wednesday, october 17, 2012
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The October 17, 2012 issue of the Brown Daily HeraldTRANSCRIPT
wednesday, october 17, 2012dailythe Brown
since 1891vol. cxxii, no. 86herald
InsIde
Slam dunkStudent startup builds math literacy through basketball
Social scienceLecturer urges science and social science collaboration
Page 4
State debateCicilline and Doherty engage in second debate
Page 8
Page 2
65 / 55
tomorrow
62 / 46
today
By Katie LambContributing Writer
As the november election approaches, the University has increased efforts to ensure students understand the guide-lines for hosting political events and campaigning for candidates on campus.
As a nonprofit institution, the University must comply with Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal revenue Code, which states, “the University is pro-hibited from participating in political campaigns for candidates or ballot ini-tiatives and is restricted in conducting lobbying activities,” according to the Student Activities office guidelines available online.
Due to these restrictions, student groups specifically created to promote the election of a particular candidate
cannot receive any funding from the University, and the University cannot fund campaign-related activities by oth-er groups. Political fundraising events are also restricted in campus facilities.
“we want everyone in the commu-nity to benefit from being in this rich environment at an institution of higher education by hearing different voices on issues, but we also don’t want to go astray with the IrS,” said Amy Carroll, director of government relations and community affairs.
For this reason, the SAo reached out to students this semester to make sure their political activities fall within guidelines, said timothy Shiner, direc-tor of the Stephen robert ’62 Cam-pus Center and SAo. All community members were sent a brief overview of the guidelines through Morning
Mail, and the SAo sent a message to all politically-focused student orga-nizations through myGroups, he said. A member of the SAo also met with leaders from each group to clarify the guidelines, Shiner said.
The guidelines were last updated in 2010 and “apply to every day of every year,” Carroll said, but she added that they are especially pertinent in presi-dential election years.
Because student groups plan events in University spaces through the SAo, the activities office reaches out to any-one planning an event that might vio-late the guidelines, Shiner said.
terrence George ’13, president of the Brown republicans, said political student groups are most affected by the policy when they choose to bring in politicians as speakers.
“If we wanted to bring in a speaker to speak about his campaign we would need to bring in all the candidates for that position,” George said, adding that he felt the rule was reasonable. For this reason, political student groups gener-ally bring in speakers to talk about their experiences and not their campaigns, he said.
Sofia Fernandez Gold ’14, president of the Brown Democrats, said she felt adequately equipped to work within the guidelines.
“There are plenty of opportunities to hear from candidates in an electoral context off campus. It’s very open to you, it’s just not here on campus,” she said.
Student groups also make sure to go over the guidelines with their visiting speakers,
U. enforces campaigning regulations on campus
By mathias heLLerSenior Staff Writer
The Corporation’s adoption of for-mer president ruth Simmons’ athletic reform recommendations last year has led to positive changes for the University, said Director of Athletics Jack hayes at the monthly meeting of the Brown University Community Council tuesday. highlights from hayes’ first 138 days on the job and a proposal to extend the gender-neutral housing option to incoming first-years were discussed at the meeting.
hayes, who replaced Michael Goldberger as director of athletics June 1, highlighted the changes that emerged from Simmons’ recommen-dations, saying he believed the Uni-versity was a better school because of the changes initiated by the review. Those changes include a reduction of 20 admission spots per year for
recruited athletes, a process that will be phased in over the next three years, as well as increased University fund-ing for upgrading athletic facilities.
hayes described the athletic de-partment’s response to the changes mandated by the review, saying the department has worked with teams to examine the impact of practice and travel time on athletes’ academic lives and that he appreciated students’ en-gagement on the issue. he added that increasing student-athlete participa-tion in activities outside of sports was a department priority.
hayes said the teams that were under review and in danger of being cut last year understand what they need to do in terms of gaining enough funding for the resources they need. “That’s not a discussion I believe we’ll revisit,” he said. The Athletics review Committee recommended in 2011 to eliminate
bUcc discusses athletics, housing
By sam heft-LuthyContributing Writer
Fill in the blank: “Alternative medi-cine is now embracing the curative powers of ______.”
Giggling at the possibilities they hold in their hands, players pick their funni-est card and play it face down. the judge reveals the cards and reads the answers out loud.
“Alternative medicine is now em-bracing the curative powers of...”
“... drinking alone.”“... of eugenics.”“... of sweet, sweet vengeance.”the judge chooses his favorite
answer, and play continues to the right in a party card game that falls somewhere between a twisted version
of Mad Libs and the way Apples to Apples was always meant to be played.
So goes a round in Cards Against humanity, a game growing in popu-larity on campus among students with an “alternative” (read: not easily of-fended) sense of humor. In fact, it’s a game distinctly Brown since its origin three years ago — two of the game’s developers are alums.
Hyperthetical questions
Ben hantoot ’09 and eli halp-ern ’09 met during middle school in Illinois. they were both part of the self-described “nerd crust” of their class — a group of eight close friends who would eventually go on to form Cards Against humanity, LLC, hantoot said.
when the friends all went their separate ways
two alums develop risque card game
By PhOebe DraPerSenior Staff Writer
tedeschi Food Shops on Thayer Street will close oct. 23, according to a sign posted on its front door earlier this week.
“we have lost our lease,” reads the sign, which was posted Monday. em-ployees and the store’s district manager declined to comment further on the rea-sons for the shop’s closure or its future until they are granted permission from the tedeschi Food Shops corporation. The manager said she expects a response from the corporate office within a week.
The Thayer tedeschi outlet is part of a convenience store chain of about 200 stores founded in 1923, according to the company’s website.
tedeschi customers are now greet-ed with sparsely-stocked shelves and refrigerators, as the store has not re-stocked its merchandise in preparation for the closure.
tedeschi’s closing came as a shock to many students. “It’s just surprising,” said Zifan Yang ’14. “I never really went to (tedeschi), but it was always there.”
Caryn Cobb ’15 said tedeschi is “the closest thing we have to a grocery store,” and said she hopes another store opens up soon.
other students were unperturbed. “I’m moving on,” said tom March ’14.
radhika rajan ’15, a one-time tede-schi’s customer, said she was not disap-pointed about the closing — she had always found the store “a bit sketchy.”
But Alicia hersey ’15, who visited tedeschi’s “once a month” said she thought the closing was “a bummer for college students because it makes it seem okay for other places on Thayer to charge
tedeschi to close next week
/ / Cards page 2
Courtesy of Cardsagainsthumanity.Com
ben hantoot ’09 and eli halpern ’09 are co-developers of the game Cards against humanity, a politically incorrect social card game. / / tedeschi page 3
/ / buCC page 3
/ / Campaign page 4
feature
tom sullivan / herald
student organizations revised a proposal to allow gender-neutral housing for first-years. see Page 8.
feature2 the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
2 P.m.
Dalai Lama Lecture
Rhode Island Convention Center
6 P.m.
ArtShow!
Nightingale-Brown House
2:30 P.m.
Poet Erin Moure Reading
McCormack Family Theater
7 P.m.
Screening: The Lady
List Art 120
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
LuNCh
DiNNer
Orange Teriyaki Salmon, Stir Fry Tofu Lo Mein, Bamboo Rice, Yellow Cake with Frosting
Chopped Sirloin with Mushroom Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Caesar Salad, Yellow Cake with Frosting
Popcorn Chicken with Dipping Sauces, Celery Sticks with Ranch, Sweet Potato Fries, Oreo Fudge Bar
Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, Vegetarian Spinach Strudel, Italian Marinated Chicken, Oreo Fudge Bar
TODAY OCTObER 17 TOmORROW OCTObER 18
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
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for college — hantoot and halpern heading off to Brown — they reunited every December to host a new Year’s party for their friends.
“It would get bigger and bigger every year,” halpern said. “we started having to come up with structured activities to play at these things.”
For new Years ’08, the friends developed “hyperthetical,” an early prototype of what would end up be-coming Cards Against humanity.
“there would be a bunch of crazy questions and people would write in answers,” hantoot said. “It was awkward to play, so the next year, we standardized it. All the questions and answers were pre-written. we pushed it much more towards the no-holds-barred offensive angle.”
the game was a hit, and over the next spring break and summer recesses, the friends met to refine and test-play the cards they had writ-ten and to design mock up cards for printing.
In their senior year at Brown, halpern and hantoot played early
versions of the game with classmates to get a sense of what worked and what didn’t, hantoot said.
“we had complete printed play decks that eli and I used to play in our house,” hantoot said. “At the begin-ning of the game it was full of duds. It was very useful to play with people at Brown and whittle it down.”
“By the end of 2010, we realized that it was something that other peo-ple might want to play,” hantoot said.
the group launched cardsagainst-humanity.com, a website that allows users to print the game free of charge. At the time, it also featured an online pre-order form for the printed ver-sion of the game, which eventually attracted over 1,600 requests.
the newly created Cards Against humanity LLC launched a campaign on Kickstarter — a site where us-ers pledge money to fund creative startups — offering a professionally printed copy of the game in exchange for a pledge of $15. the initial plan was to print 750 copies of the game on relatively inexpensive business cards, but the campaign took off, eventu-ally surpassing the goal of $4,000 in a week.
“At that point we knew we had
to up the production values of it,” hantoot said.
hantoot, who handles the game’s graphic design and manufacturing, worked out a deal with a Chinese printing company to print 2,000 decks of the game on glossy card stock. the extra decks were then sold on Ama-zon through an independent seller.
“we used all that money to manufacture more decks, so on and so forth,” hantoot said. though he declined to discuss exact produc-tion numbers, hantoot said that the company now produces a “sizeable volume” of card decks.
’Custom cards’
From its inception, Cards Against humanity has had an unconventional business model: the full set of cards is posted on the website as a freely available PDF file. Anyone can take the file to a Kinko’s and have their own copy of Cards Against humanity for around $6.
“It’s the best advertising we have,” hantoot said. “we’re pretty convinced that the freebie has done nothing for us except for balloon sales. once
people become familiar with the game they think, ‘hey this is great, I want to have the professional printed ver-sion.’”
the content of the cards is also licensed through Creative Commons, which means “you can use and remix the game for free, but you can’t sell it,” according to the website.
Current student David Braun ’14, who went to the same Illinois high school as the game’s creators, has used that open-source licensing to create a free iPad app called “redacted” that works with the same rules as Cards Against humanity.
“I started doing ioS developing in Fall 2011” for Apple mobile products, Braun said. “I was thinking of what projects to work on, and I thought of Cards Against humanity.”
“redacted” supports up to 10 play-ers, all sharing a single iPad that is passed from person to person as the turn continues. the game comes with a set of cards that Braun wrote him-self, though users can click one button to download the entire set of Cards Against humanity cards and can add as many custom cards as they wish.
Braun said the itunes store allows him to track usage of his app, which is
currently sitting at about 800 players from around the world.
“I can see people are creating cus-tom cards,” he said. “It’s also good to see that people know how to down-load the original Cards Against hu-manity cards.”
“he told me about it at the begin-ning of year, and I was interested to see what it was,” said woody rosen-berg ’13, a friend of Braun’s who re-cently played the game for the first time.
the cards Braun wrote are a bit more academically dense than the original set, including references to Kafka, Shakespeare and current Chi-nese President hu Jintao.
“It could improve my vocabulary, but maybe not in any meaningful aca-demic way,” rosenberg said. “It’s very Brown.”
Success at brown
with its rejection of political cor-rectness, Cards Against humanity tends to be quite popular on college campuses — and Brown is no ex-ception.
“It’s a kind of humor that only col-lege students would appreciate,” said rachel Schwartz ’13. “I recommended it to my sister who’s a freshman at northwestern, and all of her friends love it.”
Students said they enjoy the absurd, sometimes offensive atmo-sphere that Cards Against humanity fosters and the way the game can act as an icebreaker.
“It’s a great game if you have a large enough group of friends or when you have a new group,” said D.J. hoffman ’15, who is an “avid card game fan.” “For example, the first thing all the new tech housies did (when they met) was play Cards Against humanity.”
“I think we could do with a bit more laughter when it comes to con-troversial issues,” rosenberg said.
though he declined to discuss specifics for the company’s future plans, hantoot said that Cards Against humanity is currently work-ing on “something fun planned for the holidays” that will be announced over the next few weeks and added that halpern has some other up-coming projects on his plate for the company.
“I like to think that Brown played somewhat of a role in allowing this to happen because basically we’re not operating a business in a traditional way at all,” halpern said. “we don’t have a publisher. we don’t have a distributor. we sell exclusively on Amazon. we have the free PDF.”
“eli and I are only a quarter of the business,” hantoot added, “but I think we comprise a good deal of the decisions that get made. And I don’t think we would have been willing to pursue such an original — some would say risky — route had we not gone to a school that encourages such free thinking.”
/ / Cards page 1
“It’s a kind of humor that only college students would appreciate.”
rachel schwartz ‘13
thanks for
reading!
campus news 3the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
four varsity teams — the men’s and women’s fencing teams, the ski team and the wrestling team. The proposal sparked public backlash from alums, coaches and members of the teams. Simmons subsequently recommended keeping the teams, and the Corpora-tion adopted her recommendation last october.
hayes also addressed the 9 per-cent reduction in admission spots for recruited athletes in each incoming class, saying coaches understand the change and are prepared to operate their recruiting processes based on the reduction. he added that it was still too early in the admission pro-cess to assess the exact impact of the reduction this year.
“while the recruiting activities for coaches are nonstop … the interac-tion with the Admission office on how that is done is really just starting now,” hayes said, referring to this year’s admission cycle for recruits. “Long-term, I don’t think there’ll be a significant effect.”
hayes commented on the impact of new athletic facilities on the cam-pus community, praising the new fitness center’s ability to draw more people to the area of campus where most athletic programs operate. “The new fitness center has been so helpful for our athletic program and bring-ing our program physically more in line with the campus community,” hayes said.
responding to a question from David Sherry, chief information se-curity officer, on the impact of the cheating scandal at harvard involv-ing student-athletes, hayes said he has brought up the issue of academic integrity with the student advisory committee. he also encouraged stu-dents to join the discussion about how to prevent situations like the one that occurred at harvard from happening here. “often, student-to-student discussions are probably just as effective in stopping this sort of situation,” he said.
The BUCC then heard about the proposal to extend gender neutral housing as an option to incoming first-years from Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn, Director of resi-dential experience natalie Basil and former co-president of the student group Gender Action Maddy Jen-newein ’14.
The University revised its resi-dential rules in 2008 to allow soph-omores, juniors and seniors to live with students of the opposite gender. But current policy does not provide this option to incoming first-years, who are assigned a roommate based
on their legal sex. This policy cre-ates problems for students who are transgender or are questioning their gender identity, Basil said.
“what happens is that students who do not identify within that gen-der binary must seek accommoda-tions outside of the standard process,” said Basil, adding that the Univer-sity did not face problems with the implementation of a gender-neutral housing option for upperclassmen four years ago.
Last year, Gender Action, a sub-group of the Queer Alliance, initi-ated a petition campaign to provide first-years the same gender-neutral housing option as upperclassmen. In a fall 2011 poll conducted by the Un-dergraduate Council of Students, 79.6 percent of undergraduates indicated support for extending the option to incoming first-years, Jennewein said.
“we had a very broad base of sup-port across campus for this proposal,” Jennewein said.
eric Suuberg, professor of engi-neering and a BUCC member, ex-pressed reservations about the pro-
posed change, saying he was unsure of how the option would be imple-mented. he compared giving students the choice of whether they would be comfortable living with someone of the opposite sex to having to decide whether to join a fraternity during the first week of college, a situation he said he faced as a first-year at the Mas-sachusetts Institute of technology.
“It just strikes me as an awful lot of pressure put on the student at a vulnerable time,” Suuberg said.
Klawunn responded to Suuberg’s question by saying extending the gender-neutral housing option would not be a major leap from the existing form. “Students said ‘we want an op-portunity to feel safe in our rooms,’” said Klawunn, adding that she has dealt with cases where students have expressed discomfort because they had to live with someone of the same gender.
“This is a values issue,” Klawunn said. “It’s important for our commu-nity to be informed and supportive.”
The housing proposal has received feedback from the residential Coun-cil, the Campus Life Advisory Board, the Diversity Advisory Board and the Campus Life Corporation Committee, Basil said.
Basil added she did not believe a significant number of first-years would take advantage of the option if they were given the chance.
“I think we’ll see an increase, but I don’t think in this first year that we’ll see more than five to 10. But I could be wrong,” Basil said. “what I know about Brown students is that we love options.”
/ / buCC page 1
“It just strikes me as an awful lot of pressure put on the student at a vulnerable time.”
eric suubergProfessor of Engineering
outrageous prices.”The closing of tedeschi will “in-
crease traffic” at Metro-Mart, another convenience store located on Thayer,
said Amar Thapa, a Metro-Mart em-ployee.
“If sales increase, then it’s better for us,” Thapa said.
tedeschi is the larger of the two con-venience stores, but Metro-Mart tries
to keep its primarily student customer base supplied with “all the necessary items,” Thapa said.
“tedeschi’s has always been straight-forward, like a convenience store should be,” hersey said.
/ / tedeschi page 1
MassChallenge helps startup com-panies get off the ground through its competition and an accelerator program. Since MassChallenge was created three years ago, companies it has supported have raised more than $240 million in outside capital. one company, Alkeus Pharmaceuticals, a medicinal drug endeavor, is working on developing a drug targeting de-generative blindness in children and young adults. MassChallenge has even seen a company that has created a por-table solution for toilets.
“one of the great things about MassChallenge is the diversity of ideas we get as well as the diversity of problems we encounter,” nigam said, adding that MassChallenge looks for high-growth companies, as well as passionate people who are looking to positively affect the world.
entrepreneurship at brownwhile he was a first-year, Fuller’s
drive and ambition was just as appar-ent as it is today. Fuller took enGn 1930Q: “Social entrepreneurship,” a class taken mainly by juniors and
seniors.“his teammates were very glad
to have him on board,” said harlam, who taught the class. But perhaps what separates Fuller from other success-ful entrepreneurs, harlam said, is his humility. “Khalil’s driven,” harlam said. “when he sets a goal, he’s about as driven towards the goal as anyone I’ve ever met.”
Fuller received an echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellowship this past year, becoming the youngest echoing Green Fellow in the program’s 25-year history.
Fuller said he appreciates the free-dom the open curriculum at Brown has afforded him. “I can piece together education classes with policy classes with entrepreneurial classes. I can re-ally bring everything together to create a curriculum that is closely related to my exact specific and detailed inter-ests,” Fuller said.
The entrepreneurial scene on cam-pus is incredibly active and vibrant, harlam said.
Daugherty said he has worked with approximately 10 Brown entrepre-neurial students over the past 5 years through Big Picture Learning and has
witnessed much success. when Daugherty heard that Fuller
was planning to take a year off from school to fully devote his efforts to nBA Math hoops, he was initially concerned with whether or not this was the best choice for Fuller. But Daugherty’s preliminary skepticism quickly abated due to the support Brown provides.
Students like Fuller interested in jumpstarting an idea should “create a constellation of expertise for all as-pects of the program you’re designing,” harlam said.
Fuller said he hopes to see nBA Math hoops thrive and continue to have a positive impact for years to come.
“Success for me would look like this: I want a teacher to be able to walk into their classroom and say, ‘Listen up kids, if you don’t behave today, we won’t get to play nBA Math hoops,’” Fuller said. Fuller said he strongly believes in the power of sports to im-prove education and envisions trans-lating this into a national initiative in tandem with other professional sports.
“Seeing kids smiling in their math class is the best,” Fuller said.
sam Kase / herald
tedeschi food shops on thayer street announced it will close Oct. 23 due to a loss of lease. the convenience store has stopped stocking items to prepare for the closing.
/ / hoops page 8
www.browndailyherald.com
campus news4 the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
r.i. to sell medical marijuanathree dispensaries in rhode island could begin selling
marijuana to medical patients with prescriptions and registration cards as soon as January 2013.
thomas C. slater Compassion Center in Providence, summit medical Compassion Center in Warwick and greenleaf Compassionate Care in Portsmouth will soon be able to submit “registration to operate applications” to the rhode island health department, following the completion of the final stage of revisions to the regulations on compassionate care centers, the Providence Journal reported.
though the first medical marijuana legalization bill was passed in the general assembly more than six years ago and enacted in 2009, gov. lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 only signed the legislation approving the development of compassion centers last may.
last year, Chafee was one of the first governors to openly challenge the drug enforcement administration’s classification of marijuana as a schedule i controlled substance. federal regulations define the drug as a substance “with high potential for abuse,” and rhode island law will not exclude the compassion centers from federal raids or penalties.
But the most recent revisions to state law will restrict the dispensaries from maintaining a stock of more than 1,500 ounces and 99 mature plants.
representatives from greenleaf and slater told the Journal they expect to serve about 5,000 patients once their applications are approved by the health department.
— Sona Mkrttchian
n e W s i n B r i e f
Lawsuit filed against yale for alleged title iX noncompliance
yale’s former security education coordinator susan Burhans filed a lawsuit against the university friday afternoon, alleging her attempts to ensure title iX compliance resulted in unfair dismissal, the yale daily news reported.
the suit, which follows a string of alleged title iX violations at yale, claims that Burhans found the university was underreporting cases of sexual misconduct and that campus policies were encouraging a hostile sexual atmosphere. according to the complaint, Burhans lost job responsibilities after notifying superiors of these issues, and her position was terminated in march. though she was rehired in an unrelated capacity, her current employment expires in november.
Burhans is suing for at least $10 million, according to the complaint.
university of Cambridge sells its first bonds
the university of Cambridge sold its first bonds to outside investors Wednesday in a bid to fund research and improve teaching and facilities. Cambridge is the second British university in three months to sell its issue.
the sale drew four times as many investors as bonds available, and observers anticipate the move may encourage other u.K. universities to follow suit, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
Cambridge, which sold 350 million pounds — about $560 million in u.s. currency — worth of 40-year bonds, plans to use the funding for long-term projects, according to the Wall street Journal.
Connecticut higher ed president resigns after controversy
robert Kennedy, president of Connecticut’s higher education system, resigned friday after his approval of a controversial series of staff salary increases was revealed last week, the Chronicle of higher education reported.
the pay increases, which were given to 22 staff members and collectively totaled over $260,000, drew controversy for being approved without the knowledge of the governing board. Kennedy’s departure also followed allegations from two of the state’s community college presidents that the Kennedy administration pressured them to accept buyouts or be dismissed from their posts, according to the Chronicle.
the Board of regents for higher education has convened a review committee to investigate the salary increases. Kennedy, who took control of the state higher education system last year, suspended the raises before his departure.
By e l i z a B e t h Ko hs e n i o r s ta f f W r i t e r
h i g h e r e d n e W s r o u n d u P
Fernandez Gold said. In the past, the Brown Democrats have brought both rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-r.I., and Sen. Sheldon whitehouse, D-r.I., to speak. “with both of them we’ve done a pretty rigorous process to make sure they know the rules,” she said.
“If someone steps over the line, we do have to intervene,” she said. “obvi-ously that’s tricky because these can-didates are active in campaigning, but we’ve really done our best.”
There have been no issues with en-forcement of the guidelines this year, Carroll said, adding that she has never seen a group violate the guidelines in her two years at the University.
/ / Campaign page 1
Corinne szCzesny / herald
the brown Democrats briefed sen. sheldon Whitehouse on the university’s political campaigning policies before he spoke at an on campus event.
feature 5the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
Cashew apples | Will ruehle
Co m i C
By JasmiNe baLaContributing Writer
At the age of 28, Barkha Dutt found herself dodging bullets while reporting on the 1999 India-Pakistan war. Since September, she has been at Brown as the first recipient of the Meera and Vi-kram Gandhi Fellowship, which brings important journalists and public figures to campus through the Brown-India initiative.
“Barkha is a household name in In-dia,” said Professor of Political Science Ashutosh Varshney, director of the ini-tiative, adding that he hopes the Brown community can benefit from learning about the experiences of the fellows.
Dutt will add to the discussion during public events and educate the Brown student body on some of her work. “She has a very vibrant presence at Brown,” Varshney said .
Dutt will dedicate the majority of her time to writing and gathering material for her upcoming book, “The Unquiet Land: exploring India’s Fault Lines.” Dutt believes that India, the world’s biggest democracy, isn’t infal-lible. In her book, Dutt will analyze delicate regions within India that have the potential to push the country into more conflict.
encapsulating Dutt’s personal expe-riences as a reporter, the book will cover issues ranging from secularism to urban rage. It will also incorporate several of her personal beliefs and philosophies about Indian politics into her narrative.
on the frontlineDutt, who grew up in new Delhi,
attributes her journalistic abilities to her mother, Prabha Dutt, who was a well-known journalist with the hin-dustan times and a pioneering figure for Indian women in journalism. Dutt started her career with nDtV, a leading Indian news Channel, and later rose to the head of the english new wing.
Danger has been a constant threat in Dutt’s career. when the tsunami struck in 2004, she was reporting from South India and swam to a blocked coastal entrance with a cameraman and cap-tured the destructive influence of the tide. Determined to reach out to the masses, in particular the elite of In-dia who were away on vacation at that time, Dutt wanted to find ways to make people care, she said. Making sense of conflict has always driven Dutt as a journalist, she said. For her coverage of the tsunami, Dutt won the Padma Shri, the most prestigious state honor given by the Indian government.
“For about a decade I covered trag-edy and war,” she said. Dutt entered the battlefield because she wanted to cap-ture the humanitarian side of war, one that brought to life the stories of young men who were about to walk to their deaths. Dutt does not believe that death is something that should be glossed over by the glory of the battlefield. “I believe that valor and vulnerability co-exist,” she said.
when she was assigned to cover the India-Pakistan war in 1999, beyond the immediate threat of possibly be-ing killed in the war, she first had to convince the Indian army that “it was okay for a woman” to be present on a battlefield. Dutt recalled a moment during the war, when her male col-
leagues couldn’t hold back their tears after the soldiers entered the battle-field. “I decided not to cry,” Dutt said, because she wanted to remain strong in the face of conflict. Dutt’s reportage from the battlefield paved the way for other female journalists in India to do the same.
“You are always scrutinized for your gender,” Dutt said, but “if you’re good at what you do, it really doesn’t matter.”
The no-cellphone, no-telephone policy in Kashmir at the time made it difficult to report in India. Commu-nication systems were poor, and there was no wireless internet. “occasionally we would ask pilots who carried the body bags back to India if they could carry home a tape with the recording,” Dutt said.
Dutt, a columnist at the hindustan times, a daily newspaper in India, has also met figures of international ac-claim such as oprah winfrey and the Dalai Lama.
She started “we the People,” cur-rently India’s longest running television show, in an attempt to ignite a spirit of inquiry among Indians. named af-ter the first three words of the Indian Constitution, “we the People” brings together an audience of a 100 people who engage in a conversation with the guest speaker.
“The top Guns of India are still stuck in the formal protocol,” Dutt said. “They need to know that it is okay for them to come out and talk to journalists.”
kashmir to ProvidenceAt Brown, Dutt is working with
student research assistants, who will help her collect materials for her book. They are looking into literature about the India-Pakistan war by academics, the U.S. government and Indian and Pakistani politicians.
Arshiya Mittal ’15, one of Dutt’s research assistants, said Dutt is “able to articulate the complex workings of the Indian polity in a manner that is both understandable and engaging for anyone.” Mittal in fact appeared on Dutt’s talk show four years ago, af-ter bomb blasts rocked Mumbai, India nov. 26, 2008.
Brown has provided a significant change of scene for Dutt, who says she’s “absolutely mesmerized by the fall in Providence.” Like some authors who escape to the countryside to write, Dutt too views her sabbatical at Brown as a healthy break from the din of Delhi.
Dutt said she spends a great deal of time observing the leaves change color from the slanting windows of the wat-son Institute for International Studies and meeting some “really bright minds” while strolling around campus.
Dutt will be giving a lecture in Barus and holley 166 Friday, during which she will read an excerpt from her book and reveal two or three of the “fault lines” that she has written about.
“This is the first time the content that lies between the covers of my book is going to be shared with an audience,” Dutt said, adding that Brown students are some of the most intellectually-driven she has ever met. “The event will be a test as to whether I’m communicat-ing effectively through this book. If it doesn’t strike the right chord, I know I’m doing something wrong.”
Indian reporter goes from front lines to U. fellowship By Kate NusseNbaum
Senior Staff Writer
The country’s lack of interdisciplin-ary infrastructure prevents scientists from effectively communicating their work, a job made urgent by the grow-ing ethical, legal and social impli-cations of emerg-ing developments in science, said Dietrem Scheufele, chair of science communication at the University of wisconsin-Madison, at a lecture Monday night. Scheufele’s talk, held at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, was the second in an ongoing series of science com-munication lectures organized by the Science Center.
Social science research should be better used to prevent science from getting “out-communicated,” Scheufele said. research in fields like sociology and psychology can help the scientific community identify barriers to com-munication and ways of breaking them down, he said.
For example, some people cite a lack of trust in scientists as an impedi-ment to broad acceptance of scientific ideas, but surveys show that citizens place significantly more trust in uni-versity scientists than in either the me-dia or religious leaders, Scheufele said.
The bigger problem is that mem-bers of the scientific community fail to use empirical data from social science to frame their work in the right ways — a crucial task given that everyone takes “cognitive shortcuts” to under-stand ideas, he said.
Scheufele used the Scopes trial as
an example. In the heat of the con-troversy over teaching evolution, proponents of intelligent design at the Discovery Institute hired social scientists to figure out how to frame their arguments in ways that would appeal to “key values that we all buy into,” Scheufele said. Such research en-abled them to come up with powerful slogans like “teach the Controversy” and “It’s Just a Theory.”
“we need to, as academics, think about ways to connect with people on particular issues,” Scheufele told The herald, adding that the “triggers” that make people care about scientific concepts differ — the way to frame stem cell research effectively is not the same as the way to frame nanotechnol-ogy effectively. Additionally, scientists need to take into account the social context of their work, he said.
Surveys to figure out where the public stands will help scientists learn how to present and discuss different issues, Scheufele said. Scientists must also find ways to reach the large por-tion of society that does not follow sci-entific news. Another dramatic event like Sputnik’s launch could spur public interest, he said, but in its absence, more scientists should use social me-dia to spread their ideas.
Scheufele acknowledged that in collaborating with social scientists to learn how to better publicize their work, scientists run the risk of losing some of their objectivity and sacrific-ing some of the trust the public has placed in them. “But in many ways, if we look at the big scientists of our time ... these people have always thought beyond their disciplines,” he told The herald. “einstein has written countless
letters to children to talk about what’s important to science.”
“In modern political environments, communication is not a luxury. It’s an absolute necessity,” Scheufele told The herald.
“If there’s a vacuum, people will fill that with seemingly scientific infor-mation,” and often that information won’t be true, said David targan ’78, associate dean of the college for sci-ence education.
william Maulbetsch, a biophysics PhD student, said though the lecture gave him a good sense of the problems facing scientific communication, he was left unsure about their solutions.
“I think it’s good to focus on the framing. I think that’s something that’s wholly lost on scientists generally — the whole mentality of scientists is to be without a frame, generally,” he said.
“It was kind of interesting because I don’t think any of us who goes to work every day as a scientist thinks, ‘oh, maybe I should go out of my way to publicize something or commu-nicate this or what’s a good way to communicate this effectively?’” said Kyle helson, a cosmology PhD student who attended the talk.
though not to the extent that Scheufele emphasized, some level of infrastructure to promote interdisci-plinary collaboration already exists at Brown, targan said.
Unlike schools like Cornell that have separate schools for different dis-ciplines, Brown’s single faculty body enables people to collaborate more easily, he said. For example, 50 percent of science students take at least four social science courses, targan wrote in an email to The herald.
talk pinpoints science communication barriers
science & research
editorial6 the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
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e d i to r i a l C a r to o n b y j a c q u e l i n e f e i l e r
“i think we could do with a bit more laughter when it
comes to controversial issues.”— Woody rosenberg ’13
See cards on page 2.
e d i to r i a l
on oct. 12, two men — one wielding a knife — attacked a student walking near the intersection of Brown and waterman streets. Though the perpe-trators were arrested and charged with felony assault, the victim sustained injuries, and there was no obvious motive for the crime. having an attack so close to home has struck an uneasy chord within the Brown community. This attack should serve to remind us that despite many improvements in campus security, instances of violence are often entirely unpredictable, and being aware of ourselves and our surroundings is essential.
This assault is the most serious incident in a recent spate of crime occur-ring in and around the Brown campus. Cell phone theft in particular has seen a recent rise in occurrences — last month, there were four cell phone robbery incidents, all on streets close to the Main Green. The Department of Public Safety has been increasing its presence on campus over the last few years, both physically and virtually. DPS officials send emails to the student body regarding safety tips and offers defense courses and personal alarms to students. But it is also important to remember that making personal ad-justments to reduce the opportunity for assailants to target you is perhaps the most important part of maintaining your safety. In light of this, we are concerned about the recent crimes on or near campus and urge all students to take precautions for their own safety.
DPS maintains a strong presence on campus and is quick to respond to emergency calls. Both the assault last week and cell phone thefts in november have been followed through with arrests and charges of suspects, for which we commend the officers and their hard work.
At the same time, violent incidents keep occurring, and the most effec-tive way to lower the rates of successful crime around campus is to engage in risk awareness to reduce the probability of being the victim of a crime.
one of the problems seems to be the culture of texting. we’re all guilty of being absorbed in our digital world, but the plain fact is that focusing on your phone reduces your awareness of your surroundings. when you’re on your own late at night, this makes you a much easier target for those look-ing to commit assault or theft. try not to travel through unlit areas or take the detour you know is down an alley. Keep a sense of where the blue DPS phones are on campus. These are all safety measures that we know at least peripherally — but knowing something and acting on it have always been two separate things.
resources include Safewalk, available Sunday to Thursday from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. for all students, and SaferIDe, which operates from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. every day. This is especially important for students who live off-campus, as well as anyone traveling along side streets late at night. SaferIDe can be called from anywhere and will travel to off-campus housing to escort students safely. Furthermore, Personal Safety Alarms are available to any student who requests one from a Public Safety location, and the Brown Guardian Service, for which students can register online, serves as a “speed-dial option” to DPS in case of emergencies. It is true that this is all information that can be found on the Brown website (and we know it’s been in the back of your brain since you learned it at orientation). But these resources, fantastic as they are, are used less than they should be. The blue light phones are the main reason the recent assailants were caught. This is a trend we hope to see continue, but that is up to you as students.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to [email protected].
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Clay aldernJenny Carr
Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief
An article in tuesday’s herald (“MakerBot printer transforms 2-D images into plastic models,” oct. 16, 2012) incorrectly stated that AS220 Labs Manager James rutter bought the MakerBot printer for $2,000. In fact, MakerBot donated the 3D Printer. The herald regrets the error.
Co r r e C t i o n
opinions 7the Brown DAILY herALDweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
nine years ago, Supreme Court Justice San-dra Day o’Connor penned a 5-4 majority opinion in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger that upheld the affirmative action admissions pol-icy of the University of Michigan Law School. In that opinion, the Court ruled that a race-based criterion for university admission “may favor underrepresented minority groups,” but that also considers other factors on an indi-vidual basis does not amount to a “quota sys-tem” deemed unconstitutional by the Court’s previous holding in regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Last week, the Court revisited the issue when it heard oral argu-ments in the case of Fisher v. University of texas.
Abigail Fisher, a white woman rejected by the University of texas, alleges that the school violated her constitutional rights by hold-ing her race against her to boost the school’s black and hispanic enrollment. The Supreme Court should seize the opportunity to over-turn its previous mistake in Grutter and re-affirm the promise of equality granted un-der the equal Protection Clause of the Four-teenth Amendment.
The equal Protection Clause provides that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In Grutter, the court noted that college racial
classifications for the purposes of admission are constitutional only if they are narrowly tailored to “further compelling governmen-tal interests.” Proponents of racial prefer-ences in university admissions find such in-terests necessary to create a diverse student body and reap the educational benefits of in-teractions between students of diverse back-grounds. Amicus curiae briefs in the Grut-ter case claimed that such benefits included, but were not limited to, “cross-racial under-standing and diminished racial stereotypes.”
If a student comes from an underrepresented minority, the logic goes, that individual be-comes more suited to enhance the education-al experiences of other students.
But to take the leap of allowing race-based discrimination, we ought to be absolutely certain that such benefits are enough to con-stitute a suitably compelling state interest and that the diversity universities seek cannot be achieved via other means. By claiming that “diversity” and “educational benefits” serve as the compelling state interest that warrants discrimination, the Supreme Court blurs the line between the means and the end.
As a matter of policy, one can quickly think of other ways public universities could achieve the same outcomes. Perhaps instead, universities could discriminate on the basis
of class or family income to obtain rough-ly the same result in the make-up of its stu-dent body. This would skirt the equal Protec-tion issue and allow universities to maintain its commitment to reaping the educational benefits of diversity. The existence of this op-tion casts doubt on the conclusion that racial preferences are necessary to reach the desired outcome.
even ignoring the existence of alterna-tive means, the strict scrutiny to which race-based classifications are based still ought to
require a more stringent interest requirement than is currently met by the “educational ben-efits” that arise from a diverse student body. to discriminate on the basis of race, gender or any other immutable characteristic in a way that would decisively deny students like Abigail Fisher admission to public universi-ties, the state ought to be forced to show that such discrimination is essential. The fact that automatic acceptance policies, such as the University of texas’ top ten percent rule, al-ready serve to admit a number of black and hispanic students from majority-minori-ty schools who add a great deal of diversity to student bodies suggests that the marginal benefits being reaped through affirmative ac-tion fall short.
Lastly, the racial equality claim that has
long undergirded the more technical consti-tutional debate regarding affirmative action is worth addressing. one hundred and for-ty years ago, Frederick Douglass delivered a message to a group of abolitionists: “what I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The Ameri-can people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us. ... Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.”
Just as Douglass suggested in the 1860s, I believe that persons of every race, gender and creed are more than able to succeed on their own merits without any sort of prefer-ence that provides a corrective boost to their standardized test scores or other admissions criteria at the expense of others. Chief Jus-tice John roberts once remarked, “The only way to end racial discrimination is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” If true equality is what we seek, then surely affirma-tive action is out of step with our goal.
In keeping with the ideals of equality and opportunity that are written into the Consti-tution and Declaration of Independence, the Supreme Court should rule in favor of Abi-gail Fisher and end racial discrimination in our public universities that currently disad-vantages certain students by revoking their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
heath mayo ’13, from Whitehouse, tX, is a political science and economics
concentrator pursuing a master’s degree in history. he can be reached at
negating affirmative action
The streets of Jakarta roared oct. 3 when two million workers in factories throughout Indonesia went on strike. They are calling for an end to labor practices that have led to a severe lack of job security and lower wages as workers become increasingly temporary, expendable and exploitable to companies. Among those two million were garment workers from Pt Kizone factory, where a particularly egregious abuse of workers’ rights at the hands of collegiate apparel gi-ant Adidas has been igniting international outrage.
The factory was shut down in April 2011, leaving 2,800 garment workers in an ongoing struggle for $1.8 million in sever-ance money from Adidas. This is money that workers have earned and are owed un-der Indonesian law, and it amounts to half a year’s worth of wages. when the factory shut down, both Dallas Cowboys Merchandising and nike, which had been licensing colle-giate apparel at the factory, paid severance to workers. But Adidas, which was also li-censing collegiate apparel, has continuously refused to pay the remaining $1.8 million in legally-owed severance. This refusal has in-flicted continued hardship on workers. It is also a violation of terms written into univer-sities’ contracts with Adidas.
Considering that Adidas sponsors all of Brown’s varsity sports teams, it is likely that
Pt Kizone workers have sewn Brown logos. These workers are part of our community, so we should stand with them as they fight Adidas’ wage theft. In fact, Brown’s contract with Adidas implicates the University in their abuse, so Brown is obligated to act to end it. Therefore, the Student Labor Alliance is calling on Brown to cut its contract with Adidas if the company refuses to correct its violations and pay workers the $1.8 million in earned and legally-owed severance.
Severance pay is particularly important for workers in Indonesia, where there are no social safety net mechanisms like un-employment insurance on which the un-
employed and their families can rely. Their 60-cent hourly wage certainly does not al-low Pt Kizone workers to accumulate a suf-ficient savings cushion, either. So Adidas’ refusal to pay the remaining severance is a particularly deplorable abuse of workers’ rights, one that exerts itself painfully in the lives of workers every day.
Marlina, a widowed mother of two, had been working at Pt Kizone for 11 years when it shut down. By May 2012, over a year after the factory’s closure, she was fi-nally able to get a three-month contract at another apparel factory, but she still strug-
gles to find money for basic necessities, “The most important thing is to be able to have rice. Maybe we add some chili pepper, some salt, if we can.” Meanwhile, Adidas posted record profits the year that the factory shut down. The $1.8 million in severance is just 0.002 percent of the company’s net profits for 2011. Clearly, Adidas could easily choose to respect workers like Marlina, whose labor helped make these profits possible. Adidas could easily choose to comply with Indone-sian law.
Instead, Adidas has chosen to respond to the growing international pressure by offer-ing workers food vouchers worth two-weeks
worth of wages. This is insulting. workers are not asking for humanitarian aid. They are asking Adidas to pay them the money that they have earned and are legally owed. workers have refused these food vouchers in videos available on Youtube.
Brown would not be alone if it chose to act against Adidas. Students across the na-tion and around the globe are standing with Pt Kizone workers as they demand the $1.8 million they have earned. In early Septem-ber, students in oregon delivered 40,000 sig-natures to the Adidas headquarters in a pe-tition calling on Adidas to pay the workers.
In the past month, both Cornell and oberlin College have cut their contracts with Adidas in response to the brand’s refus-al to pay severance. This strategy where uni-versities cut their contracts with delinquent brands is not new.
when russell Athletic closed a factory in honduras after workers began to union-ize, more than 100 universities severed their contracts with russell, costing the corpo-ration $50 million. russell then reopened the garment factory as a unionized factory, rehiring 1,200 employees and paying mil-lions of dollars to workers in damages. Per-haps most significantly, they committed to respect union neutrality at all russell facto-ries in honduras. Knowing that its actions carry significant weight, Brown should fol-low Cornell and oberlin and cut its contract with Adidas.
SLA has been actively working with the administration to make it known to Adidas that the Brown community does not take Adidas’s abuses at Pt Kizone lightly. Adi-das has violated the terms of our contract, shamelessly trampling on the rights of the people who stitch together the apparel we wear to show our pride. Therefore, it is nec-essary for Brown to cut its contract with Adidas if the company does not correct its violations and pay workers what they have earned. now is the time for Brown to stand unequivocally with the workers in our glob-al community for justice.
stoni tomson ’15 is a member of the student labor alliance and can be
reached at [email protected].
terminate adidas contract now
now is the time for Brown to stand unequivocally with the workers in our global community for justice.
the supreme Court should rule in favor of abigail fisher and end racial discrimination in our public universities
that currently disadvantage certain students by revoking their rights under the fourteenth amendment.
By stoni tomsonGuest Columnist
heath mayoopinions Columnist
daily heraldthe Brown
campus newsweDneSDAY, oCtoBer 17, 2012
By aDam tOObiNSenior Staff Writer
rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-r.I., faced former rhode Island State Police Su-perintendent and republican chal-lenger Brendan Doherty tuesday night for their second of three debates in the race to represent the state’s second congressional district. During the debate, Cicilline attempted to connect Doherty to the republican Party leadership, while Doherty criticized the incumbent’s record during his two terms as mayor of Providence and his alleged inef-fectiveness during his first term in Congress.
In a final round of questions, the candidates both said Brown should allow the reserve officer training Corps to return to campus, though Cicilline noted that he believes the University should make the final deci-sion on the issue.
Doherty expressed support for the state’s new voter identification law. Cicilline said he initially opposed the law, but he has since examined the law’s implementation and found it “will not interfere with voting.” Both candidates supported the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
back to workThe two candidates also sparred
over their respective plans to combat rhode Island’s relatively high unem-ployment rate. Cicilline promoted his proposed “Make It in America” block grants, which have been a mainstay of his platform since his first congres-sional campaign. he also advocated the end of tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs, punishments for China’s currency manipulation and the extension of research and development tax credits.
Doherty criticized Cicilline for his failure to move his ideas from his drawing table into law. he expressed support for a bipartisan bill called the Infrastructure Jobs and energy Inde-pendence Act, which would sanction additional offshore drilling and pro-vide additional revenues to be invested
in clean energy and jobs programs. Cicilline responded to Doherty’s
proposal by noting that America has authorized more offshore drilling permits than every other country in the world combined, calling the bill a “giveaway to big oil.”
Associate Professor of Political Sci-ence and Public Policy wendy Schiller said Doherty’s job proposal was not specific or relevant enough to bring many voters to his camp.”
“I don’t think rhode Islanders care about offshore drilling,” she said.
“Cicilline won the debate, but Doherty held his own,” Schiller said. In the hour and a half debate, Doherty only provided one specific proposal, she noted. “Doherty is going to need to come with more than that to defeat Cicilline,” she said.
in sickness and in healthThe candidates also traded barbs
over their commitment to Social Secu-rity and Medicare. Doherty promised not to vote for any measure privatizing
Social Security or Medicare — includ-ing republican presidential nominee Mitt romney’s Medicare reform pro-posal. Cicilline said he not only wanted to protect these entitlement programs, but to increase their benefits.
Cicilline added that whether or not Doherty himself supports Medicare privatization, turning the seat over to a republican would give more power to the party that advocates turning Medicare into a voucher program. “his election means we put into place the extreme republican agenda,” Cicil-line said.
municipal policyCicilline asserted that he does not
owe Providence residents an apology for stating at the end of his second term as mayor that the city’s economy was “in excellent condition” despite the fiscal crisis Mayor Angel taveras discovered upon succeeding him. But he said he has “accepted responsibility for the decisions (he has) made.”
Doherty said that he did not want
to focus on this aspect of Cicilline’s record, but there is little else about the incumbent to discuss. “If the congress-man had a long record in washington, I suppose we could talk about those issues, but he’s o for 10,” Doherty said.
Schiller said she doubts whether Cicilline’s statement about Provi-dence’s fiscal health will further in-fluence the race. “Voters who are still mad about that weren’t going to vote for Cicilline anyway,” she said.
Doherty defended his statement that Cicilline supported making Providence a “sanctuary city” where undocumented immigrants would not be in danger of deportation, which critics have contested as false. he said that though Cicilline did not openly attempt to turn Providence into a sanctuary city, he tried to limit enforcement of deportation policies.
Cicilline said he supports a path-way to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in this country but called Doherty’s claim that he did not enforce immigration policy “ridiculous.”
congressional candidates spar over unemployment, Medicare
By isabeLLe theNOr-LOuisContributing Writer
Various organizations on campus are now working on the last details of a revised proposal that will allow gender-neutral housing for incoming freshman. the proposal was reviewed positively by the Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — last May, but ultimately was not approved due to concerns about ex-plaining gender-neutral housing to parents of incoming first-years.
Proponents of gender-neutral housing created a website to meet this request. In order to be implemented for the class of 2017, the proposal has to be approved by the Corpo-ration before March 1, a deadline which would require the proposal to be approved at either the october or February Corporation meeting of this year.
through this proposal, first-years would be given the option to receive roommates without any consideration of their legal sex. the proposal has already been approved by the office of Campus Life.
those who have worked on the project said they are confident about its chances of passing. But if the pro-posal is not approved, they said they hope it returns with provisions rather than a total rejection.
“we are shooting for gender-neutral housing for next year’s class, and we hope that this can be done in a timely fashion,” said travis Spangler ’13, president of residential Council.
Last semester, about 500 under-graduates and alums signed a petition in favor of gender-neutral housing for first-years, said Maddy Jennewein ’14, former president of GenderAction, a subgroup of the Queer Alliance that drafted the original proposal.
“this year’s incoming class also requested special accommodations, so it is definitely becoming a pressing issue,” Jennewein said.
In a poll conducted last semester by the herald, about 80 percent of students said gender-neutral housing should be an option for first-years. over 30 student organizations have endorsed the proposal.
“Students at Brown like options. there has been a lot of support for the ability to choose appropriate housing regardless of a student’s year,” said natalie Basil, director of residential experience.
the proposal is in line with the University’s anti-discrimination stance, Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services told the Brown University Community Council thursday. It is important, she added, to “make sure our students feel safe and comfortable in their new space.”
Gender-neutral housing advocates seek corp. approval
Corinne szCzesny / herald
During tuesday night’s debate, republican challenger brendan Doherty criticized incumbent congressman David Cicilline ‘83, D-r.i., for failing to turn ideas into action, while Cicilline attacked Doherty’s support of offshore drilling.
By ChaD simONContributing Writer
nBA Math hoops, a startup devel-oped by Khalil Fuller ’15 to promote math literacy in inner-city schools, has made it to the final round of Mass-Challenge, a global startup competi-tion that awards between $50,000 and $100,000 to its winners each year. out of an original pool of 1,200 applicants, Math hoops was selected as one of 125 finalists and is in the top 26 in the Social Impact category. The 15 win-ners — who will split a cash prize of $1 million — will be announced oct. 23 at a public gala in Boston.
nBA Math hoops, which grew out of an initiative by the Providence-based education advocacy organiza-tion Big Picture Learning, will launch nationally in two weeks and will reach 15,000 students in school and after-
school programs, Fuller said.
development of math HoopsFuller is taking this year off from
Brown to devote his time to develop-ing nBA Math hoops, a social project aimed at improving young students’ math literacy through an interactive game.
“we’ve partnered with the (na-tional Basketball Association) and created a supplemental math curricu-lum that is centered around a math basketball board game,” Fuller said. “we want to harness the power of the nBA to make math fun, engaging and culturally relevant.”
Bill Daugherty, a board member for Big Picture Learning, said he and some of his coworkers originally de-veloped the idea for the program, not-ing the need for improving math skills in schools.
“I saw the power that the nBA could have over at-risk teenagers,” Daugherty said. “Then Khalil came in and just brought his vision and our vision to fruition in a way that we all found was incredibly impactful.”
Fuller received a C.V. Starr Fel-lowship for entrepreneurship to help develop the program. The fellowship is designed to provide support and resources to undergraduates develop-ing a social venture in order to trans-form ideas into action, according to its website.
nBA Math hoops is a perfect ex-ample of “appropriate technology,” said Alan harlam, director of social entrepreneurship. “nBA Math hoops is culturally appropriate for kids who are failing in math in inner cities. It speaks the language of basketball to the kids who idolize it,” he said.
Fuller ran a pilot study in 2010 as-
sessing the effect of nBA Math hoops in seven different schools.
Students’ math scores improved 51 percent only six weeks after the program’s implementation, Fuller said, adding that students’ enthusiasm for math also increased during the time period.
nBA Math hoops’ national launch coordinates with the commencement of the nBA season, Fuller said.
the massChallenge competition“(Fuller) is doing amazing stuff,”
said Akhil nigam, founder and presi-dent of MassChallenge. “People are really impressed by the scale of his vi-sion. he’s trying to bring math literacy to inner-city kids throughout the na-tion, and I think math education and literacy is one of the gaps that is miss-ing in today’s push for educational im-provement.”
Math literacy startup makes competition finals
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