Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 47 | Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Pulitzer winner speaks on
a changing Middle East
By Talia Kagan
Senior Staf f Writer
Monday was a good day for New
York Times correspondent An-
thony Shadid.
The Lebanese-American jour-
nalist won the Pulitzer Prize for
International Repor ting for the
second time for his coverage in
the Washington Post of the U.S.
departure from Iraq, the Pulitzer
Prize Board announced Monday
afternoon.
But, he joked, to a half-full
MacMillan 117 Monday evening,
winning the prize was only the
second-best event of his week.
On Saturday, his wife gave birth
to their son, Malik — a pronounce-
ment that was met with audible
warmth from the students, profes-
sors and community members in
attendance.
Shadid, who has covered the
Majority of students favor eliminating tableslips
By Anne Simons
Staff Writer
On the heels of the announcement
that the Undergraduate Finance
Board voted to end funding for ta-
bleslips, 52.4 percent of students said
they would approve of eliminating
tableslips in favor of centralized an-
nouncements, according a recent
Herald poll.
The poll found that 27.3 percent
would “strongly approve” of the
move. A total of 43.5 percent said
H onorin g H istor y
Student volunteers read a list of names of Auschwitz victims aloud for 10-minute intervals on the Main
Green Monday in commemoration of National Holocaust Day.
inside
News.....1–4
Metro......5–6
Editorial....10
Opinion.....11
Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
Middle East for the past 15 years
for news outlets including the As-
sociated Press and the Post, spoke
about the changes he has seen in
the region during those years, wax-
ing nostalgic about the loss of a
secular, cosmopolitan Middle East.
In his talk, “Stones Without People:
Loss and Nostalgia in Lebanon,
Iraq and the Middle East,” part
of the Peter Green Lectures on
the Modern Middle East, Shadid
described a region that is currently
torn apart by sectarian violence.
“I don’t think the Arab world
today is Arab anymore,” he said,
adding that people in current Mid-
dle Eastern societies are “defined
first and foremost by their religious
sect.” While he blamed the U.S.’s
involvement for some of the shift
to an increasingly divided region,
he noted that the “Arab world is
continued on page 2
they would disapprove of eliminating
tableslips, while 4.1 percent said they
did not know or had no answer.
UFB President Jose Vasconez ’10
said the poll’s findings reflected the
group’s initial thoughts on tableslip-
HERALD POLL
ping. “There’s a lot of support for
this,” he said.
Brown University Activities Com-
mittee Vice Chair Salsabil Ahmed
’11 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald
News, 3 Metro, 5
Vigil for Poland
Community members
honored victims of
Saturday’s plane crash
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Journalist Anthony Shadid spoke in MacMillan after being awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting earlier in the day.
that while the approval rating “is not
as high as we would like, we believe
it is a promising first step toward a
greater consensus.”
The finance board’s vote to elim-
inate funding for tableslips is the
first part of an effort to phase out
the practice. Last semester, a steer-
ing committee examined the state
of advertising by student groups at
Brown, Ahmed wrote. The report
the committee produced, along with
yearly polls conducted by the Un-
dergraduate Council of Students,
Sofia Castello / Herald
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
led to the discussion of eliminating
tableslips, she added.
“Past (UCS) polls have also dem-
onstrated that tableslips are not the
most effective means of advertising,
and tableslips do not effectively target
upperclassmen,” Ahmed wrote.
Vasconez also questioned the ef-
fectiveness of tableslips, calling them
“somewhat of a useful service.” They
miss out on “25 percent (of the stu-
dent body) at the very least,” he said.
continued on page 2
Books and beauty:
This girl has it all
By Rebecca Ballhaus
Staff Writer
Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo ’11 defies all
stereotypes, and with a vengeance.
The junior is concentrating in edu-
cation studies, she hopes to enter
Brown’s Masters of Arts in Teach-
ing program and she plans to ap-
METRO
ply to Yale Law School — on top of
maintaining her responsibilities for
the Miss Rhode Island Scholarship
Program.
“It really is a unique experience,”
Herring-Olvedo said. “But I want
young women to see that you don’t
Bans on Tans
State legislators propose
banning minors from
tanning booths
Civil case
against U.
unsealed
U. spokeswoman:
Administrators have
acted ‘appropriately’
By Ben Schreckinger
Metro Editor
A federal judge unsealed a civil
case against the University, Presi-
dent Ruth Simmons, several other
administrators and staff members,
a female student and her father
Monday at a hearing in Rhode Is-
land District Court.
The judge also heard motions
from the defendants’ attorneys to
dismiss the case.
William McCormick III, a for-
mer member of the class of 2010,
and his parents filed the claim fol-
lowing a September 2006 incident
in which he was accused of raping
a female student, according to the
complaint. The complaint states
that McCormick was detained un-
lawfully and then sent home. The
complaint also alleges that this
series of events has aggravated
McCormick’s preexisting seizure
condition. He and his parents are
seeking unspecified damages from
the defendants.
The complaint accuses the Uni-
versity, Simmons, Provost David
Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, Senior Vice
President for Corporation Affairs
and Governance Russell Carey ’91
continued on page 4
have to give up intellect or outer
beauty — it’s not one or the other.”
Indeed, the Miss Rhode Island
Scholarship Program in which Her-
ring-Olvedo is a contestant has as
its tagline, “Some people call them
Beauty Queens, we call them Schol-
ars!”
“The young women that get in-
volved with us are all looking for
scholarships to better their educa-
tion, whether with school loans or
even graduate work,” said Debi
D’Iorio, the program’s executive di-
rector. “That’s the kind of girl that
we want to attract.”
As part of her duties as Miss Prov-
continued on page 6
Opinions, 11
Housing hysteria
Mike Johnson ’11: In
housing you truly get what
you pay for
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Tuesday, April 13, 2010

C ampus N EWS “Tableslips are a part of Brown culture.”

— Kelly Fennessy ’13

Shadid gives candid account Many underclassmen favor tableslips

of his time in the Middle East
continued from page 1
complicit.”
While Shadid won this year’s
Pulitzer for his incisive report-
ing, Monday night’s talk was far
more personal than most other
lectures he has given, he said.
He spoke about his experience
rebuilding his grandmother’s
house in Lebanon after it was
destroyed by years of violence
and neglect, a project he com-
pleted a year ago. This personal
project is the focus of the book
he is currently working on, slated
to be published next spring, he
told The Herald.
Rebuilding the house that his
grandparents left in the 1920s
was an expensive, labor-intensive
project that took over a year and
a half, according to Shadid. Re-
constructing the house involved
a lot of “nitty-gritty” details, work
that sometimes led to interesting
encounters with unscrupulous
tile-sellers. He came to see this
reconstruction as a symbol for
the restoration of the old Middle
East, he told The Herald.
Shadid hoped to avoid the
“formulaic” conventions often
used to discuss the Middle East
in his talk, he said. Instead, he
relied on stories to “tell some-
thing grander,” he said. The
first-person vantage point of his
stories marked his retelling of
events. Shadid often lingered
over vivid details, such as the
blue pacifier of a baby killed by
a bomb strike, or the image of a
man killed with his pants half-on
sudoku
while he attempted to run away.
Writing and reporting on this
miser y is “what I both love and
hate,” he said. “You wonder, as
a reporter, when you become a
voyeur.”
He punctuated such descrip-
tive scenes with his own commen-
tary. “Cosmopolitanism can never
be conflated with globalization,”
he said.
In the question-and-answer
session that followed Shadid’s
lecture, audience members
broached specific policy issues
and shared personal responses
to his talk. One woman said she
related to his nostalgia for Leba-
non — she personally felt it for
Beirut of the 1960s and 70s. But,
she said, the current factionalism
that Shadid discussed existed in
the Lebanon he was nostalgic for,
though underneath the surface.
Shadid acknowledged the dan-
ger of glossing over the past’s
problems, but again emphasized
that the region has become in-
creasingly divided over the past
15 years.
Baghdad has been destroyed
“to a degree I think most Ameri-
cans don’t understand,” he
said.
Anthony Thomas, a local resi-
dent, came to the lecture because
of Shadid’s impressive reputation.
He said he enjoyed the lecture,
noting that though it was “ver y
dramatic,” Shadid “speaks with
his heart.”
That, Thomas said, is “prob-
ably why he’s such a good writ-
er.”
continued from page 1
A new system of more centralized
advertising could target all students
equally, he added.
Advertising events online takes ad-
vantage of the fact that people already
use electronic methods to advertise,
Aida Manduley ’11, BUAC secretary,
said. One problem with this method
is that it is not portable like tableslips
are, she added.
Student leaders have received
limited response to UFB’s decision.
Ahmed wrote that the reaction from
students was “mixed.”
Very few people came to the panel
on advertising, Manduley said. The
few who attended raised concerns that
were discussed, she added.
After the announcement of UFB’s
decision to end funding, a few more
responded by e-mail to student lead-
ers, Manduley and Vasconez said.
In the e-mails, students complained
there was no need to eliminate ta-
bleslips and that they were a Brown
tradition, Vasconez said. “Tradition
doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good
thing,” he said. He added that there
does not seem to be an “organized
movement” against the elimination
of tableslips.
According to The Herald’s poll,
50.1 percent of underclassmen disap-
proved of the elimination of tableslips,
compared with 35.5 percent of up-
perclassmen and 43.5 percent of the
overall population. Vasconez said
he expected more disapproval from
freshmen and sophomores because
they use the dining halls regularly, as
opposed to upperclassmen who may
no longer be on a meal plan.
Students have had mixed reac-
tions to the potential elimination of
tableslips.
“Tableslips are a part of Brown
culture,” Kelly Fennessy ’13 said.
While she said they do not necessar-
Would you approve or disapprove of elimi-
nating dining hall tableslips in favor of
centralized announcements, either else-
where on campus or on the Internet?
ily influence her to attend events, they
are “entertainment.”
Jordan Taylor ’13 said he would
find the elimination of tableslips “re-
ally upsetting.”
Stephanie Tin ’13 said that fiddling
with tableslips in an awkward situa-
tion can be useful, but that she would
not be particularly upset if they were
eliminated.
Some heralded the positive en-
vironmental effect of eliminating ta-
bleslips. Lucy Boltz ’12, who said she
was “really supportive” of eliminating
tableslips, said tableslips are a drain
on resources. She said she works a
dinner shift at the Verney-Woolley
Dining Hall, after which she has to
Anna Migliaccio / Herald
clean up all the tableslips by throwing
them away instead of recycling them.
Eliminating tableslips would be more
“ecologically conscious,” she said.
Questions of effectiveness were
also on students’ minds.
Boltz said she felt that tableslips
were an ineffective method of advertis-
ing. People come to events because of
personal interest, she said, and direct
marketing would be more effective.
But some students wondered if
the new ways of advertising online
would be effective since they require
students to seek out information.
Robbie Nelson ’12 said “tableslips
are a lot more passive” than other
forms of advertising like Morning
Mail, which he said he does not
read.
Reading tableslips requires no ac-
tion on his part, Taylor said, adding
that he probably would not visit a Web
site to find events.
“For the portion of the population
that does go to dining halls, (tableslip-
ping) is the most effective way by far,”
Taylor said.
Tin said she was “pretty sure” she
would never check a Web site that
listed events on campus. She added
she could not think of an alternative
that would approximate the same ef-
fect on students.
The decision to completely elimi-
nate tableslips has not been made.
The issue will probably be discussed
next year, but “that is the direction that

Daily Herald
we’re heading in,” Manduley said.
the Brown

The Herald poll was conducted

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 on March 22 and 23 and has a 3.5
George Miller, President Katie Koh, Treasurer percent margin of error with 95 per-
Claire Kiely, Vice President Chaz Kelsh, Secretary cent confidence. A total of 714 Brown
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv- undergraduates completed the poll,
ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday which The Herald administered as a
through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during written questionnaire to students in
Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily
Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.
the lobby of J. Walter Wilson during
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI the day and in the Sciences Library at
02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 night. For the sample of just freshmen
Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. and sophomores, the margin of error
World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.
Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.
is 4.7 percent. for the sample of just
Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. juniors and seniors, the margin of error
is 5.2 percent.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 3

C ampus N EWS “This is our tragedy.”

— Janet Cooper Nelson, University chaplain

higher ed news roundup

jessica liss
contributing writer

University of Wisconsin ends Nike

contract
The University of Wisconsin is ending its apparel licensing
agreement with Nike because of concerns about displaced
workers from factories used by the company in Honduras,
Chancellor Biddy Martin told UW’s Labor Licensing Policy
Committee on April 9, according to a news release.
After the factories Hugger de Honduras and Vision
Tex closed in January 2009, Nike allegedly failed to pay
its former laborers the over $2 million owed in required
severances, the release stated. The university’s Code
of Conduct, which details required labor practices and
conditions, holds Nike responsible for its subcontractors
though it does not own the factories.
Brown, like UW, is a member of the Workers Rights Sofia Castello / Herald
Mourners lit candles for the Polish government officials who died in Saturday’s plane crash.
Consortium, whose mission is to “combat sweatshops and
protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make
other products sold in the United States,” according to its
Web site. The Brown Student Labor Alliance recently led a Community honors killed Polish officials
campaign focusing on the University’s ties to Nike and the
situation in Honduras, The Herald reported April 8. By Sofia Castello this whole thing struck very close Weschler wrote.
Contributing Writer to home,” wrote Sara Weschler ’10, The chords of a piano punctured
College health plans inadequate, N.Y. AG says during the silent vigil. the silence that reigned between
Candles flickered Monday in the Members of the Polish govern- remarks from University Chaplain
Many colleges’ student health plans fail to provide palms of the 18 people who came ment were flying in memory of the Janet Cooper Nelson and Michael
adequate coverage, New York State Attorney General to commemorate the plane crash massacre of Polish soldiers in the Kennedy, director of the Watson
Andrew Cuomo said in a release Thursday. that killed Polish President Lech Katyn forest during World War II, Institute for International Studies.
“Many of the sponsored health care plans looked Kaczysnki and numerous Polish the very forest that the plane went “We’re connected, in ways that
at during our investigation leave students at risk while government officials on Saturday. down in. I think are probably surprising. So,
providing massive profits for insurance companies,” he The afternoon vigil was held in Man- “The dark, dark symbolism of this is our tragedy,” Cooper Nelson
said in the release. ning Chapel. the whole situation — the weight said, mentioning not only the Polish
The American College Health Association found that “As someone whose great-grand- that Katyn already carries in the citizens who reside at Brown, but
57 percent of colleges require that students have health father was killed in the Katyn mas- Polish national memory — it’s all the role Poland plays in academ-
insurance, mandating that students either purchase college- sacre that (on) Saturday victims too much somehow… as though
sponsored private plans or use comparable personal plans, were flying to commemorate ... I felt that place were truly cursed for us,” continued on page 4
according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
In letters that Cuomo sent to colleges, he encouraged
them to offer plans that include coverage for prescription
drugs. He wrote that schools should avoid plans that
impose annual caps and deny coverage to students with
pre-existing conditions, according to the Chronicle.

UC professor’s tenure challenged after sit-in

A University of California professor’s tenure is in jeopardy
after he staged a “virtual sit-in” opposing budget cuts and
tuition increases throughout the UC system, according to
Inside Higher Ed.
During the sit-in — organized by Ricardo Dominguez,
associate professor of visual arts at the University of
California at San Diego — 400 faculty and students
simultaneously logged into the Office of the President
Web site, overwhelming the system, according to an April
6 San Diego Union-Tribune article. The Web site included
a message that claimed that the president’s office had no
transparency, the newspaper reported.
“I wanted to alert the UC Office of the President to the
growing concern and critique of its policies,” Dominguez
told the Union-Tribune.
The school is now investigating Dominquez for a
“distributed denial-of-service attack,” Micha Cardenas, a
visual arts lecturer at UCSD, told Inside Higher Ed.
Dominguez is also being investigated for his Transborder
Immigrant Tool. The tool uses cell phones with a location
tracking feature to give people crossing the border from
Mexico information about water supplies and border
patrols, the Union-Tribune reported.

Got tips?
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Federal case against U. now public record
continued from page 1
MA’06 and several other Univer-
sity employees of acts “tantamount
to criminality,” breach of contract,
false imprisonment, libel and six
other counts of civil misconduct.
The complaint also alleges
that the University was guided
by “financial self-interest” when
handling the incident because the
female student’s father, an alum,
has donated and raised large sums
of money for Brown.
District Judge William Smith
had placed the case under seal
after a motion on behalf of the fe-
male student and her father. The
reasons for the request to seal the
case were given to the judge in
private, according to the motion.
Until Monday, there was no pub-
licly available record of the case.
“The University and its officers
have acted appropriately in this
matter,” Vice President for Public
Affairs and University Relations
Marisa Quinn wrote in an e-mail to
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
The Herald late Monday. “As in all
instances, the University respects
and maintains the confidentiality of
student and employee records.”
The plaintiffs’ motion to unseal
the case, filed March 29 by their
lawyer, J. Scott Kilpatrick, argued
that the public had a right to know
about the case and that the family
of the female student did not have
the right to seal the case.
“This case has been somewhat
atypical,” said Steven Richard, the
lawyer representing the University
and its 15 employees named as
defendants, at the hearing held
in front of Smith.
After granting the plaintiff’s
motion to unseal the case, Smith
heard motions to dismiss several
charges by both Joseph Cavanagh,
the lawyer for the female student
and her father, and Richard. The
Herald is withholding her name
because she may have been the
victim of a sex crime.
Though Richard said he ac-
knowledges “the case can go
for ward,” he challenged several
counts and attacked the McCor-
micks’ complaint for naming all
15 Brown defendants and the Uni-
versity collectively in each count
of which they are accused, “with-
out identifying who did what” and
which charges apply to whom.
He said the involvement of at
least one Brown employee named
“It seems like the complaint is still a mess.”
— District Judge William Smith
as a defendant was limited to a
single meeting with the female
student.
Kilpatrick responded that in
some instances the specific Brown
defendants to whom a count ap-
plied would be unclear until more
information is obtained through
discovery. He said access to inter-
nal University records would be
required to determine each indi-
vidual’s specific involvement.
Richard said the parties had
already agreed that the count of
breach of contract, which previ-
ously accused the University and
the 15 Brown defendants, would
proceed only against the Univer-
sity.
Kilpatrick said he had agreed to
drop the count of acts tantamount
to criminality and conceded that
“we might lose defendants.”
“It seems like the complaint is
still a mess,” Smith told Kilpatrick,
calling it “too all over the place.”
He advised Kilpatrick to “get
focused” on “three or four viable
counts,” such as breach of contract
and negligence against the Univer-
sity and top administrators.
Both Cavanagh and Richard
declined to comment. Kilpatrick
could not be reached for com-
ment.
Smith said he would consider
the motions and issue a ruling
promptly.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Polish students
mourn loss at
Monday’s vigil
continued from page 3
ics and the ancestr y of people at
Brown.
“I tried for a minute on Satur-
day to think what would happen
if Air Force One had gone down,”
Cooper Nelson said. “The nation
would be plunged into not just de-
spair, fear.”
“We are without words to cap-
ture all that this tragedy means
for those in Poland and beyond,”
Cooper Nelson said.
“Let us pray this tragedy does
not rehearse a repertoire of mis-
trust among nations,” Kennedy
said, referring to troubled relations
between Russia and Poland.
Kennedy hopes to see “morn-
ings of grief turned into days of
peace,” he said.
“I came because I feel detached
from my friends and family back
home,” wrote Kasia Sierzputowska
’13. “I feel that by coming I’m honor-
ing the lives of those who perished
in the crash.”
“The last few days my heart
been very much in Warsaw,” We-
schler wrote. “I really appreciate
that the University organized this
vigil for us to come together. It
means a great deal.”
Metro
The Brown Daily Herald
Bill would ban
tanning for minors
By Caitlin Trujillo
Senior Staff Writer
Minors in Rhode Island will be un-
able to use tanning salons, even with
their parents’ permission, if a bill
under consideration in the Rhode
Island Senate passes.
The bill, which would amend the
Tanning Facility Safety Standards
Act, would prohibit those under
the age of 18 from using tanning
facilities. Current law stipulates
that minors may use the facilities if
a parent or guardian signs a consent
form in the presence of a facility staff
member, according to Department
of Health regulations.
Sen. Rhoda Perr y P’91, D-
Providence, is sponsoring the bill
along with Senators Joshua Miller,
D-Cranston and Warwick, Harold
Metts, D-Providence, Michael Mc-
Caffrey, D-Warwick, and V. Susan
Sosnowski, D-New Shoreham and
South Kingston. The Rhode Island
Medical Society’s Steven DeToy and
the Rhode Island Dermatological So-
ciety’s Elizabeth Welch asked Perry
to sponsor the bill, she said.
Perry, who is also the Health and
Human Services Committee chair,
said research showed that indoor
tanning was linked to certain types
of skin cancer in a way that was
“statistically frightening.” Accord-
ing to the Food and Drug Admin-
istration, research from the Inter-
national Agency for Research on
Cancer showed that indoor tanning
was closely associated with certain
kinds of carcinoma and melanoma.
Perry said that young women were
“thinking less with their brain and
more about what they look like.”
Furthermore, Perry said, minors
who use tanning beds are exposing
themselves to radiation early on in
their lives, increasing the amount of
Weather,
menus,
and news
you can use
blog
daily
herald
.com
— Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy
skin damage they undergo.
Bill proponents and sponsors
also researched other options for
restricting minors’ use of tanning
beds. Some states, Perry said, have
mandates that require a pediatrician
to sign off on consent forms, but
Perry said the Rhode Island Medical
Society and Dermatological Society
disliked this option. She added that
she did not know if this regulation
was successful in the jurisdictions
that enforce it.
Nick Liakos, the owner of Soma
Tans at 224 Thayer St. and another
salon in Somerset, Mass., thinks the
proposed restriction is unfounded.
Though Liakos does not anticipate
that his business will be affected,
since he serves mostly college stu-
dents, he said parental permission
should be enough to allow minors
to tan.
“I think if somebody’s parents are
fine with it, then it’s okay,” he said.
Perry cited as encouragement for
the bill’s chances a recent FDA pan-
el discussion in which many panel
members approved of placing age re-
strictions on the use of tanning beds,
with a minority favoring mandatory
parental consent similar to Rhode
Island’s current regulations.
Another possibly beneficial de-
velopment, Perry said, was the 10
percent federal tax on tanning salons
included in the health reform bill
passed in March.
The bill is set for an April 14
hearing in the Senate Health and
Human Services Committee. If the
bill passes the committee and the
Senate, it will move on to the House,
Perry said.
“People will invest in someone they think will win.”
Cicilline’s fundraising outpaces opponents’
By Bradley Silverman
Staf f Writer
In the past two months, Mayor
David Cicilline ’83 has amassed
almost three-quarters of a million
dollars to fund his bid for Rhode
Island’s first congressional seat.
According to a statement on
his campaign Web site, Cicilline
has raised roughly $725,000 since
entering the race to succeed Rep.
Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., on Feb.
13, two days after Kennedy an-
nounced he would not be seeking
re-election.
“We exceeded all our expecta-
tions,” Cicilline wrote in the state-
ment. “You have sent a message
that you want a representative
with a proven record of delivering
results for hard-working Rhode
Islanders.”
The announcement came on
April 5, 10 days before the filing
deadline for first-quar ter con-
gressional fundraising results for
2010. Cicilline’s main primary op-
ponent, former state party chair-
man William L ynch, announced
he has raised $230,000, includ-
ing $100,000 of his own money,
according to L ynch campaign
spokesman Bill Fischer.
Fischer said that, as a non-
elected official, L ynch’s smaller
haul was due in part to lower name
recognition among first district
voters, as well as Cicilline’s ability
to tap donors who had contributed
to his mayoral run.
“We anticipated this,” he said
in regard to Cicilline’s fundrais-
ing numbers. “We’re not worried.
People don’t know Bill as well as
they know David.”
Fischer said that over the next
several months the campaign will
unveil a strategy to introduce
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | Page 5
Lynch to voters who are not aware
of him.
Because Cicilline cannot
transfer funds from his mayoral
re-election account to his congres-
sional account, he has returned
contributions from donors to his
mayoral campaign and then asked
them to donate those refunds to
his congressional race, accord-
ing to Wendy Schiller, associate
professor of political science and
public policy.
Schiller said that at this point in
the election cycle, fundraising is
important as a way for candidates
to show voters that they are seri-
ous about winning.
“It’s a signal about how well-
connected candidates are,” she
said. “People invest in someone
they think will win.”
The Cicilline campaign could
not be reached for comment by
The Herald.
In recent weeks, Cicilline
was endorsed by a number of
prominent statewide Democratic
organizations, including the As-
sociation of Democratic City and
Town Chairs and the Smithfield
Democratic Town Committee.
Meanwhile, the L ynch cam-
paign has been touting its recent
endorsement from the United
Food and Commercial Workers
Union, Local 328.
Schiller said that many in the
state party are gravitating toward
Cicilline because of his higher na-
tional profile and contact network,
and because of his greater name
recognition. Actions L ynch may
have taken as chairman might also
be a factor, she said.
“When you’re chairman, you
sometimes have to piss people
off,” Schiller said.
John Loughlin, the state House
minority whip and likely Republi-
can contender for Kennedy’s seat,
has not yet officially released his
fundraising totals, but his cam-
paign manager said that he will
report around $100,000 in first-
quarter fundraising, with approxi-
mately $135,000 cash on hand.
“We’re thrilled to be in six fig-
ures,” Cara Cromwell, Loughlin’s
campaign manager, said.
continued on page 6
Page 6
M etro
Beauty queen promotes
scholarship and service
continued from page 1
idence County, Herring-Olvedo has
initiated an on-campus book drive to
benefit students at two Providence
elementary schools.
Herring-Olvedo said she chose to
run the book drive — “Bears Care”
­— to “advocate literacy” in schools
where more than half of third and
fourth graders fall behind adequate
literacy levels because they didn’t
have enough books. The books —
ideally new to gently worn ones in
English or Spanish for kindergarten
through the fifth grade — will be
collected in bins placed throughout
Brown’s campus and donated to
William D’Abate and Asa Messer
Elementary Schools in Providence.
Herring-Olvedo is running the
book drive in conjunction with the
Swearer Center, whose Classroom
Program organizes Brown students
to visit these elementary schools as
literacy tutors.
Herring-Olvedo, who joined the
program this year, currently mentors
a first-grade girl at Asa Messer.
“What I love about it is seeing so
much energy,” she said. “Being a
college student we can lose sight of
the fun of learning, and these first
graders have so much passion and
energy.” She described her mentee’s
transformation from someone who
did not like books to an avid reader.
“It’s great to see that she’s not will-
ing to give up,” she said. “And it’s a
great message — if a first grader’s
not willing to give up, neither should
we” be willing.
Herring-Olvedo has also forged
a connection between the two Provi-
dence elementary schools and two
schools from Texas, her home state.
The Texas schools will contribute
books as well as raising money, and
students from Providence and Texas
will be matched as pen pals.
“I created this program because I
think it’s important that we promote
literacy and the idea of reaching out
on both local and state levels,” she
said. “Literacy is such an important
issue. It promotes the ideas of start-
ing early, as well as of success and
scholarship.”
In addition to the book drive,
Herring-Olvedo — who manages
the Brown football team — is work-
ing on organizing an initiative called
Touch Down Champs, which aims to
“empower youth through literacy and
athletic engagement in their commu-
nity.” The initiative, Herring-Olvedo
said, “combines (her) two passions
— literacy and athletics.”
She added in an e-mail to The
Herald that it promotes the ideas of
“leadership, teamwork and success
in and beyond the classroom.”
D’Iorio said the pageant’s focus
on community service tends to at-
tract contestants with a strong sense
of civic responsibility. “Most of the
time when the gals pick a platform,
it’s based on some kind of personal
experience,” she said. She named the
2008 winner, Francesca Simone, as
an example: Simone chose Alzheim-
er’s research and awareness as her
cause, since one of her grandparents
was a victim of the disease.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“Beauty pageants are more than just wearing a sash and
a crown.” — Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo ’11
Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo ’11 is championing children’s literacy as part of
her duties as Miss Providence County.
Herring-Olvedo visibly beamed
as she recounted her plans. It is evi-
dent that D’Iorio was right in gush-
ing that she is “just so dedicated to
her platform.” And, Herring-Olvedo
explained, this is very much the prod-
uct of having participated in beauty
pageants since the age of five. “I love
being able to advocate any platform,”
she said. “Beauty pageants are more
than just wearing a sash and a crown
— they give you the chance to act as
an ambassador, to give back to the
Courtesy of Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo
community. So many little girls look
up to you.”
Two other Brown students in the
past have participated in the Miss
Rhode Island pageant, one of whom
won a $1,000 scholarship. “Brown is
the perfect place to do something like
this,” Herring-Olvedo said. “Here,
you can be typical and atypical at
the same time.”
“We’re all passionate about some-
thing here. I’m just passionate about
this,” she said.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Loughlin
reaches six-
figure mark
continued from page 5
Before Kennedy dropped
out of the race, his low approv-
al numbers fueled speculation
that Loughlin could unseat him.
Loughlin was able to attract con-
servative donors from across the
countr y motivated by a desire
to take down a member of the
legendary political dynasty.
Kennedy’s departure from
the race was a major blow to
Loughlin, Schiller said, because
it made it impossible for him to
tap into the anti-Kennedy senti-
ment felt by many Republicans
nationwide.
Cromwell said that Kenne-
dy’s retirement, however, has
not impeded Loughlin’s fund-
raising efforts. She said it has
allowed donors who had been
reluctant to oppose a Kennedy
to contribute to his campaign.
She also said that the condi-
tions of the race — an open-seat
battle to succeed a Kennedy in
office — now more resemble
those of the Massachusetts
Senate race earlier this year
in which Sen. Scott Brown, R-
Mass., defeated Democratic At-
torney General Martha Coakley
to replace Patrick Kennedy’s
father, the late Sen. Ted Ken-
nedy.
“This race is about John,
not Patrick Kennedy” Crom-
well said.
World & Nation
The Brown Daily Herald
Conan O’Brien
going to TBS in a
return to late night
By Joe Flint and Maria Elena
Fernandez
Los Angeles T imes
LOS ANGELES — First Oprah,
now Conan.
In the latest sign that the field
has leveled between broadcast
and cable television, former “To-
night Show” host Conan O’Brian
has decided to make his late-
night comeback this fall on TBS,
a cable network that has largely
been synonymous with old net-
work reruns and Atlanta Braves
baseball. “This is the day the last
brick wall fell down between broad-
cast and cable,” said Steve Koonin,
president of Turner Entertainment
Networks.
O’Brien, who was dumped
by NBC as host of “The Tonight
Show” in favor of his predecessor
Jay Leno just four months ago, will
return in November on TBS with
an 11 p.m. ET/PT show. Comedian
George Lopez, who just launched
his own late-night show in that
same time slot on TBS last year,
has agreed to move to midnight.
In sardonic fashion, O’Brien
had his own spin on the news.
“In three months I’ve gone from
network television to Twitter to
performing live in theaters, and
now I’m headed to basic cable.
My plan is working perfectly,” he
quipped in a statement.
For TBS, one of the countr y’s
oldest cable channels, snaring
O’Brien is the culmination of a
Thanks
for
reading!
decade-long ef fort to transform
a network that launched 30 years
ago with “The Andy Griffith Show”
reruns into a cutting-edge channel
on par with Comedy Central, USA,
FX and TNT.
“This is a seminal moment for
TBS,” Koonin said. While TBS,
which doesn’t produce a lot of
original shows, may seem like
an odd fit for O’Brien, the cable
channel’s evening lineup includes
reruns of “The Office” and “Family
Guy” that play to O’Brien’s core
audience of young adults.
O’Brien’s move to TBS is a big
blow to Fox, which had been ac-
tively wooing the comedian and
was seen as the odds-on-favorite
to land him.
While Fox was enthusiastic
about getting back into the late-
night game with O’Brien, that
sentiment was not echoed by its
affiliates. Most Fox stations carr y
reruns of comedies in late night
and would have taken a financial
hit if they had to replace those
shows with O’Brien. Complicat-
ing the situation for Fox is that
O’Brien would have aired in var y-
ing time periods among affiliates
around the countr y for at least a
year, undercutting ratings and ad-
vertising.
TBS initially indicated it had
little interest in pursuing O’Brien
when he and his representatives
began casting about for a new
continued on page 8
Surviving members of Polish political
elite work to rebuild country’s leadership
By Megan K. Stack
Los Angeles Times
WARSAW, Poland — The surviving
members of the Polish political elite
turned their attention Monday to the
delicate task of reconstituting the
country’s leadership after a plane
crash killed President Lech Kaczyn-
ski, heads of key institutions, lawmak-
ers and military chiefs.
It was a delicate, often distaste-
ful, task. The Polish people are still
mourning streets littered with dy-
ing flowers and slick with puddles
of hardened candle wax. Kaczynski’s
body was brought back to Poland, but
remains of the other 95 dead were
taken to Moscow for identification.
The chamber of the Sejm, or
lower house of parliament, sat empty
Monday. Bunches of red and white
flowers marked the deserted seats
of the 14 dead lawmakers, and the
golden nameplates on their office
doors were crossed out with black
ribbons.
Surviving lawmakers bustled
through the halls and ducked into
closed-door meetings with their party
members.
“The situation is extraordinary. I
don’t think anybody in Poland knows
how to act,” said Grzegorz Napieral-
ski, chairman of the Democratic Left
Alliance. “People say these halls are
the halls of death.”
Political observers have turned
their attention to Bronislaw Ko-
morowski, the speaker of the Sejm.
In Poland’s ravaged leadership struc-
ture, Komorowski has been shoved
into multiple, overlapping roles: He
is acting president, as stipulated by
the constitution; speaker of the par-
liament; and the only survivor out
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | Page 7
of the three main candidates for the
presidency.
Komorowski is due to start con-
sultations with the parties Tuesday,
and is then expected to set the date
of the election for June.
Polish officials said Monday they
would investigate whether someone
on the plane had directed the pilots
to try to land at Smolensk despite
warnings by flight controllers of bad
weather. Russian officials said there
were no problems with the plane, an
aging Soviet-made Tupolev 154. The
Polish delegation was on its way to a
memorial service for Polish prisoners
by Soviet secret police in 1940.
Despite the sense that it is tacky
to talk politics at a moment of na-
tional grief, there was an undertone
of worry among the other parties.
Komorowski is a political ally of the
prime minister, Donald Tusk, and
is considered the likely winner in
forthcoming elections.
His party, Civic Platform, has
clashed bitterly with the dead presi-
dent’s Law and Justice Party in recent
years. Kacazynski had taken a harder
line with Europe, and pushed a social
agenda that included intolerance of
gay rights and the persecution of one-
time communists.
Komorowski and Tusk’s party,
by contrast, has been eager to bring
Poland closer to Europe and switch
to the euro, and takes a slightly more
liberal stance on social issues.
Distrust runs deep and, on Mon-
day, slivers of acrimony were creep-
ing in.
“I’m concerned about the situation
in Poland,” said Jolanta Szczypinska,
a leading lawmaker from the Law and
Justice Party. “I’m worried about the
actions of Komorowski, that he’ll step
outside of his obligations and do cer-
tain things that are above him.”
Szczypinska wore all black, and
her eyes repeatedly clouded with
tears as she spoke.
“The loss of the president is un-
imaginable to us,” she said. “But
now elections are coming up, and
we have to make good decisions. We
have to find our candidate for the
presidency.”
Tusk’s Civic Platform Party
shouldn’t cement its power, she
said.
“Our president had a totally dif-
ferent vision than Tusk,” she said.
“He wanted a strong Poland, honored
by the other European countries. He
wanted national interests above all.
Tusk lacks this vision.”
continued on page 8
Page 8
w orld & N ation
Conan to be on TBS after quick deal is made
continued from page 7
home earlier this year. For start-
ers, the network appeared com-
mitted to Lopez at 11 p.m., and
Koonin assumed Fox had a lock
on O’Brien.
But when no deal with Fox
emerged, Koonin sprung into
action, reaching out to the come-
dian’s camp only a little more than
a week ago. But while there was
interest, O’Brien also made it clear
that he didn’t want to take away
Lopez’s show by having Lopez
suffer the same ironic fate that
befell O’Brien at NBC, where the
network bumped him aside for
Leno.
Koonin then talked with Lopez,
who then called O’Brien to tell
him he was on board with the plan.
Once that was all done, it only
took about 72 hours to get a deal
in place. Indeed, with O’Brien as
a lead-in, it may only help Lopez
in the ratings.
Now O’Brien becomes the lat-
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
est star to abandon broadcast for
cable. Late last year, Oprah Win-
frey announced she was leaving
daytime television to focus full
time on OWN, the cable network
she is launching in partnership
with Discover y Communica-
tions.
The fact that TBS landed a ma-
jor player in late night, tradition-
ally the turf of the broadcast net-
works, “says that anybody can be a
player,” said Brent Poer, managing
director of the Los Angeles offices
of MediaVest, a media buying firm
whose clients include Wal-Mart
and Procter & Gamble. “It’s not
about cable versus broadcast. I
don’t think consumers think that
way. It’s about good programming
versus bad programming.”
O’Brien’s audience on cable
will probably be smaller than it
was on NBC or would have been
www.browndailyherald.com
if he went to Fox. He will face off
against Comedy Central’s Jon
Stewar t, who attracts almost 2
million viewers each night, and
Stephen Colbert, who draws about
1.4 million people. Lopez has been
averaging just over a million view-
ers in that hour.
Even though O’Brien was pull-
ing in more than $12 million annu-
ally from NBC, he stands to earn
even more on cable. That’s be-
cause O’Brien will own his show,
similar to the way Johnny Carson
did with his “Tonight Show,” but
which would have been tougher
for him to get on broadcast tele-
vision.
TBS, meanwhile, will be able
to charge the cable systems that
carr y its channel higher fees if
O’Brien delivers solid ratings,
generating greater revenue for
the network.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Poland seeks
new leadership
after crash
continued from page 7
Poland’s leading leftist party was
also gutted. The presidential candi-
date, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, was killed,
along with its most prominent law-
makers.
“I have no imagination of how it will
be, because everything has changed
now,” said former Prime Minister
Jozef Oleksy. “I don’t know, honestly,
if we will find a new candidate from
the left.”
Meanwhile, decisions were press-
ing.
Komorowski will have to set elec-
tions for the three regions that lost
lawmakers in the upper house of parlia-
ment. Important institutions are also
in need of leadership.
The crash killed the heads of the
central bank and the deeply sensitive
National Remembrance Institute, the
archives containing evidence of spy-
ing, betrayal and arrests of commu-
nist times. New directors have to be
chosen by parliament and approved
by the president, but the parties were
reluctant to make any decisions before
filling all the empty seats.
“It’s a very delicate problem,” said
Napieralski. “Because we did not yet
bury the victims, and we have to dis-
cuss who’s going to replace them.”
Page 9
w orld & N ation
Palin speech draws attention to foundations linked to universities
By Carla Rivera
Los Angeles T imes
LOS ANGELES — An invitation to
former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to
speak at California State University,
Stanislaus’ 50th anniversary gala is
generating controversy and raising
questions about the foundation that
is paying her. The nonprofit is refus-
ing to divulge her speaking fees.
The foundation’s secrecy has
raised scrutiny over the financial
dealings and clout of that group and
scores of others like it that are asso-
ciated with California’s public univer-
sities. The foundations raise billions
of dollars for scholarships and other
programs, run student organizations
and bookstores and perform other
crucial campus functions. But they
are set up as private entities and are
not subject to state law that requires
public agencies, including schools,
to disclose information about how
money is raised and spent.
Among recent incidents drawing
attention: A Sonoma State foundation
made a $1.25 million loan to one of
its former board members, who then
defaulted on the loan. A nonprofit
at Cal State Sacramento is being
audited by the attorney general for
loans made to the university presi-
dent. Foundations at San Francisco
City College, Cal State Fresno and
the San Jose/Evergreen Community
College District have also been em-
broiled in controversy over financial
decisions, according to state Sen.
Leland Yee, who is looking into the
activities.
Concern about the foundations
comes amid broader questions about
how public universities spend tax-
payers’ dollars. This includes recent
disclosures about the use of funds
meant for classrooms and students
to cover real estate and construction
costs and other business pursuits.
The California Faculty Associa-
tion and the California Newspaper
Publishers Association, among
others, are pressing for more trans-
parency from the foundations and
other auxiliary groups. They are
supporting a state bill that would
require these groups to adhere to
California’s Public Records Act. Last
year, a similar bill was vetoed by Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said
some of its provisions would have
a “chilling effect” on the support of
donors and volunteers if their names
were disclosed.
The new bill would protect the
privacy of donors except in cases in
which contributors are given a gift
of $500 or more. It has passed the
state Senate and awaits an Assembly
hearing.
Yee has asked California Attor-
ney General Jerry Brown to inves-
tigate Cal State Stanislaus for fail-
ing to provide documents relating
to Palin’s fundraising appearance.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Yee said the Stanislaus Foundation about 20 percent of the universities’ declined to discuss the issues sur-
is housed on the campus, staffed $6.7 billion budget, according the rounding Palin’s June 25 appearance,
by university employees, uses uni- chancellor’s office. In the 10-cam- a $500-a-plate, black-tie affair. In a
versity e-mail accounts, telephones, pus University of California system, statement, Matt Swanson, president
computers and other resources and 10 major campus foundations hold of the foundation, cited government
is headed by university President about $4 billion in assets. code that exempts auxiliary orga-
Hamid Shirvani. State law allows foundations and nizations from the Public Records
“The Stanislaus situation pro- other nonprofits to provide some Act. He said that the Washington
vides the clearest evidence of the essential services that contribute Speakers Bureau, which represents
collusion between the foundation to the educational mission of the Palin, requires that financial terms
and the state university, the clearest university. of speaker appearances remain con-
evidence of the relationship between At Cal State, for instance, cam- fidential. The Speakers Bureau did
the two and that they are, in fact, not pus radio stations, recreational not return calls for comment.
independent of each other,” Yee said. sports activities and food services “I can assure you that no public
“The larger issue is that I believe the typically are funded and operated funds are being used to support this
state universities have been shifting by auxiliary groups rather than the event,” Swanson said. “All funds used
some of their state responsibilities university. The organizations are have been given for the express pur-
over to the foundations for the sole self supporting and use no general pose of putting on this event in order
purpose of hiding transactions in- fund monies. to raise money to benefit university
volving millions of dollars from the Shirvani, at Cal State Stanislaus, programs and student services.”
public.”
Universities and colleges argue
that much financial information is
already available to the public in an-
nual tax filings and audits that are
frequently posted on campus Web
sites. But critics contend financial
decisions — such as investments
and loans — are made out of sight Follow The Herald on Twitter
and hold the potential for misuse.
For example, without a full account- twitter.com/the_herald
ing of the Palin fee, they argue, it
would be hard to ascertain whether
the event raises money for the foun-
dation.
In the 23-campus Cal State sys-
tem, more than 90 foundations and
auxiliaries control $1.34 billion,
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Tuesday, April 13, 2010

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

Rower apologizes to Harvard

To the editor:
In my column that appeared in
Monday’s sports section (“Ben Dann
’12: Athlete’s notebook,” April 12), I
included a comment questioning the
sportsmanship of the Harvard men’s
crew team and their Head Coach
Harry Parker. I apologize for those
comments. I also apologize to those
who have been offended. I realize
that those comments were wrong. It
was not my intention to disrespect
those who give me the opportu-
nity to compete, whether they are
coaches, competitors, teammates, or
others involved. As a varsity athlete
at Brown, my words not only have
consequences for me, but for my
team and my school. I want to clarify
that my comments do not personify
the opinions of Brown Crew or the
University, and that I take full respon-
sibility for what I said.
Ben Dann ’12

E rik S tayton and E van D onahue

Does this bohter you?

e d i to r i a l
Come copy edit!
herald@browndailyherald.com Not forgotten and not forgiven
We want to believe that most alums recognize the the seat being vacated by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-
major contributions Brown makes to the surrounding R.I. Indeed, if Cicilline wasn’t a loyal alum during his
community. And we would hope that this is particularly time at City Hall, then he probably won’t be an ally
true of anyone who graduated from Brown and went on Capitol Hill.
on to serve as mayor of Providence. Unfortunately, The “Students Against Providence Student Tax”
Providence Mayor and congressional candidate David Facebook group still has over 1,000 members. Each
Cicilline ’83 hasn’t been a friend to Brown lately — far member of this group — and all others who would have
from it. Now that he’s seeking a seat in the House of been impacted by the proposals — should consider
Representatives, he absolutely shouldn’t plan on any making a donation to Cicilline’s opponents in the pri-
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d support from the University or its students. mary or general election. Cicilline initially wanted to
Senior Editors
Last year, the General Assembly considered two impose the $300 per year fee directly on out-of-state
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Deputy Managing Editors
Sophia Li Ellen Cushing bills that targeted Rhode Island’s private colleges students themselves, rather than the institutions they
George Miller Chaz Kelsh
Emmy Liss Seth Motel and universities, The Herald reported July 19. One attend, WPRI reported last May. So even a small con-
Joanna Wohlmuth
bill would have allowed localities to charge schools tribution to another candidate would be a worthwhile
editorial Business
General Managers Office Manager a $300 per year fee for every out-of-state student. investment to keep Cicilline from becoming a member
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor Claire Kiely Shawn Reilly The other bill sought to end the property tax exemp- of congress.
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor Katie Koh tion traditionally accorded to large not-for-profits like Politicians throughout the state are certainly watch-
Hannah Moser Features Editor Directors
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor Kelly Wess Sales Brown. According to The Herald, the two proposals ing Cicilline’s candidacy closely. Brown and Rhode
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor Matthew Burrows Finance “originated” in Cicilline’s office. Island’s other private colleges and universities need
Sydney Ember News Editor Margaret Watson Client Relations
Nicole Friedman News Editor Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations
At the time, we opined that Cicilline and other sup- to stand up for themselves now, at least to send a
Dan Alexander Sports Editor porters of the tax increases were blatantly ignoring message that institutions of higher education in this
Zack Bahr Asst. Sports Editor Managers the fact that the University and its students already state are important constituencies whose interests
Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Arjun Vaidya Local Sales
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Marco deLeon National Sales spend hundreds of millions of dollars locally each year. can’t be ignored.
Aditi Bhatia University Sales Moreover, students at Brown give up countless hours Cicilline overlooked one of the virtues of Brown
Graphics & Photos Jared Davis University Sales
Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales
to volunteer in public schools and other community students — namely, their strong commitment to vol-
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Maximilian Barrows Business Operations organizations. Cicilline could have worked collabora- unteering in the community. Now, he probably won’t
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Jilyn Chao Business Analytics tively with Brown to find new ways for the school to be able to benefit from another one of our virtues:
Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Danielle Marshak Credit and Collections
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor Alexander Carrere Special Projects give back to the city. Instead, he actively encouraged forgiveness. Let’s send a message that politicians
Kathy Bui Staff the state legislature to impose an additional financial shouldn’t try to squeeze a little extra tax revenue from
Production
Kelly Mallahan Copy Desk Chief
Opinions burden that undoubtedly would have fallen on Brown’s college students.
Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor
Marlee Bruning Design Editor Alyssa Ratledge Opinions Editor students and employees.
Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Fortunately, neither of the proposed bills has be-
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Editorial Page Board
Neal Poole Web Editor Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor come law. But that doesn’t mean members of the Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
William Martin Board member Brown community should sit by as Cicilline pursues Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
Melissa Shube Board member
Post- magazine Gaurie Tilak Board member
Marshall Katheder Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Topaz Board member

Anna Migliaccio, Hyojin Nati Kim, Designers correction

Claire Gianotti, Abigail Kerson, Alexandra McFarlane, Carolina Veltri, Copy Editors
Ana Alvarez, Nicole Boucher, Sarah Forman, Night Editors The editorial cartoon in Thursday’s Herald (April 8) was misattributed to Alex Yuly. In fact, the cartoon was
Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Alicia Chen, Kristina Fazzalaro, drawn by Richard Stein and Paul Tran. The Herald regrets the error.
Sarah Forman, Talia Kagan, Sara Luxenberg, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada,
Caitlin Trujillo
Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Shara Azad, Rebecca Ballhaus, Fei Cai, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Anish
Gonchigar, Thomas Jarus, Sarah Julian, Julia Kim, Anita Mathews, Lindor Qunaj, Mark Raymond, Luisa
Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Qian Yin
Senior Sales Executives Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Samantha Wong C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy
Sales Associates Roshni Assomull, Brady Caspar, Anna Cook, Siena deLisser, Begum Ersan, Tommy Fink, Ryan
The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Correc-
Fleming, Evan Gill, Rajiv Iyengar, Debbie Lai, Jason Lee, Katie Lynch, Sean Maroongroge, Zahra Merchant,
Edjola Ruci, Webber Xu
tions may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.
Senior Finance Associates Jason Beckman, Lauren Bosso, Mae Cadao, Margot Grinberg, Sajjad Hasan, Adam C ommentary P O L I C Y
Fern The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily
Finance Associates Lisa Berlin, Mahima Chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Nicholas Robbins, Daniel Slutsky, Emily
reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.
Zheng
Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson L etters to the E ditor P olicy
Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Michael Marttila, Ethan Richman, Adam Zethraeus Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for
Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may
Copy Editors Nicole Boucher, Zoe Chaves, Greg Conyers, Sarah Forman, Claire Gianotti, Aida Haile-Mariam,
request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.
Victoria Hartman, Tiffany Hsu, Christine Joyce, Mrinal Kapoor, Abby Kerson, Matthew Lim, Sara Luxenberg,
Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Rajan Mittal, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, Carmen Shulman, Rebecca advertising P olicy
Specking, Dan Towne, Carolina Veltri The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
Home is where the heart is
MIKE JOHNSON
Opinions Columnist
These are the days of panic and desperation,
of poring over floor plans searching for the
secret spot no one has found before. It’s Hous-
ing Lottery season, that magical time when
freshmen simultaneously pray they don’t get
waitlisted and jealously plot the downfall of
the groups ahead of them that have their eyes
set on those few remaining Caswell doubles.
Even some upperclassmen get into the frenzy,
too. Each group searches with vigor for the
room with the hidden kitchen, or the suite
with the common room that doesn’t cost the
apartment rate.
By now we all should know that nothing
comes for free, and that if something seems
too good to be true, then it probably is. We
are, after all, world-weary and cynical Brown
students — why should we get our feathers
ruffled over a simple housing reshuffle?
But every April, the floor plans go on-
line, and the Residential Council Web site is
bombarded like it’s selling Spring Weekend
tickets, as inquisitive freshmen try to sneak
a peek at the mysterious Minden Hall or the
apartment-sounding 111 Brown Street. Up-
perclassmen delve through floor plans and
listen to whispers about outrageous rumors
like “fresh paint” and “new lounge.” But the
With gods, everything is permitted
DAVID SHEFFIELD
Opinions Columnist
The Roman Catholic Church has recently
suffered from another round of revelations
regarding clerical rapists and institutional
cover-ups. Notably, evidence has surfaced of
Pope Benedict XVI’s role in the protection of
these priests while head of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith. Some people
have been rightly disturbed by this, and as a
result Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 wrote a column
(“Of scandals, religion and forbidden sex,”
Apr. 8) distancing other sects of Christianity
from the Catholic church’s public-relation
problems.
I understand why anyone would want to
distance himself or herself from Catholicism,
but I don’t entirely get why this recent wave is
such an issue. Obviously, this is the first time
the Vatican’s big cheese has been involved,
but it certainly wasn’t unexpected. However,
in the grand scheme of things, this is not a
major ethical blemish for the Catholic Church.
After all, this is merely the rape and physical
abuse of hundreds of children.
Please don’t think that I’m being insincere
and understating what has happened for some
rhetorical effect. I am quite serious.
Suppose that the University employed a
number of rapists, who were systematically
moved from department to department to
try to cover up the abuse of undergrads. That
would certainly be a major issue for Brown
reality is, there are no hidden tricks — the
Office of Residential Life has seen to that,
making sure that when it comes to housing,
we get what we pay for.
Confronting students when they open up
the spreadsheet containing the list of available
rooms are the menacing words “apartment
rate.” What does this mean, exactly? Well, to be
honest, it’s a closely guarded secret. I’ve pored
over the Housing Lottery Web site, and it’s not
on there. It seems fairly conspicuous, and as
The most exclusive class in Brown history, in
terms of admission, will walk through the Van
Wickle gates next fall, and waiting for them are
shabby rooms with totally inadequate lighting,
heating or ventilation.
such, would garner some mention. However,
there is no explanation in the “Room Info” or
“General Info” tab. Similarly, I was unable to
find the phrase “apartment rate” at all on the
ResLife Web site.
Regardless of the specific fee — which
should be clearly delineated on the Lottery
page, given its own link and surrounded in
flashing lights — the very existence of one
seems to me egregious. Every student who
enters into the lottery must pay $10,540 for
— a massive blemish on its record. But we’re
talking about the Catholic Church, an organi-
zation with a dubious ethical record. As one
commentator said, this is like Al Capone finally
getting sent to jail for tax evasion instead of
bootlegging or murder.
Even ignoring historical abuses like inquisi-
tions, crusades and its close relation to fascism,
this abuse pales in comparison with the harm
caused by other church policies. Two million
people died of AIDS-related causes in 2008,
and almost three million people contracted
The international abuse of countless children at
the hands of Catholic clerics is bad, but I do have
to give them credit for at least not killing those
children.
HIV. At the same time, the church hampers
efforts in preventing the virus’s spread. Ac-
cording to Paul VI’s encyclical, “Humanae
Vitae,” the use of contraceptives is verboten.
Condoms, in addition to greatly reducing the
risk of transmitting HIV, prevent pregnancies,
so they’re a big no-no for the Catholic Church.
After all, if priests can abstain from sex (cf.
sexual abuse scandals), so can people likely
to get infected.
Not only does the Catholic Church disre-
gard the well-being of the millions they put
at risk with their prohibition, they actively
room and board, for the 2010-11 academic
year. That amounts to $1,171.11 per month in
what is effectively rent for the nine-month aca-
demic calendar. On top of that, if any groups
of seniors wish to enjoy their final year at
Brown relaxing on a couch in the common
room, then they need to pay an extra fee for
the privilege.
For that exorbitant rent, students are fre-
quently presented with faded and cracked
paint, or sometimes outright dirty rooms on
move-in day. I had a field day filling out my
Room Condition Report this year, noting par-
ticularly exciting things like paint chipped
down to the plaster, and the peculiarly bed-
frame-shaped hole that ran the length of my
wall. Facilities Management and ResLife duti-
fully issue fines for damage not noted in the
Room Condition Report, but where do those
fines go, if not to fix the actual damage?
The most exclusive class in Brown history,
in terms of admission, will walk through the
campaign against their use. During Benedict
XVI’s 2009 trip to Africa, where roughly two-
thirds of all people infected with HIV live, the
Supreme Pontiff made the outlandish claim
that condoms might make the AIDS epidemic
worse.
Obviously, the international abuse of count-
less children at the hands of Catholic clerics
is bad, but I do have to give them credit for
at least not killing the children. Meanwhile,
the Catholic Church is responsible for death
on a massive scale in other parts of the world.
I’m not saying that the Catholic Church is
solely responsible for the AIDS epidemic or
even for all cases of unsafe sex — they are
not. Nonetheless, this does not excuse them
for responsibility in the death of anyone who
contracted HIV after being told by the church
to avoid proper protection. As terrible as the
sexual and physical abuses might be, causing
the death of many more people is far worse.
This brings me back to Mhiripiri, who
wishes to distance his religion from Catholi-
cism and its “virgin” priests. Despite doctrinal
differences — and presumably fewer rapists
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | Page 11
Van Wickle gates next fall, and waiting for
them are shabby rooms with totally inadequate
lighting, heating or ventilation. Instead of reno-
vating the rooms we already have, it seems the
University is more intent on saddling current
students with superfluous fees and making
sure lounges have pool tables. Caswell Hall re-
ceived a lovely new kitchen, a large flat-screen
TV and new furniture in its basement, which
replaced the concrete floor, three couches, a
ping-pong table and a poorly functioning TV
that served as a “lounge” last year.
It seems as though there is an incredible
disconnect between the money Brown stu-
dents’ families are paying for them to live at
this University and the services students are
provided with. If the University is going to
continue charging a premium price to live in
the residence halls, and continue to increase
that fee at a 2.5 percent clip annually, then it’s
time they updated the services they provide.
I’d be willing to sacrifice a pool table to ensure
that my desk didn’t need to be propped up with
old notebooks, or that I can’t hide a wiffle ball
bat inside the hole in my wall.
I suppose that after examining all of the evi-
dence of the Great Housing Heist of 2010, it’s
no wonder why the University forbids under-
classmen from applying for off-campus hous-
ing, and limits the number of upperclassmen
eligible. If they didn’t, we’d all move out.
Mike Johnson ’11 would only publish
this column after the lottery numbers
were released.
in cassocks — his religion suffers from the
same fundamental ethical issue. As the famous
but apocryphal Dostoyevsky quote goes, “If
God does not exist, everything is permitted.”
In reality, the opposite is true. If gods are al-
lowed to dictate morality and ethics, you can
justify anything you want.
The Catholic Church’s stance on contracep-
tives does not come from a careful analysis
of their benefits and detriments. Its policy of
covering up child abuse does not come from
considering the best interests of victims. They
are in place because that’s what the Church
thinks its god wants. The same goes for any
religion that claims its ethical declarations
come from gods — including Mhiripiri’s re-
ligion.
It is permissible to kill a police officer
because some god wants us to bring on the
End Times. It is permissible to take this land
because some other god promised it to us. It is
permissible to execute homosexuals because
another god doesn’t like them. Anyone who
believes he or she is in contact with a god that
dictates morality is able to claim anything he
or she wants. When has an imaginary friend
ever said no?
It is essential that any ethical system be
based on reality. Most people will be restrained
by their human morality from coming to the
previous ethical conclusions, but ultimately
any ethical system based on fantasy suffers
the same fundamental problem.
David Sheffield ’11 is a math-physics
major from New Jersey, who recieves
ethical guidance from Sutekh. He can be
reached at david_sheffield@brown.edu
 Today
The Brown Daily Herald
1 1
c a l e n da r
Today, April 13
12:00 P.M. — The Role of Passions and
Fear in Contemporary World Politics,
Watson Institute
4:00 P.M. — “Mikhail Kuzmin and
Anti-Gay Censorship in Russia,”
Marston Hall
menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Italian Beef Noodle
Casserole, Savory Sauteed Spinach,
Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash
Dinner — Curry Chicken with Coconut,
Vegan Chana Masala, Basmati Rice
Pilaf, New York Style Cheesecake
crossword
5 Bill proposes ban on underage tanning to day to m o r r o w
Republican vies for vacant House seat
6 58 / 39
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
64 / 40
Page 12
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
3
comics
tomorrow, april 14 Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
6:00 P.M. — Building America:
Who Should Control Urban Growth?,
Salomon 001
7:00 P.M. — Panel: The Unrule of
Law in the Occupied Territories:
Prison and Human Rights, Kassar
House, Foxboro Auditorium
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Beef Tacos, Vegan Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Burritos, Grilled Rotisserie Chicken,
Fudge Bars
Dinner — Roast Beef au Jus,
Chicken Broccoli Pasta Alfredo,
Vegan Vegetable Couscous
Excelsior | Kevin Grubb
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker