It was a good opportuni-ty to give it one last go.”

The Bears will all give it one last go when they compete at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships Feb. 22 to 24 in Princeton, N.J.

In the upcoming weeks Brown will taper its yardage and focus on refi ning the little things such as their starts, turns, fi nishes and relay handoffs in order to ensure their success at the most pivotal meet of their season.

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work this season and we still have a lot of business to take care of before Easterns,” Brown said. “I’m excit-ed to see what lies ahead.”


M. swimming and diving fall to Columbia in last dual meet of season

03.75 to place third and fourth, re-spectively.

“The women’s pole vault was re-ally exciting,” Lake said.

The Bears also had strong per-formances in the sprints. Naja Ferjan ’07 recorded a person-al best of 1:13.89 in the 500-me-ter dash, good for second place. Meanwhile, Thelma Breezeatl ’10 placed second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.68 and sixth

in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.00, behind fi fth-place fi nish-er Nicole Burns ’08, who clocked in at 24.96.

“Nicole Burns ran really, really well in the 200,” Lake said.

Burns also competed in the 400-meter dash, placing third with a time of 56.15. The Bears took home more third-place fi nishes in the four by 400-meter relay, with a time of 3:48.99, and in the shot put, when Alex Hartley ’10 record-ed a 41-10.75 throw. In the weight

throw, Sam Kuo ’09 took sixth place with a throw of 44-09.50.

Lake was impressed by the squad’s performance. “A lot of them are running personal bests,” she said. “We’ll have a lot of strong individual performances in the Ivy League Championships.”

The Bears’ next competition, the St. Valentine’s Invitational, will take place Feb. 9 and 10 at Boston University.

“We’ll be focusing on putting in good times,” Lake said.


W. track shines at Geigengack Invitational

three-meter dive to bring some hope for the Bears. The 400-yard freestyle relay team, which com-prised Brandstetter, Brush, Mere-dith Cocco ’07 and Kowalsky, won the fi nal event of the meet with a time of 3:35.87. Though both of these efforts were impressive, they were too little, too late, and the Lions prevailed.

Diving coach Guy Pollino felt that the divers’ performance at the meet was satisfactory.

“The six of them (the diving team) put together a solid effort,” he said. “They know what tricks they do well, and they are doing them.”

He also commented about how the team needs improvement. “The divers know they need to

clean up some things, like toe points and legs together — they look better,” he said. “Sometimes it’s better to look good than to feel good.”

Diana Caskey, the Columbia coach for the past 15 years, was very proud of her Lions.

“We are working on swimming fast away from home,” she said, “We never really swam really well at Brown, so I’m excited that we did the job.”

Although the Bears were not victorious, they are looking for-ward to the remainder of the sea-son and will be shifting most of their focus to preparations for the Ivy Championship in the next six weeks.

Underclassmen Jessica Wil-liams ’09, Baily Langner ’10 and Katie Olko ’10 seem to hold the

most promise for the future. Ac-cording to Pollino, “They are real-ly giving the upperclassmen a run for their money.”

Brown gets back in action on Feb. 15-17 when it travels to de-fending league champion Prince-ton for a pivotal dual meet.


Lions tame Bears in w. swimming’s fi nal home meet

if the plan is successful, Democrats noted, the president would only be restoring the country’s fi scal con-dition to the surplus he inherited when he took offi ce in 2001.

“This budget is fi lled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality and continues to move America in the wrong direction,’’ said Senate Budget Committee

Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. While the spending blueprint met resistance from Democrats, it ap-peared to shore up the president’s position with conservatives in his party, who have been deeply un-happy with the growth of federal spending over the past six years. In comments to reporters Mon-day, Bush emphasized his desire to reduce the number of congres-sional pork projects, known as

earmarks, and acquire a line-term veto — favorite initiatives of fi scal conservatives.

Extending Bush’s fi rst-term tax cuts, a collection of rate reductions and tax credits that has kept more than $1 trillion in taxpayers’ pock-ets since 2001 would cost the Trea-sury an estimated $374 billion be-tween 2008 and 2012, according to the administration. Most of the cuts are scheduled to expire in 2010.

Bush plan expands military, trims domestic spending, aims at balanced budget


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R O X A N N E P A L M E R

S T A F F E D I T O R I A L

EDITORIAL & LETTERSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007PAGE 10

At its meeting this afternoon, the faculty will make a seemingly At its meeting this afternoon, the faculty will make a seemingly Aminor decision — whether to push back the beginning of the ac-ademic year by a single day. Yet if approved, the vote will have lasting ramifi cations for a decade of future Brunonians. The vote would allow a restructured Orientation program starting this Sep-tember.

Though the proposal was released only 12 days ago, it could determine how new students are introduced to Brown for many years. Professors shouldn’t take this vote lightly. We encourage the faculty to reject the change to the academic calendar.

The proposed changes raise real concerns. The new schedule collapses fi rst-years’ introduction to the Brown curriculum — thatmomentous fi rst meeting with a faculty adviser and Meiklejohn peer counselor — into a single day before classes begin. Some Orientation programs, such as departmental open houses and co-curricular events, would move to the so-called “First Weekend” af-ter classes start. Students may be forced to dive into the chaos of shopping period — an experience that’s all the more overwhelm-ing at Brown, where fi rst-years have almost total control over their course load — without enough preparation. And given that Ban-ner will overhaul shopping period, it may make more sense to re-think Orientation after we’ve seen the impact of the new registra-tion system.

We support the idea of shortening Orientation if the new sched-ule prepares students academically and leaves them with enough unstructured time to have experiences only possible during the fi rst few days of college — exploring a new home and starting a new life. But though we agree that Orientation needs to be changed, we can’t condone the administration’s hurried attempt to win over the faculty in under two weeks on a matter that will have lasting import for the Brown experience.

Though the committee was undoubtedly diligent and includ-ed deans, faculty and students, their carefully constructed agenda lacked the creative input that broad student reaction could pro-vide. Administrators committed to redefi ning Orientation for the next decade should canvass the campus for opinions about what works and doesn’t work — a task that certainly can’t be accom-plished in 12 days.

The administration needs the faculty’s approval today to have a different Orientation ready for September, and we acknowledge that the administration could tackle specifi c concerns later. But we worry that voting to change the academic calendar will be seen as broad approval of the new Orientation plan. It’s too early to move forward on the Orientation committee’s recommendations. They have hardly been vetted, and few voices outside the commit-tee and administration have been heard.

The Orientation experience for the class of 2011 lies in the hands of the faculty simply because the proposed Orientation schedule requires changing the beginning of the academic year by a single day. We hope the faculty will use the power they have and reject this premature proposal.

We, the members of the emPOWER campaign, are grateful for The Herald’s continued coverage of our efforts to promote sustainable energy policies and cli-mate neutrality on campus. We would, however, like to clarify our position on the role that carbon offsets should play in a comprehensive response to climate change.

emPOWER recognizes that the purchase of carbon offsets — the investment in renewable energy proj-ects off-campus that neutralize our carbon footprint — is not the only strategy Brown should undertake. As we have consistently articulated, the purchase of carbon offsets should be made in addition to, not in-stead of, the institution of on-campus energy policy re-forms. Our goal is to convince the University to re-duce its own emissions as much as possible and, in the meantime, to completely offset the contribution it currently makes to global warming by investing in renewable projects off-campus. We believe that im-mediately becoming climate neutral, while continuing to reduce on-campus emissions, is the only way that Brown can take full responsibility for its contribution to climate change.

When properly pursued, carbon offsets do not merely serve to “assuage moral guilt,” as a recent

Herald editorial suggested (“Freezing Energy Costs,” Jan. 31). Rather, investment in off-campus renewable energy projects represents a moral commitment by the University to look beyond its own gates and act as a social leader in the effort to curb climate change. Moreover, investing in additional sources of renew-able energy on our national grid will make a quantifi -able reduction in the growth of greenhouse gas emis-sions and can help lower the cost of clean energy in the future by promoting growth in the industry.

As The Herald recently reported, Brown received a “B” on its Sustainability Report Card from the Sus-tainable Endowments Institute. While it fared better than several participating institutions, it can hardly call itself a leader in the fi eld. Brown has the oppor-tunity to claim a leadership role by committing to cli-mate neutrality now, and it also has a responsibility to the global community to consider. As students of this historically innovative and forward-thinking Universi-ty, we should expect no less.

Jonathan Magaziner ’07The emPOWER Campaign

Feb. 5

Carbon offsets are a moral commitmentTo the Editor:

A premature proposal

I regret that Sean Quigley’s contribution to Friday’s point-counterpoint (“Three cheers to President Bush,” Feb. 10) failed to address the most important question in the debate over controversial tactics in the War on Terror. Most Americans accept the premise that this struggle requires new and extraordinary measures to be effective. But given the costs of those measures — both in terms of their impact on legal precedent and the blowback that they generate when made public — their use should not be a foregone conclusion. Their use should be contingent on their proven effi cacy and unique value (that is, that they accomplish something that conventional measures could not). Quigley pro-vided an interesting historical and legal defense of current administration policies, but he has done noth-ing to prove that they are necessary.

On a separate note, Mr. Quigley’s invocation of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ill advised. Vivid and indig-nant memories of that day do not lead inevitably to a preference for one stance or another on this com-plicated matter. Plenty of family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks are at the forefront of efforts against the programs that Mr. Quigley defends. They believe that a system that errs on the side of extend-ing too many rights is the best long-term strategy in the struggle against regressive fanaticism. To dismiss them as civil liberties “radicals” (perhaps the wrong term for those seeking to maintain the status quo) when they, too, are motivated by their loss is equal parts wrongheaded and tacky.

David Dryer ‘07Feb. 4

Quigley ’10 wrong on civil libertiesTo the Editor:

OPINIONSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 11

I am overwhelmed by options. Every day I’m given new and better ones — stores offer me new products, Brown offers me new classes and activities and my TV offers me new is-sues and people to care about. In the hyper-media, hyper-representational, hyper-con-nected world of today, I am catered to.

Of course, such “optionality” has side-ef-fects on which normative judgments are up for debate: First, I’ve learned to see myself as the star of my own show, entitled to pick whatever options I choose. Second, I’ve been known to go instinctively numb when op-tions are numerous and noisy. It was in this context that I got involved with Rhode Island for Fair Elections.

I wasn’t much of a social activist up un-til last year, for precisely the above reasons. This isn’t profound — many an opinions col-umn has contemplated students’ relation-ships to social activism in the context of those phenomena. The point of this article is to tell you that, even if you’re like me, even if options and opportunities have subdued you in the past and left you with tinges of selfi sh-ness and numbness, there is one unique po-litical opportunity on the table this year that even you should be interested in: Fair Elec-tions.

Stated simply, Fair Elections would sharp-ly reduce the infl uence of money on Rhode Is-

land state politics by creating a system of full public fi nancing of candidates’ campaigns. It has worked in Maine, Arizona, Connecticut and several other states, and even political economists give it credit as the one kind of campaign fi nance reform that has actually changed politics in general. It has been so successful that it’s even getting some atten-tion in Congress.

Now, you can try to frame “money in poli-tics” as another option, another issue, but it

just doesn’t work. Money is the power that fl ows through so many other options, so many other issues. Health care laws, envi-ronmental standards, education reform — they’re all affected by political contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations and unions who exploit a weakly regulated sys-tem of campaign fi nancing in order to gain infl uence in the halls of the State House.

That’s why I liked the campaign. I wasn’t picking a particular option, but handling all of them at the same time. And while cam-paign fi nancing is not the only determinant of governmental priorities, it’s probably the fi rst one that needs fi xing.

Why does it work? Because Fair Elec-tions isn’t naive like the 2002 McCain-Fein-gold Bill, which eliminated certain kinds of contributions and limited others. That kind of reform makes a dent, but it doesn’t ad-dress two fundamental paradoxes: In the longest-running democracy of the modern period, (a) politicians almost always need to have money or know people with money to get their voices heard and (b) politicians are public servants forced to raise private con-

tributions.So Fair Elections goes one step fur-

ther. By going door-to-door and collecting a specifi ed number of $5 contributions, can-didates prove their electability and receive grants that allow them to run competitive campaigns. That’s it — no real fundraising. The public buys the system back for itself. And the investment comes with returns — taxpayers save money when lobbyists’ and special interests’ ideas are judged on their merits.

Today at 3 p.m., Brown’s Democracy Mat-ters and a broad coalition including Common Cause Rhode Island and League of Women

Voters Rhode Island will hold a press confer-ence in the State House as the bill is intro-duced. I think you should come, and not just because you’ll have some delicious hot choc-olate. You should come because it’s not just “one more option.”

And that’s the real problem today: poli-tics has become one more option for the consumer. When politics takes the aesthetic equivalent of channel surfi ng — think blogs, niche advocacy groups, Google news alerts, RSS feeders — they’re molded into a blue-print for option-presentation and option-surf-ing that makes them seem, well, pretty op-tional. This shift has us all reacting to issues instead of making an affi rmative commit-ment to change.ment to change.ment

It is only when we make these kinds of commitments that the powerful actually lose power instead of merely adjusting to reac-tive demands. The Fair Elections bill won’t bring complete justice and harmony to this tiny state — how could it, when no one can agree on what that would mean? — but it will be a real change to how politics are run, and that’s why it has a rare alliance of politicians, corporations and unions in an uproar.

Are you free on Tuesday afternoon? Do you think governments and democracy mat-ter? Are you looking for the all-encompass-ing opportunity? Then come help us cut the power off at its source.

Kailin Clarke ’08 asks you to meet Democracy Matters at Sayles Hall at 2:15 p.m. today, descend College Hill and rock the State

House to its foundations.

Cut the power off at its source — help Democracy Matters storm the State House

Campaign financing is not the

only determinant of governmental

priorities — but it’s probably the first

one that needs fixing.

BY KAILIN CLARKEOPINIONS COLUMNIST

The Department of Public Safety, as part of the accreditation process for the Commis-sion on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, is conducting a survey to mea-sure community opinion and collect feed-back. They run such a survey every three years.

Surveys are an interesting means for gathering information about a community. In a best-case scenario, a survey works be-cause its questions and response choices have been carefully crafted, information about its existence is made widely available and the information gathered is ultimately used responsibly.

Even when all of the aforementioned conditions are met, however, a survey’s appropriateness still comes into question when its purpose is to poll for majority re-sponses to issues that primarily affect those in the minority. A poll of a largely white au-dience, for instance, does not necessarily refl ect the experience of other segments of the population. This fact might prove prob-lematic for the DPS survey, since the seg-ment of our community most likely to have negative experiences with the police are men of color.

Still, ignoring any questions as to the va-lidity of using surveys of this kind to shape policy and frame discussion, it remains ap-parent that this survey has been set up to fail from the beginning. One of the ques-tions on the DPS survey asks, “based on your experiences with the Department of

Public Safety Offi cers, how would you rate offi cers’ attitudes and behaviors towards members of the Brown community?” On fi rst glance, that seems legitimate, until you look at the possible response choices given: extremely respectful, very respectful, re-spectful, fairly respectful and disrespectful. Reading those response choices should give any respondent an uncanny fl ashback to an episode of “The Colbert Report” in which

Stephen Colbert asks his guest if our presi-dent is a “great president” or the “greatest president.” Other questions have equally biased options or unclear gradations be-tween answer choices, and few allow for the choice of “none of the above,” which would be crucial for developing a survey of actual statistical signifi cance.

Worse yet, the last time a similar poll was given at Brown, only 4 percent of stu-dents and 3 percent of faculty and staff re-sponded. This year’s poll has only been an-nounced once in Morning Mail — by a link that does not take users to the survey itself, but instead to a Web site that is a page away from the actual survey. Chief of Police Mark Porter and Vice President for Administra-tion Walter Hunter shouldn’t be surprised

if this year’s response rate isn’t any higher than three years ago.

Running surveys in this fashion is an example of DPS and the administration’s reluctance to sincerely engage the issue of public safety and the instances of racial profi ling, lack of accountability and lack of transparency that have been created out of the desire to maintain an insular campus. If the use of questionable survey meth-

odology leads to fi ndings of a clean bill of health for the campus police, such fi ndings are sure to be held up as proof that there is “no need for improvement,” as has been the case before.

In 2002, the University commissioned a group led by former New York Police De-partment Commissioner William Bratton to review policies and procedures in the area of campus safety. The resulting report fa-mously recommended that the campus po-lice be armed. In supporting its position, the report on campus police also found “no signs of institutional racism.” Despite the unlikely odds that such a fi nding could be accurate, there exists even greater cause for concern with respect to the University’s quickness to champion the study’s fi ndings.

As the New York Times reported in 1996 following Bratton’s resignation as NYC Po-lice Commissioner, “While the department under Mr. Bratton increased arrests by 25 percent, there was an increase of more than 50 percent in civilian complaints about police misconduct and brutality in the mi-nority communities where the drops in vio-lent crime were sharpest.” William Bratton was also responsible for the authorization of new 15-round clips to replace 10-round clips for the NYPD’s 9-millimeter semiauto-matic handguns. These fast-fi ring weapons are now responsible for so-called “conta-gious fi ring” incidents, like that of unarmed Sean Bell, who was shot at 50 times by fi ve offi cers in Queens last fall on the morning of his wedding. Bratton is now the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Surveys set up to fail and subsequent study reports of “no racism, misogyny, or homophobia” and “no need for improve-ment” are by their very nature incompati-ble with community complaints of wrongdo-ing and student pleas for investigations into the actions of potentially negligent admin-istrators or offi cers. What levels of sexual assault, discrimination or police violence is it going to take before Brown begins to speak the same language as the community on which it is built?

As of last winter break, the campus po-lice have been armed, but our offi cers carry guns instead of Tasers. Let’s not let Brown’s wake-up call be the shot of a gun.

Josh Teitelbaum 08 would like to shout out to Professor of Political Science Alan Zucker-

man and Catherine Corliss GS for teaching PS 50: “Foundations of Political Analysis.”

Great survey or greatest survey?

The last time a similar poll was

given at Brown, only 4 percent of

students and 3 percent of faculty

and staff responded.

BY JOSH TEITELBAUMGUEST COLUMNISTGUEST COLUMNISTGUEST

The women’s ice hockey team had an unsuccessful weekend, losing 4-1 at Princeton Friday and 7-5 at Quinnipiac University the fol-lowing day. The twin losses put the Bears at 7-15-2 overall, 4-13-1 in the ECACHL, and they stand in 10th place overall. The losses came as a disappointment because the team had hoped to continue the success it enjoyed at the start of the season’s second half.

In Friday night’s game, Brown held the Tigers scoreless until the Tigers took advantage of a power-play opportunity to score the game’s fi rst goal. The Tigers’ Lizzy Keady found Dina McCum-ber to set up a one-timer at 14:50 of the fi rst period. Just 57 seconds later, Princeton struck again when Kim Pearce slammed home a re-bound to increase the lead to 2-0.

In the second period, Princ-eton continued to dominate, with goals by Alison Ralph at 7:50 and Stephanie Denino at 16:35 putting the Tigers ahead of the Bears 4-0.

Bruno fi nally got on the score-board when it took advantage of the power play at 11:51 of the third period. Sasha Van Muyen ’10 defl ected a pass from Co-captain Hayley Moore ’08 past the Princ-eton goaltender to cut the lead to 4-1 with just over eight minutes remaining in the game. Unfortu-nately, Brown couldn’t mount any more offense, and the game end-ed with the score still 4-1.

Brown Head Coach Digit Mur-phy cited the team’s failure to score with the player advantage as one reason for the loss. “We had power plays early and didn’t capi-talize,” she said. “Had we capital-ized, momentum would have been slung our way.”

In Saturday’s game at Quinnip-iac, the fi rst period ended with the score tied at two goals apiece, but the Bears came out fi ring in the second period. After winning the draw, Rylee Olewinski ’08 led an attack up the ice and Van Muyen found the net for the second con-secutive game to put the Bears ahead 3-2 just seven seconds into the period.

The game looked promising for Brown when Moore increased the lead to 4-2 at 10:22 in the sec-ond, but in the second half of the period Brown’s defense collapsed. Quinnipiac scored four times in a span of just over seven minutes to fi nish the second period lead-ing 6-4. Though Moore would fi nd the net once more in the third pe-

riod, it was too little, too late, and Bruno lost its second game of the weekend 7-5.

In both games, the Bears were hurt by allowing multiple goals in short spurts, placing them in dif-fi cult situations. In Friday night’s game, the Princeton team scored

SPORTS TUESDAYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2007 PAGE 12

Women’s hockey drops games to Tigers, BobcatsBY BENJAMIN ASHERCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Despite a valiant effort against Columbia on Saturday, Brown could not withstand the Lions’ at-tack, losing to Columbia 190-110. Brown had a diffi cult time fend-ing off the Lions, only winning two events on the day. The wins came in the three-meter dive and in the 400-yard relay.

Each event was close and the Smith Swim Center was teeming with whoops, whistles and ap-plause from avid Bears and Li-ons fans as the two went head-to-head. The 200-yard medley team comprised of Kathleyn Brand-stetter ’07, Emily Brush ’07, Aly Wyatt ’08 and Lauren Zatorski ’08 kicked things off by placing in second in the relay with a time

of 1:49.37, a mere second shy of the Lions.

Second-place fi nishes were a trend for Brown throughout the day. Becky Kowalsky ’07 placed second in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles, clocking in with times of 54.23 and 1:54.88, respectively. Brush had similar performances to Kowalsky in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke with times of 59.02 and 2:07.42 respectively. Wyatt placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.26, and Dana Meadow ’07 rounded out the second-place fi n-ishes for Bruno in the one-meter dive with a score of 245.02.

Despite defeat, the Bears still went out with a bang in the fi nal events. Amy Latinen ’07 won the

Lions tame Bears in w. swimming’s fi nal home meet of seasonCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The excitement and anticipation of Senior Day at the Smith Swim Center Saturday afternoon was not enough to help the men’s swimming and diving team pre-vail over Columbia, as the Bears fell to the visiting Lions 175-125. Brown could only muster four wins on the day, and Columbia completed a weekend sweep in the class of 2007’s last home meet before a packed house of alumni, family and fans.

“I feel that we competed rea-sonably well, but we didn’t do the little things,” said Head Coach Pe-ter Brown. “In this sport, races are won and lost by hundredths of seconds. When you don’t do the little things, you take yourself out of the position to win close rac-es.”

In the fi rst of many close races of the meet, Kevin Hug ’08, Mike O’Mara ’07, Daniel Ricketts ’09

and Brian Kelly ’08 bested the Li-ons by a mere 0.02 of a second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:33.94. time of 1:33.94. time of However the Li-ons dominated the rest of the meet, bouncing back to win the next six events, preserving a size-able lead for the rest of day.

Captain Peter Volosin ’08 placed second in the 1,000-yard free, clocking in at 9:41.13. Rick-etts was Brown’s top fi nisher in the 200-yard free, fi nishing sec-ond with a time of 1:42.46. Hug led the Bears in the 200-yard backstroke, placing second with a time of 52.71.

Volosin attributed the Bears’ shortcomings in the events to their inability to fi nish their rac-es.

“We came out strong in the be-ginning of a lot of our races,” he said, “But they just kept passing us in the end.”

M. swimming and diving fall to Columbia in last dual meet of season BY KAITLYN LABBSSPORTS STAFF WRITER

BY MEGAN DANSBY

W track shines at Geigengack Invitational

The women’s track and fi eld team did not need a team score to know it gave a strong performance at Yale’s Geigengack Invitational over the weekend. The Bears pulled off three fi rst-place fi nishes in the un-scored competition against Ivy League rivals Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, among other schools.

“We did really well,” said Direc-tor of Cross-Country and Track and Field Craig Lake. “We had a lot of really strong individual per-formances.”

Ariel Wright ’10 had Brown’s standout performance of the day, winning the 5,000-meter run by over a minute. Wright’s time of 16:59.74 earned her the fi fth slot on Brown’s top-10 list of indoor track performances.

“Ariel Wright ran really, really well,” Lake said. “She was run-ning this event for the fi rst time ever. She’ll be quite competitive in the Ivy League in the upcoming years.”

The Bears took home another victory when Emily Bourdeau ’10 placed fi rst in the 1,000-meter run, fi nishing in 2:57.25, nearly one second ahead of Harvard’s Kelsey Lebuffe. Meanwhile, Smita Gupta ’08 earned fourth place in the one-mile run with a time of 4:51.03, a personal record.

Brown’s top performance in the 3,000-meter run was an eighth-place fi nish by Brooke Giuffre ’10 in 10:04.19.

Kristen Olds ’09 dominated at the pole vault, jumping 11-09.75 to win the event. Keely Marsh ’08 and Tiffany Chang ’08 both jumped 11-

BY ERIN FRAUENHOFERASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Katherine Phillips / HeraldThe men’s swimming team could only muster three wins against Columbia. The Lions beat the Bears in its fi nal dual meet of the season, 175-125.

Ashley Hess / Herald File PhotoCo-captain Hayley Moore ’08 netted two more goals over the weekend for Brown. Her points streak is now at 11 games.

continued on page 9 continued on page 9

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tuesday, february 6, 2007

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