By shefali luthraSenior Staff Writer

Despite an embarrassingly lackluster performance by Das Racist, a no-show by Lissy Trullie, an offensive and often boring concert from head-liner Diddy-Dirty Money — when Diddy finally showed up — and a torrential downpour Saturday night, Spring Weekend was not a complete failure. At least there was Wyclef Jean.

For the first time since 2008, both concerts were held indoors, inviting criticism from students over Meehan Auditorium’s distorted sound system and seat polarization — only the first 1,000 students to arrive were allowed near the stage, while the rest were relegated to bleachers. But the weekend did have its positives, thanks to TV on the Radio, Rebirth Brass Band, Lee Fields and the Ex-pressions, a surprise performance by Wyclef and Dave Binder’s sun-drenched 25th anniversary acoustic performance.

Friday’s performance — though tempered by the notable absence of scheduled artist Trullie — featured TV on the Radio, who gave an in-fectiously energetic performance, with a blend of electrifying rock and soothing soul. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s crooning “oohs,” ac-companied by resounding drums, created an experience that was musi-cally innovative and engaging.

“Rumor has it you guys came to party,” Adebimpe shouted. TV on the Radio was ready to facilitate just that.

And on Saturday, Rebirth Brass Band turned Meehan into a dance

Monday, April 18, 2011Daily Heraldthe Brown

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therNo 4/20?

Weak end: Wyclef wins, but Diddy disappointsNelson ’12 to be UCS presidentLee ’12 to head UFB

By DaviD ChuNgSenior Staff Writer

Ralanda Nelson ’12 will serve as president of the Undergraduate Council of Students next year, an-nounced Anthony White ’13, chair of the Elections Board, at 11:59 p.m. Thursday on the steps of Faunce House. Nelson, who is currently the UCS student activities chair, defeated UCS Vice President Ben Farber ’12 with 58.7 percent of the vote in the elections that began Tues-day and ended at noon Thursday. A total of 1,584 students voted during the 48-hour period.

“My heart was in it, and I’m really excited that I can do great things for Brown next year, and I’m extremely, extremely humbled,” Nelson said.

Congratulating Nelson on the victory, Farber said, “I know that she’s going to make an amazing UCS president next year, and I can’t ex-press how thankful I am that the campaign went so smoothly and that we have continued to get along so well.”

Jason Lee ’12, vice chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, defeated David Chanin ’12, a UFB representative, for next year’s UFB chair with a slight majority of 52.5 percent.

Plurality prioritizes financial aid

By Jeffrey haNDlerStaff Writer

Nearly 40 percent of students think the University’s highest priority should be increasing financial aid, according to last month’s Herald poll. Fifteen percent indicated the highest priority should be renovating on-campus housing, and close to 10 percent said the University should be primarily focused either build-ing new on-campus residence halls or hiring more faculty. Slightly over 25 percent of students thought the University should prioritize other options, including improving class-rooms and labs, improving food op-tions or improving athletic facilities.

Administrators were not sur-prised by the results and stressed that University Hall also considers finan-cial aid one of Brown’s top priorities.

“It really is important. The Uni-versity is much better if we can attract not only the most talented student body but the most diverse student body, including economic diversity, and a very strong financial aid pro-gram is pretty much at the heart of that,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and se-nior adviser to the president.

Spies added financial aid is espe-cially crucial now, given the recent recession. “There are very few stu-dents here who don’t have to worry about it at all,” he said.

“No one has ever come to us and said, ‘You’ve given us too much

Claire Peracchio / HeraldTea Partiers gathered at the State House Friday for the third annual Tax Day rally.

Jonathan Bateman, Stephanie London and Hilary Rosenthal / HeraldSome students said they found Friday’s opening act Das Racist (above) unsatisfactory. Nico Jaar ’12 (left) was the first of many performers to play at Saturday’s concert, which lasted over five hours.

Tea Party protests taxes, status quo at State House

By Claire PeraCChioCity & State editor

The deadline for residents to file their taxes is today, but the state’s Tea Party wants Rhode Islanders to know that the battle against the tax expansion proposed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 wages on.

At the third annual Tax Day rally Friday, several hundred Tea Party supporters took to the State House steps to protest Chafee’s tax plan and voice support for lower taxes and smaller government. Chafee’s pro-posal to raise $165 million by lower-ing the state sales tax to 6 percent, taxing some currently exempt items at that rate and imposing a 1 percent sales tax on other exempt items was the rally’s main target, with public sector unions and deficit spending also taking jabs from speakers.

“Read my lips, as George H. W. Bush said,” WHJJ radio personality Helen Glover told the crowd. “There will be new taxes unless you speak out.” Former President George H. W. Bush famously pledged, “Read my lips: no new taxes,” at the 1988 Republican National Convention, but his failure to fulfill the pledge is widely considered a decisive factor in his 1992 reelection defeat.

Glover hosted the event, which featured an ’80s-style rock band called Reagan’s Edge and Revolu-tionary War re-enactors, who treat-ed the crowd to musket salutes at the beginning and end of the rally. Ral-liers carried signs emblazoned with “TEA’D Off,” “Taxed Enough Al-ready” and “Not a Fan of the Chafee Tax Plan.” Another sign, bearing a

continued on page 4continued on page 2

continued on page 5 continued on page 3

picture of Chafee, read, “Japan was hit by a typhoon, Rhode Island was hit by a buffoon.”

Speakers said Chafee’s plan was dealt a setback Wednesday night when House Speaker Gordon Fox said the proposal was “unacceptable” and called the suggested 1 percent tax on items like heating oil and wa-ter “particularly offensive.” But the battle to kill the tax hike completely is not over, speakers said.

“We cannot let up,” said Colleen Conley, the Rhode Island Tea Party’s founder and leader. “We need to keep up the pressure.”

A representative of Rhode Island Salons United Against Taxing Ser-vices, a coalition of beauty service providers opposed to Chafee’s pro-

posal to extend the sales tax to previ-ously untaxed services, also spoke.

John Robitaille, the 2010 Repub-lican gubernatorial candidate who lost to Chafee by less than 3 percent, did not speak at the event but told The Herald he was there to support small business owners. Though he said it was too early to announce whether he would run again in 2014, Robitaille praised the Tea Party for engaging so many people in the po-litical process.

“Many people haven’t been in-volved before,” he said.

Gail Riddensdale, a Warwick resident whose husband recently lost his job as an engineer at a Wakefield manufacturing company, said she believes the governor and General Assembly are out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people.

“It’s not the taxpayers who are at fault,” Riddensdale said. “It’s the people in this building right here.”

A handful of counter-protesters from Brown and the liberal orga-nizations Ocean State Action and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice were also in attendance. Tea Party sup-porters carried signs reading “Infil-trator” and “Not with the Tea Party” as they followed counter-protesters around the event, making them eas-ily identifiable.

“To be honest, I’m impressed at the level of organization that they were ready for counter-protesters,” said Katherine Cielinski ’12, adding that she did not mind the attention, since it let people know that not ev-eryone at the rally supported the Tea Party.

Travis Rowley ’02, chairman of the Rhode Island Young Republi-cans, called out the counter-protest-ers for alleging that conservatives do not care about the state’s poor. He said supporters of Rhode Island’s lib-eral establishment have done little to improve the plight of impoverished people in places like Central Falls.

“These are the people who have been laughing at you, laughing at us for the past two years,” Rowley said, pointing to the State House.

“I want the governor and the General Assembly to succeed,” said John Reynolds, a Robitaille supporter and a member of the Woonsocket Taxpayer Coalition. “But if they continue to act like this, I want them to fail.”

Ben Schreckinger, PresidentSydney Ember, Vice President

Matthew Burrows, TreasurerIsha Gulati, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Fri-day during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Campus news2 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

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C a L e N D a R Protestors ‘cannot let up’ on tax proposal continued from page 1

Campus news 3the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

U. opens education center in New YorkBy sarah MaNCoNe

Staff Writer

The University’s Annenberg Insti-tute for School Reform is opening a Center for Education Organiz-ing in New York City to support organizations around the coun-try in transforming urban public schools.

The center will offer training for youth and adult leaders, pro-vide research and education policy analysis, build alliances across various groups and enable the sharing of successful organizing strategies, according to an April 4 press release.

The center is an expansion of the institute’s office for education organizing, which was part of New York University until the office merged with the institute four years ago, said Richard Gray ’85, co-director of community orga-nizing and engagement at Annen-berg, who is based at the center in New York.

The office’s work in New York over the past four years is the sub-ject of a documentary titled “Par-ent Power,” which will be shown in a pre-premiere screening on campus April 25.

Prior to the creation of the new center, the office focused more on groups based in New York, but now the center will focus more on national organizations, he said.

In New York, the institute fo-cused its attention on “community revitalization,” formulating strate-gies for community organizations based on research and data, Gray said. This will also be the approach for the center’s national work.

“Individual organizations in the cities will reach out to us and ask for support” to address prob-lems such as school closings, fi-nancial cuts and lack of quality teachers, Gray said. The center will then advise these groups on the best ways to enact change.

The center will also link people associated with community or-ganizations across the country through “webinars” and video conferences, Gray said.

“People want to learn from their peers,” he said. “They want to know what is happening in Mis-sissippi, California and Denver.”

The center will “create a dia-logue across all of these organiz-ing groups,” said Michelle Renee, senior research associate at An-nenberg and assistant clinical pro-fessor in the Master’s in Urban Education Policy program.

In addition to connecting peo-ple across the nation, the center hopes to bring together parent groups and teachers’ unions. “Teachers and parents should be natural allies in creating and changing a positive learning en-vironment for kids,” Gray said.

The center currently has six staff members who work primarily in New York, although there are consultants in Washington and Los Angeles, Gray said.

Some of the work will require staff members to travel to particu-lar sites, Renee said. For example, she is based in Los Angeles and is “meeting with parents in Las Vegas to explain the story of what has happened in New York.”

The center is currently looking for funds to expand and will then be able to hire more staff mem-bers, Gray said.

Master’s students from the Urban Education Policy program work at the center as interns. In addition, Gray said he hopes the center will eventually be able to offer internships to Brown un-dergraduates.

“Students will be able to come to us and identify places they would like to connect with,” Gray said, adding that they will “par-ticipate in improving the quality of education around the country.”

Gray called the creation of the center an “important step for a university that has historically had a commitment for improving quality of life” for both students and the community.

“We firmly believe that public education and getting access to education … is the civil rights is-sue of our era,” Gray said.

hall from the moment the band stepped onstage with blaring instru-ments and vibrant music. Students on and off the rink went beyond the usual head bob. They grooved — clapping, cheering and singing along to songs they had never heard before. Lee Fields — with a glittering green suit and rich, soulful voice — sus-tained that energy, inspiring audi-ence members to dance even while they stood in line to buy concessions.

But the highlight of the week-end was the surprise performance by Wyclef, a visiting fellow in the Department of Africana Stud-ies, returning to the stage after his 2000 Spring Weekend performance. Whether he was strumming his gui-tar to “No Woman, No Cry,” groov-ing to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or dancing in the audience, Wyclef created an intimate atmo-sphere. Had Wyclef chosen not to sing, his enthusiasm and charisma would have been more than suffi-cient.

But the other acts were disap-pointing.

There was Das Racist, whose sense of humor, while funny on YouTube, did not translate well to the stage. The performance was no-where near interesting enough to pump students up — even the trio’s rendition of the hit “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” didn’t excite the audience.

“That act just sucks,” said John Oberbeck ’14 of Das Racist.

Then there was Trullie, the myste-rious opener who tours with TV on the Radio but failed to appear Friday night. Her absence was disappoint-ing, given the quality of her music. According to Abby Schreiber ’11,

Brown Concert Agency’s booking chair, Trullie did not make it to the concert because her car broke down.

Shawn Patterson ’12 said though he was not familiar with Trullie’s mu-sic, the absence of a performer “really cut down on the concert experience.” He said he was so disappointed with Friday’s concert that he sold his Sat-urday ticket.

The location itself also proved frustrating to concert attendees. The sound system distorted artists’ voices, so only someone obsessively familiar with lyrics could follow what was being sung. The split in seat-ing created a frustrating duality in concert experiences. While those on the floor could move to the music, dancing in the bleachers was only worth it for an exceptional act.

“I was not a fan of the indoor arena,” Patterson said. Patterson said he found Meehan’s acoustics disap-pointing, especially with Das Racist.

“I didn’t understand a word they said,” he said.

Katerina Wright ’11 said Saturday night’s rain justified the indoor set-ting but said she thought holding the concerts in Meehan affected the weekend’s atmosphere.

“The entire experience is different inside,” she said. “It’s less communal.”

She was also happy that the rain stopped by Sunday, adding “It’s al-ways sunny for Dave Binder.”

Kate Nemetz ’13, who was in the bleachers Friday night, criticized the seating setup and said she was frus-trated by a half-hour period between sets when the lights were turned on.

“It’s not about the bands. This is a terrible setup,” Nemetz said. “I really had high hopes, and this (expletive) sucks.”

continued from page 1

continued on page 4

Concerts face delays and disappointment

Campus news4 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

money, take some back,’” said James Tilton, director of financial aid. “Stu-dents and families continue to look for ways, creative ways, to pay for college, and it’s always going to be stressful.”

Forty-six percent of students re-ceive need-based financial aid, ac-cording to Tilton.

“I work in the cafeteria and, if I had those hours back, I would be doing research and doing some other things on campus,” she said.

The University’s main priorities, spelled out in the Plan for Academic Enrichment, are improving under-

graduate education, international-ization and strengthening academic programs and departments, Spies said. “One of the first initiatives for the Plan for Academic Enrichment was the introduction of need-blind admission.”

“I think over time, Brown sort of has shown its commitment to fi-nancial aid,” Tilton said, pointing to Brown’s decision to go need-blind in 2003 and the financial aid initiatives of 2008 and 2009.

In the poll, seniors were most likely to prioritize financial aid. The class of 2011 was the last class be-fore the financial aid initiatives were introduced in the 2008-09 school

year that eliminated loans for families making less than $100,000 a year, Tilton said.

Seniors also meet with counselors in the student loan office to figure out how best to deal with paying back their loans, Tilton said.

Though improving financial aid is certainly a high priority, Spies cautioned that there is danger in only considering one option as a top priority.

“The idea of a plan is that there are multiple goals that you can work on simultaneously and that each makes the other better, and that’s why I think to try to focus on one and only one is a mistake,” Spies said. “If

we have a great financial aid program but we’re not keeping up with faculty competitiveness, then that’s not a good result”

The University’s is also hoping to continue strengthening and im-proving academic programs and aca-demic offerings, Spies said. Recently, the University has turned its atten-tion to areas including archaeology, life sciences, Africana studies and engineering.

Slightly less than 10 percent of students indicated the University’s highest priority should be hiring new faculty. The percentage of seniors who felt this way was significantly higher than the percentage of first-years and sophomores.

“I’d be surprised and disappoint-ed if you told me the opposite, that seniors were less inclined to think about faculty,” Spies said. “Seniors understand more because they have more experience with the direct con-tact with faculty”

Across the board, students saw the improvement of current on-cam-pus housing and the construction of new residence halls as priorities.

“The quality and quantity of dorms does have an effect on un-dergraduate education,” Spies said. “When you have dorms that are both overcrowded and not in great shape, it can be a drag. So we need to do something. It always was part of the plan, but it’s emerging as more urgent.”

Only about 6 percent of students indicated improving athletic facilities should be the highest priority. The percentage of males who thought that athletic facilities should be the highest priority was significantly higher than the percentage of fe-males.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Kayla Skinner ’12. “Dudes spend more time at the gym. It’s pretty self explanatory.”

“I visited a lot of other schools, and their athletic facilities are a lot better than Brown’s, and I think it is kind of a turn off for people who are looking at Brown to go visit the (Olney-Margolies Athletic Center),” Skinner said. “The OMAC is a joke. It really is. There are treadmills in the hallways.”

continued from page 1

Location, delays frustrate concert-goers

Saturday’s concert was initially delayed by two hours when Diddy-Dirty Money informed the Uni-versity that it was running behind schedule.

Another Diddy delay — Wyclef ’s set ended at 8:45 p.m., and Diddy was not onstage until 9:45 p.m.— pushed the frustration past the limit. The hour between Wyclef and Diddy involved unknown DJs and rappers, as well as periods of no performanc-es while students booed and chanted Diddy’s name.

“It is humbling for us to be here tonight,” Diddy proclaimed, when he finally arrived. But it was hard to believe him after such a delay.

Consisting mainly of excerpts of his songs and extended tributes to Biggie Smalls, Saturday’s perfor-mance was not what you expect from a headliner. There was no customary call for an encore, and students trick-led out of Meehan — some before

Diddy even got onstage.Wright, who said she is “not a

Diddy fan,” still enjoyed his show, though she agreed that Wyclef was definitely the “surprise hit” of the evening.

“(Diddy) is a performer,” she added.

But Conor Kane ’14, who left be-fore Diddy’s set was finished, was less satisfied.

“You know how people can be great performers or be personable? I thought he fell in the middle,” Kane said.

Kane also said he thought Satur-day night’s rain put a damper on the mood, saying that less seemed to be going on because of the rain.

“It’s funny that parties kind of got rained out,” he said.

Maybe, then, Das Racist was good for something. In three lines, they captured the weekend: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the combination best of times and worst of times.”

katie wilson / Herald

Students consider financial aid a priority, poll saysIn your opinion, what should be the

University’s highest prority?

continued from page 3

5the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

Dr. Bear | Mat Becker

Dot Comic | eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Gelotology | Guillaume Riesen

Co M I C S

regulation. But Yale then pulled away. The

Elis scored three unanswered goals, and Brown could not come through on the other end. At the final whistle, Yale came away with a 10-6 win in its final home game of the season.

“That’s what’s been lacking with us — how to win the end of the game,” Tiffany said. “And unfor-tunately, that was exposed again on Saturday.”

Yet again, a bright spot for the Bears was the play of goalie Matt Chris ’11, who made 12 saves on the day. Going into the contest, the senior ranked sixth nationally in both save percentage (.607) and saves per game (12.2).

“Matt made four saves in the first half and was keeping Yale frus-trated,” Tiffany said. “Second half, Matt actually made eight saves. And as Yale was cranking up the heat on us and playing at a much faster pace and was playing better lacrosse than us, Matt made eight saves and a lot of them were really tough saves. He kept that game close.”

The loss is a setback in the Bears’

pursuit of a spot in the Ivy League playoffs. The conference’s top four squads advance to the tournament, which is hosted by the first-place school. Brown will return home Saturday to take on No. 5 Cornell (9-2, 4-0), which holds sole posses-sion of first place and looks primed to lock up one of the four spots. Yale and Penn are now tied for sec-ond, and Brown sits only one game behind fourth-place Princeton (4-6, 2-2) with Cornell and Dartmouth (4-7, 1-3) left on the Ivy schedule.

“If we have any shot of continu-ing the season further than April 30, then (the Cornell game) is a must-win,” Tiffany said. “We’re the injured, wounded animal with its back into a corner — that’s us. If we want to define this season any different than the way it (has) progressed to this point, it’s now or never, and we’ve got to come out of that corner.”

But before the Cornell show-down, the Bears must focus on crosstown rival Providence Col-lege (3-8, 0-3 Big East), a “much-improved” program according to Tiffany. Faceoff is set for Tuesday night at PC’s Friar Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex.

as the season nears its end. Tues-day’s home game against St. Mary’s College of California is another chance for the Bears to return to winning ways. McDonald said the same consistent effort and team

unity should be enough to end the season on a high note.

“Playing our best as a unit and everyone bringing their best com-ing game time is what we’ll con-tinue focusing on,” McDonald said. “We’re really making an effort to finish the season strong.”

continued from page 8

Bruno loss to Yale threatens playoff hopes

Women’s lax optimistic about season’s end

continued from page 8

“I want to thank everyone who supported me,” Lee said.

In the only contested race for a UCS committee chair, Mae Cadao ’13 was elected next year’s student activities chair with 51 percent of the vote. She defeated Daniel Pip-kin ’14 and Noelle Spencer ’14. The three candidates currently serve on the Student Activities Committee under Nelson’s leadership.

“I really hope I can follow through on everything, and I’m really excited about the position,” Cadao said. “I really want to make big things happen.”

Five candidates — Ariel Caldwell ’14, Raaj Parekh ’13, Chris Catoya ’13, Golnoosh Mahdavi ’14 and Zac Fischer ’13 — were chosen to serve as UFB at-large representatives for next year, leaving three spots unfilled. Jesse Castellanos ’13 and Natalie Van Houten ’14 did not re-ceive the required 5 percent of the vote for the position.

Only two positions for the Class Coordinating Boards were contested. Brandon Tomasso ’13 was elected president for the class of 2013 with 57 percent of the vote, and Kelsey Tripp ’13 won the vice president race with 59 percent of the vote.

Most candidates in races for the UCS, UFB and CCB positions were unopposed.

Meera Chappidi ’12 and Imani Tisdale ’12 will lead the class of 2012 as co-presidents, and Andrew Sil-verman ’14 will serve as president for the class of 2014.

David Rattner ’13, UCS campus life chair, will serve as the council’s vice president next year. Todd Har-ris ’14, Michael Lin ’14 and Michael Schneider ’13 will chair the Aca-demic and Administrative Affairs, Admissions and Student Services and Campus Life committees, re-spectively. Afia Kwakwa ’14 will be UCS treasurer and Stephanie Pak ’12 will represent the council at Ivy Council.

Undergrads elect next year’s class leaders

continued from page 1

editorial & Letter6 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

L e T T e R To T H e e D I To R

C O R R E C T I O N S P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

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SSDP does not endorse drug useTo the Editor:

In an April 14 front-page story (“Hold the foam: passing on Spring Weekend,” April 14), an event spon-sored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy was used as evidence that campus gets wild and crazy during Spring Weekend. The following is a clarification of our mission, because the representation of our group was far from positive.

I want to clarify on behalf of Students for Sensible Drug Policy that we in no way endorse or romanticize drug use. Our mission as a grassroots student organi-zation is to change the wrongheaded drug policies, as well as the culture of abuse, that permeate our society. The Herald article attempted to use an SSDP-sponsored event — the lending out of an ecstasy testing chemical kit — as evidence of how crazy things get at Brown during Spring Weekend.

Our event was grossly misappropriated in the ar-

ticle. A quote from our Facebook event page was taken completely out of context, and we want to explicitly reject any association of reckless or irresponsible be-havior with our goals and missions as a student group. We are providing an information service. However regrettable the fact may be for some, Brown students will consume unidentified pills and powders they bought from strangers. The purpose of our service is to enable students to know what they are consuming so they can make an educated decision instead of a blind guess.

So counter to what one might think from reading the article, our role is not to praise inherently risky drug use. Rather, we aim to create an anonymous, non-judgmental space where students can become more informed before making a potentially lethal decision.

Jared moffat ’13Students for Sensible Drug Policy president

“No one has ever come to us and said, ‘You’ve given

us too much money, take some back’”— James Tilton, director of financial aid

see finanCial aid on page 1.

e D I To R I a L

As the Alpert Medical School prepares to make its transition to the Jewelry District, we are pleased to see that it is looking to make other expansions as well. Thanks to a generous grant of over $87,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation, the Med School is capable of funding new initiatives to get students interested in pursuing primary health care.

Particularly as last year’s national health care reform law begins to take effect, enabling more Americans to seek basic health services, the demand for primary care will increase in coming years. Unfortunately, the supply of these physicians is disconcertingly low, and those who do practice in the field tend to be overworked and underpaid. Take for instance the statistic that doctors in subspecialties can receive up to $3.5 million more than those in primary care over the course of a 40-year career. It’s not hard to see why a student graduating from medical school with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt might choose a more lucrative field over a necessary one.

For a primary care physician trying to make up for both the un-derstaffing and the stark compensation differential, taking the time — which could be spent catering to patients — to mentor current medical students can be costly. This is precisely why the Rhode Island Foundation’s grant to reward primary care mentors is so crucial: It not only aids physicians, but also provides students with the exposure they would need early in their career to form a personal connection with the field of primary care.

The Rhode Island Foundation has also helped to fund loan for-giveness for students planning to practice primary care in the state. There are national counterparts to this fund that repay medical tuition in exchange for a few years of medical service in rural settings and the military, so those considering primary care are not left without financial options.

Students at elite private institutions are more likely to specialize, often because of conceptions about prestige, which may be related to the pay discrepancy. Though Brown prides itself on producing socially conscious graduates, the statistics don’t always separate us from other, similar schools. We still believe that medical students at Brown can benefit from more experience providing basic health care. If possible, we hope many of these opportunities include serving rural and un-derserved populations.

At a time when health care spending in the United States is unsus-tainably high, even surpassing that of most other Western nations, the importance of dedicated and well-trained doctors in primary care cannot be overstated. Providing preventative care is far less costly than dealing with acute conditions that arise from years of poorly managed health. We urge both medical students and pre-med undergraduate stu-dents to keep this in mind as they progress in their careers in medicine.

editorials are written by The herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Making primary care a priority

BY e R I k S TaY To N a N D e Va N D o N a H u ee D I To R I a L Co M I C

opinions 7the Brown Daily heraldMonday, April 18, 2011

As we anticipate the arrival this fall of the most geographically diverse group of admit-ted students ever to enter Brown, a moment presents itself to reflect on the aims of inter-nationalism at Brown and on the experiences that face students from abroad. Specifically, I want to talk about what awaits students from sub-Saharan Africa.

In January 2008, President Ruth Simmons and Israeli businessman Idan Ofer jointly an-nounced the establishment of the Advanc-ing Africa Scholarship Fund, a program to financially support African students attend-ing Brown and both require and facilitate the application of their acquired skills in their home countries after graduation. As part of a larger initiative known as Focus on Africa, Ofer’s gift of $5.75 million became one of sev-eral facets in one of the administration’s new-est projects — to include sub-Saharan Africa in efforts to make the University more glob-ally connected.

In the same year the new scholarship was announced, Simmons attended a three-day conference titled “The University Leaders Forum: Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of African Academics” in Accra, Ghana.

The fact that Simmons was one of only four representatives of a U.S. university at the conference — and the only university presi-dent — speaks to the depth of Brown’s inter-est in African tertiary education. Yet perhaps

even more than Simmons’ decision to attend this conference, it is the content of Brown’s input and its ramifications for African stu-dents at Brown that deserve attention. Quot-ed by news agency Modern Ghana, Simmons said, “Students must move across the educa-tional system easily and resources must be at their disposal to enable them to upgrade their knowledge in areas such as science and tech-nology and embarking on research.”

These words speak to the expectations that rest with African students in higher educa-tion. Taking stock of challenges including the

lowest college enrollment rates in the world and the ever-present brain drain of highly educated individuals toward economies in the Global North, the educators, leaders and analysts who met in Accra sought to define investments in higher education that could drive development in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the recurrent themes was the need for advancement in science and technology education “to develop informed policies and pursue sustainable development” and the need to create viable employment opportuni-ties and other incentives for highly educated people to stay in their home countries.

As a representation of the dialogue over education and the future of African develop-

ment, the statements that were produced at this conference are indicative of the climate that surrounds African students, including those at Brown. Unambiguously, the expecta-tion exists that African students will gain ex-pertise relevant to their countries in science and technology and that upon gaining these skills, they will return and put them to good use in their countries of origin. The first pres-ident of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, put it blunt-ly: “Those who receive (higher education), therefore, have a duty to repay the sacrifice which others have made. They are like the

man who has been given all the food available in a starving village in order that he might have strength to bring supplies back from a distant place. If he takes this food and does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor.”

African students feel this scrutiny. As Ad-vancing Africa Scholar Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 once said in an interview with The Her-ald, “I need to be exemplary for those who I had to deal with, work with, live with in Zim-babwe — I need to be someone they can em-ulate.”

Clearly, much is at stake for students from sub-Saharan Africa entering institutions like Brown. But what does this mean at Brown, with its traditions of liberal learning and the

New Curriculum? The website of the Dean of the College states, “Our open curricu-lum ensures you great freedom in directing the course of your education … by cultivat-ing such openness, you will learn to make the most of the freedom you have, and to chart the broadest possible intellectual jour-ney.” Is it possible for students to chart their own broad intellectual journey if the purely utilitarian gathering of knowledge for the ad-vancement of their society is an obligation?

I would not claim for an instant that Sim-mons, Nyerere or any speaker from the Uni-versity Leader’s Conference is wrong or that the burden of expectation is unjust. As the son of someone who holds a doctorate and was educated in Nyerere’s Tanzania, I too feel this responsibility. No one can deny that Af-rica desperately needs qualified professionals and academics, including those with back-grounds in the sciences and technology — not to suggest that the arts and humanities may safely be omitted from African scholar-ship. But this burden must be recognized and reconciled with the proclaimed values of the University to an extent that it currently is not.

A strong community of support must exist at Brown. This community must go beyond celebrating the presence of African students and scholars with lectures or cultural events. It must facilitate greater cohesion between the communities of African undergraduates and graduate students, faculty and the initia-tives of the administration.

Ian Trupin ’13 is a Coe organizational Studies concentrator and will finish

articulating what he wants in two weeks’ time.

The African student’s burden

Brown students are generally very social-ly conscious, as far as college-age students go. We protest sweatshop labor, the lack of government transparency, funding for unethical projects and the lack of funding for ethical projects. We encourage the pur-chasing and consuming of locally grown, organic and ethically produced goods. We question the reasons why we act the way we do, from wearing leggings in the winter to wearing hipster glasses and listening to Lady Gaga.

But why do we not ever have open con-versations about the sociopolitical issues surrounding drug use? Why do we fail to connect foreign wars with our own habits as individuals?

With 4/20 coming up, I am concerned that many students fail to see the connec-tion between the purchase and consump-tion of illegal drugs on college campuses and the violence and chaos in many parts of the world. Gang warfare surrounding drugs exists not only in Mexico and Co-lombia, but also in urban California, New York and most of the southern United States, to name but a handful of locations. To top it off, most of the money is coming from the United States, where consump-tion is most prevalent — illicit drug sales rein in $13.6 to $48.8 billion each year, and these are earnings for Mexico alone.

But the price we pay is much steeper. Swallow this figure if you can — in Mexico,

over 10,000 people died in drug-war-re-lated incidents between January 2007 and June 2009. By the end of 2010, this num-ber had risen to over 30,000 casualties. Let me say that again — over 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since I first stepped onto campus as a first-year in 2007. This semester alone, another 5,000 have been added to the death toll, making this figure a heart-wrenching 35,000. Every time I go home, I have to hear another sto-

ry about a mass grave or a bus hijacking. I cannot help but connect it to what I see happening daily on my own beloved col-lege campus, and it breaks my heart.

How many times have you or your friends smoked weed while you have been at school? One, three, perhaps 30? Are you looking forward to 4/20? Even if you are the kind of person who tries to steer clear of pot, you have probably known, inter-acted with or even lived with people who consume drugs frequently. I get it. Being in college in the United States is synonymous with getting drunk, getting high and party-

ing on weekends.Nonetheless, whenever I have pointed

out to friends and acquaintances that such unthinking debauchery is killing thou-sands of people in my home country — nay, killing tens of thousands of citizens of our shared world — they wave me off as a mood killer, as if getting high at the ex-pense of other people’s lives were a God-given right, or as if it were solely the gov-ernment’s responsibility to legalize drugs

in response. I’ll be honest — when people light up a joint around me, I get very up-set. Why, I ask you, shouldn’t I be? Until both the United States and Mexico get their pants on straight, every dollar you give to your dealer is a dollar that is fueling the drug war.

I need to make this point clear — I am not against people doing what they like with their own bodies, as long as it is not harming anyone else. I acknowledge that marijuana is fairly harmless, as far as drugs go. I will even acknowledge that it is a lot of fun and that people should be allowed to

smoke it legally. The problem, in this case, is that smoking marijuana in this country is harming someone else. In fact, it is kill-ing people.

Of course, the governments involved in this case are both at fault. I do think one of the viable solutions to this problem is le-galization, and I recognize the significance of 4/20 as a day of protest. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of money that gets poured into the illegal drug market at this time of year probably fuels a large majority of the violence that is required to keep the opera-tion going. Getting those illegal substanc-es into that little plastic bag in your sock drawer costs money — which is being used to buy guns and shoot police and civilians. It is money that is kindling tragic and inex-cusable bloodshed.

Even if you are sure that your weed or cocaine originated locally, you should still be concerned about this problem, as it is relevant to the counterculture community to which you belong. Have conversations with your friends about this. If you want-ed to get high on 4/20 this year, plan some-thing else. Maybe you can start a move-ment and have a 4/20 abstinence party. You can still have fun and still make a point of asking the government to legalize mari-juana. Stick it to the man. Just please, dear reader, do not do it at the expense of other people’s lives. Your Mexican brethren will thank you, starting with myself.

Sofia ortiz-Hinojosa ’11 is a philosophy and classics concentrator from Monterrey, Mexico. She can be contacted at sofia.ortiz@gmail.com.

4/20 and the drug war

Smoking marijuana in this country is harming someone else. In fact, it is killing people

Clearly, much is at stake for students from sub-Saharan africa entering institutions like Brown. But what does

this mean in the context of Brown, with its traditions of liberal learning and the New Curriculum?

BY SoFIa oRTIz-HINoJoSaGuest Columnist

BY IaN TRuPINopinions Columnist

Daily Heraldthe Brown

Sports MondayMonday, April 18, 2011

Second half kills Bruno, lifts No. 14 YaleBy ethaN MCCoy

aSSiStant SportS editor

The men’s lacrosse team jumped out to a 3-0 first-quarter lead over Yale, but the Bulldogs outscored Bruno (4-7, 1-3 Ivy) by six goals in a one-sided second half to notch a 10-6 victory Saturday in New Haven, Conn. The win propelled Yale (8-2, 3-2) to a tie for second place in the Ivy League, while Brown dropped to a tie for fifth.

“In the second half, some un-forced errors continued and we didn’t step up and make the big plays,” said Head Coach Lars Tif-fany ’90. “Yale was making plays and finding ways to put the ball in the net, finding a way to pick up the tough ground balls.”

Brown came out strong and looked poised to build off last week’s win over No. 17 Penn (6-4, 3-2). Attacker Parker Brown ’12 scored the game’s first goal less than a minute after faceoff. The Bears tacked onto their lead later in the quarter with goals from attacker Andrew Feinberg ’11 and defen-seman Peter Fallon ’11, two of the team’s three tri-captains. Feinberg, the team’s leading scorer, returned to the field for the first time since March 29 after missing the team’s past three games with a concussion.

“It was great having Andrew back against Yale,” Tiffany said. “He made an impact right away and scored two goals. Andrew knows it wasn’t his best lacrosse game,

but none of us hold it against him … He was just cleared to play on Wednesday, so there’s going to be some rust.”

Yale cut the deficit to 3-1 on a goal from Brian Douglass early in the second, but Brown quickly answered back with a score from David Hawley ’11. The teams continued to trade punches, as Douglass scored his second of the game before halftime, again cutting Bruno’s lead to two goals.

Only 16 seconds into the third quarter, the Bulldogs found the back of the net to cut the lead to one. Four minutes later, they

evened the score on a goal from Andrew Cordia.

Feinberg notched his second tally of the day just over a minute later, but the 5-4 advantage would be the Bears’ final lead of the game. Yale scored twice more in the third to take its first lead of the game and headed into the final quarter with momentum on its side.

In the fourth, after a Matt Gib-son goal extended Yale’s lead to 7-5, Brown pulled back within a score on a Rob Schlesinger ’12 finish with just under seven minutes left in

Bears continue losing streak against Ivy teams

By saM WiCKhaMSportS Staff Writer

Several strong defensive stands were not enough for the women’s lacrosse team, who posted a 14-7 loss to Cornell in Ithaca Satur-day. Despite controlling the draws throughout the match, Bruno (5-7, 1-4 Ivy) could not muster enough firepower to outshoot the Big Red (4-7, 2-4). The loss is the latest in a five-game skid for the Bears, who now share possession of sixth place in the Ivy League standings. Tri-captain Paris Waterman ’11 led the side in scoring, netting a hat-trick in the defeat.

Despite the losing streak, Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00 is keeping a positive attitude as Bruno heads into its final stretch of the season.

“I think we did a lot of things well, but there are some things we need to fine-tune as we head into our final three home games,” she said.

The Big Red came out of the gate firing, netting two goals in the opening five minutes. The second of the two strikes came from at-tacker Jessi Steinberg, who scored four on the day. The Bears tried to claw back into the game, led by Tara Rooke ’13, who scored her first two goals of the season around another Cornell goal to make the score 3-2 about midway through

the half. Though Waterman added an unassisted goal seven minutes later, three more goals from Cor-nell widened the gap, giving the Big Red a comfortable 7-3 advantage when the halftime whistle blew.

The Big Red opened the second half the way they closed the first, scoring three times once again to push the lead to 10-3. Two of the strikes came on free-position shots. Cornell took advantage of Bruno’s defensive fouls in the crease by scoring five goals off the fouls.

“The free-position shots are tough, and they got a few early,” McDonald said. “Those are mo-mentum shifters, and we know that, but we just need to respond.”

Bruno responded the best it could, courtesy of a Julia Keller ’12 goal and two more from Water-man. But the Big Red held its lead, as four more goals in the last 10 minutes drowned out a final score from Kaela McGilloway ’12 and led to a final 14-7 score.

Cornell held the advantage in almost every section of the box score, tallying more shots and win-ning more ground balls than the Bears. Brown’s 19 turnovers made it difficult to apply consistent of-fensive pressure throughout the game.

Bruno looks to stay optimistic

Sailing turns few heads despite cruising to No. 1 ranking By NiKhil Parasher

Contributing Writer

Though Brown’s sailing team goes unnoticed by much of the student body, the squad is on everyone’s ra-dar in collegiate sailing circles. The women’s team is currently ranked No. 1 in the country, and the co-ed squad is ranked seventh.

Head Coach John Mollicone said the team has set a standard for success in recent years.

“For the last 10 years, we’ve been ranked in the top 10 pretty consistently in women’s and co-ed.”

The 40-person, club-level team is listed in the same national rank-ings as varsity-level squads. The team’s club status has not lessened its budget, Mollicone said.

“A lot of the club teams are more student-run, don’t have a lot of funding and support from the schools, but we get full sup-port from varsity athletics,” Mol-licone said. “We always achieve our fundraising goals. We have a great budget. We look at ourselves as a varsity team. We’re just not counted as a varsity sport.”

Mollicone said he was unsure why sailing is not a varsity team.

“I don’t know. It’s just always been that way,” Mollicone said. “We’ve talked about it before … We just have never gotten far

enough where it’s been worth it to be varsity and have a lot of the red tape that we’d have if we were a varsity team.”

The “red tape” that would come with varsity status would prevent the team from continuing to allow Rhode Island School of Design and graduate students to participate.

Emily Dellenbaugh ’12, captain

of the women’s team, added that its club label gives the team some opportunities not granted to var-sity teams.

“On any given day, somebody who’s not really … on the team could come down and they could just go sailing,” Dellenbaugh said. “A lot of people don’t know that, but we accommodate anyone of

any skill or experience. And I think that’s really cool because we do have a lot of people who come down.”

Each weekend during the sea-son, which is divided into fall and spring sections, the sailing team sends different members to differ-ent regattas. Some regattas are co-ed and some are only for women.

On an average weekend, the team participates in four regattas, but it can attend as many as six or seven. Each regatta is an all-weekend af-fair and usually involves extensive traveling — the team only hosted one regatta this semester.

“You really have to manage your time well because, depending on where the regattas are, you’ll sometimes be leaving on a Friday at one or two in the afternoon and won’t be back till Sunday night,” Dellenbaugh said.

Despite the team’s high rank-ing, several sailors said they felt the team is not getting very much recognition.

“We’ve worked really hard at it. … It is kind of sad that there’s not that much interest,” Dellenbaugh said. “We are a club team, but we are No. 1 in the national ranking, so I feel that more people should definitely be aware about that.”

Team captain Tommy Fink ’13 agreed that it would be nice if the sailing team got some rec-ognition from the campus for its strong performances, but he also said people on the team do not sail for recognition.

“We’ve all grown up sailing,” Fink said. “You’re not sailing for the glory. You’re not in it for, like, girls. You’re not in for fame or whatever it is. You’re in it because that’s what you enjoy doing.”

m. LACROSSE W. LACROSSE

SAILING

Jonathan Bateman / Herald Goalie Matt Chriss ’11 ranks sixth in the nation in saves per game and save percentage. He turned in another standout performance Saturday, but it was not enough in the Bears’ 10-6 loss to No. 14 Yale.

Courtesy of Peter MackeyThe club women’s sailing team is ranked No. 1 in the country, and the co-ed team is seventh in a poll with varsity teams.

continued on page 5 continued on page 5