THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013 since 1891 vol. cxlviii, no. 91 D aily H erald THE BROWN 69 / 45 TOMORROW 73 / 57 TODAY WEATHER No post- Check out our special Family Weekend magazine this week INSIDE UNIVERSITY NEWS, 3 COMMENTARY, 7 Autofill Montes ’16 praises a student’s video that aims to fight gender norms Publi-size e BUCC discussed increasing awareness for the 250th anniversary By ALIZA REISNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER e Blue Room, Ivy Room, Campus Market and Poppy’s will accept credit cards starting in early November, rep- resentatives from dining services and campus life said. e eateries will accept Visa, Mas- terCard, American Express and Dis- cover credit cards. “ere has been a growing interest in offering the convenience of credit card payment to customers at retail eateries,” said Scott acher, director of information technology in the Office of Campus Life and Student Services. Ann Hoffman, director of adminis- tration for Brown Dining Services,said the change will be instituted in part due to “a desire to enable alumni and guests coming to campus for Commencement to use credit cards here.” acher said this is the right time to implement the change because the technology vendor BDS uses recently introduced a new add-on for its cash register system that makes it easy to “implement secure credit card pro- cessing.” e only technology investment needed is a small card reader unit at each register and a new add-on soſt- ware module to the existing server, acher said. He added that the new hardware and soſtware purchases are relatively inexpensive and would not Campus eateries to accept credit cards e new policy will be implemented partially to facilitate guests’ abilities to buy food on campus By HANNAH KERMAN STAFF WRITER Senior Lecturer in English Elizabeth Tay- lor, Instructional Designer Ren Whita- ker and three students from Brown’s first for-credit online course, ENGL 0180: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction,” spoke to a group of about 25, mostly faculty and staff members, in Lippitt House Wednesday aſternoon about their experiences with cyber-learning. Fourteen students took the online class, which was a condensed, seven- week version of a nonfiction course Tay- lor and other English faculty members teach during the academic year. Whitaker worked with Taylor to create weekly modules full of instruc- tional videos and other materials that led students through their assignments and course expectations. All 14 students spent their days working jobs or intern- ships in places like New York, Beijing and Chicago, Taylor said. At night they spent one to two hours reading, com- pleting assignments and peer editing. e online format made it so “it was always a part of our daily lives,” said Mark Valdez ’15, a former Herald senior staff writer who took the online course. Valdez said students sometimes talk in circles in classroom settings, but they were forced to organize and hone their thoughts online. “I went in thinking nothing can be better than the classroom,” Taylor said. But she found “online discussion was more eloquent and more thoughtful than classroom discussion.” In a classroom, some students might be reluctant to participate, Taylor said, but “with online discussion, I never knew they were the shy kids.” Another “advantage of technology is that you can multiply the professor in a way,” said Patrick Carey ’16, who took the course while working for a digital education start-up. Online teaching gave Taylor multiple mechanisms to provide individual support and feedback. Carey received more feedback in the online class than in any other course he has taken at Brown, he said. e students also said they appreci- ated Taylor’s dedication. Carey even had a phone conference with Taylor right before he went under anesthesia for a dental procedure, he said. “I assumed I would feel less con- nected online to my students, but it was as if the class was a constant part of my life,” Taylor said. She might have had student conferences on a Sunday aſternoon or a Tuesday night, “once I figured out what their lives were like,” Taylor said. A man in the audience asked Taylor if there were ever time difference issues. Profs, students evaluate summer online nonfiction course Some students said they participated more in the online format than in traditional classes By EMILY BONEY STAFF WRITER Tammie Paris, a senior at Hope High School, recently took the math section of the New England Common Assess- ment Program for the second time. Her score last year was low enough that if she did not demonstrate im- provement on ei- ther this test or a third attempt this spring she would be barred from graduating under rules implemented by the Rhode Island Department of Education this year. But her poor performance has not turned her against the test, she said. “It’s a good test, and it’s good to see your improvement,” she said, adding that some sort of graduation require- ment is necessary to make sure stu- dents are prepared for the real world. But preparation for the test is lacking, Paris said. “You have to wing it in a way.” Paris attended a summer prep course earlier this year and took Saturday classes this fall, but she said they didn’t increase her confidence with the material. “I don’t think they’re helpful,” she said, adding that key concepts she saw on the NECAP were missing from her math classes. ough Paris said she thinks the state should have a unifying graduation requirement for students, “final exams would be fine” and enough to prove readiness to graduate. Students sound off e math section of the test also City students say state testing inhibits learning e material covered by the high-stakes NECAP is not emphasized by current curricula, students said By MAXINE JOSELOW SENIOR STAFF WRITER e Undergraduate Council of Students explored how to help students network with alums for jobs and internships as part of a conversation with CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons at the UCS general body meeting Wednesday. Several Council members criticized BRUNet, an online platform meant to help students connect with alums in their desired career fields. BRUNet is “very messy,” said Ross Julian ’15, Corporation liaison. “A lot of my time is spent siſting through things I have no interest in.” Too few alums participate in BRU- Net, said Maahika Srinivasan ’15, chair of the UCS Academics and Adminis- trative Affairs Committee, noting that only three alums in India are listed on BRUNet. “We don’t believe BRUNet is the best tool,” Simmons said. “We’re look- ing to improve it.” Several Council members said the University should offer more chances to engage with young alums. “It would be nice to have a base of alumni who are recent grads advise students,” said Sam Gilman ’15, UCS vice president. “Younger alumni have been through recruiting processes that are much more similar to the ones people are going through now.” Recent alums are good resources because they “recall the transition of going from college to the career field better,” said UCS general body member Stacy Bartlett ’14. “Younger alumni might also have a better idea of how to look for a job with the technologies that exist,” such as email interviews and LinkedIn, said UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5. Granting students access to funding for internships emerged as another topic of discussion. CareerLAB recevies more applica- tions for funding than it has in past years, Simmons said, but “We’re giv- ing out more money than we used to.” e timing of the University’s fund- ing process is problematic, since many internships notify students of their ac- ceptances past the funding application deadline, Harris said. CareerLAB should host panel dis- cussions featuring students explaining CareerLAB looks to improve BRUNet UCS members suggested more interactions with recent alums could benefit undergraduates JUSTINA LEE / HERALD The eateries, which currently only take Brown cards and cash, will be able to process credit cards after small card readers are added to each register. COURTESY OF PROVIDENCE STUDENT UNION Students performed in a talent show organized by the Providence Student Union to protest the NECAP requirement. » See EATERIES, page 3 » See ONLINE, page 3 » See NECAP, page 5 Testing success? Third in a four-part series An evaluation of Rhode Island’s high stakes assessment policy A B D » See UCS, page 3
Transcript
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 91Daily HeraldTHE BROWN
69 / 45
t o m o r r o w
73 / 57
t o d ay
wea
therNo post-
Check out our special Family Weekend magazine this weekin
side
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 3 COMMENTARY, 7
AutofillMontes ’16 praises a student’s video that aims to fight gender norms
Publi-sizeThe BUCC discussed increasing awareness for the 250th anniversary
By ALIZA REISNERCONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Blue Room, Ivy Room, Campus Market and Poppy’s will accept credit cards starting in early November, rep-resentatives from dining services and campus life said.
The eateries will accept Visa, Mas-terCard, American Express and Dis-cover credit cards.
“There has been a growing interest in offering the convenience of credit card payment to customers at retail eateries,” said Scott Thacher, director of information technology in the Office
of Campus Life and Student Services. Ann Hoffman, director of adminis-
tration for Brown Dining Services,said the change will be instituted in part due to “a desire to enable alumni and guests coming to campus for Commencement to use credit cards here.”
Thacher said this is the right time to implement the change because the technology vendor BDS uses recently introduced a new add-on for its cash register system that makes it easy to “implement secure credit card pro-cessing.”
The only technology investment needed is a small card reader unit at each register and a new add-on soft-ware module to the existing server, Thacher said. He added that the new hardware and software purchases are relatively inexpensive and would not
Campus eateries to accept credit cardsThe new policy will be implemented partially to facilitate guests’ abilities to buy food on campus
By HANNAH KERMANSTAFF WRITER
Senior Lecturer in English Elizabeth Tay-lor, Instructional Designer Ren Whita-ker and three students from Brown’s first for-credit online course, ENGL 0180: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction,” spoke to a group of about 25, mostly faculty and staff members, in Lippitt House Wednesday afternoon about their experiences with cyber-learning.
Fourteen students took the online
class, which was a condensed, seven-week version of a nonfiction course Tay-lor and other English faculty members teach during the academic year.
Whitaker worked with Taylor to create weekly modules full of instruc-tional videos and other materials that led students through their assignments and course expectations. All 14 students spent their days working jobs or intern-ships in places like New York, Beijing and Chicago, Taylor said. At night they spent one to two hours reading, com-pleting assignments and peer editing.
The online format made it so “it was always a part of our daily lives,” said Mark Valdez ’15, a former Herald senior staff writer who took the online course.
Valdez said students sometimes talk
in circles in classroom settings, but they were forced to organize and hone their thoughts online.
“I went in thinking nothing can be better than the classroom,” Taylor said.But she found “online discussion was more eloquent and more thoughtful than classroom discussion.”
In a classroom, some students might be reluctant to participate, Taylor said, but “with online discussion, I never knew they were the shy kids.”
Another “advantage of technology is that you can multiply the professor in a way,” said Patrick Carey ’16, who took the course while working for a digital education start-up. Online teaching gave Taylor multiple mechanisms to provide individual support and feedback.
Carey received more feedback in the online class than in any other course he has taken at Brown, he said.
The students also said they appreci-ated Taylor’s dedication. Carey even had a phone conference with Taylor right before he went under anesthesia for a dental procedure, he said.
“I assumed I would feel less con-nected online to my students, but it was as if the class was a constant part of my life,” Taylor said. She might have had student conferences on a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday night, “once I figured out what their lives were like,” Taylor said.
A man in the audience asked Taylor if there were ever time difference issues.
Profs, students evaluate summer online nonfiction courseSome students said they participated more in the online format than in traditional classes
By EMILY BONEYSTAFF WRITER
Tammie Paris, a senior at Hope High School, recently took the math section of
the New England Common Assess-ment Program for the second time. Her score last year was low enough that if she did not demonstrate im-provement on ei-
ther this test or a third attempt this spring she would be barred from graduating under rules implemented by the Rhode Island Department of Education this year. But her poor performance has not turned
her against the test, she said. “It’s a good test, and it’s good to see
your improvement,” she said, adding that some sort of graduation require-ment is necessary to make sure stu-dents are prepared for the real world.
But preparation for the test is lacking, Paris said. “You have to wing it in a way.”
Paris attended a summer prep course earlier this year and took Saturday classes this fall, but she said they didn’t increase her confidence with the material.
“I don’t think they’re helpful,” she said, adding that key concepts she saw on the NECAP were missing from her math classes.
Though Paris said she thinks the state should have a unifying graduation requirement for students, “final exams would be fine” and enough to prove readiness to graduate.
Students sound offThe math section of the test also
City students say state testing inhibits learningThe material covered by the high-stakes NECAP is not emphasized by current curricula, students said
By MAXINE JOSELOWSENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Undergraduate Council of Students explored how to help students network with alums for jobs and internships as part of a conversation with CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons at the UCS general body meeting Wednesday.
Several Council members criticized BRUNet, an online platform meant to help students connect with alums in their desired career fields.
BRUNet is “very messy,” said Ross Julian ’15, Corporation liaison. “A lot of my time is spent sifting through things I have no interest in.”
Too few alums participate in BRU-Net, said Maahika Srinivasan ’15, chair of the UCS Academics and Adminis-trative Affairs Committee, noting that only three alums in India are listed on BRUNet.
“We don’t believe BRUNet is the best tool,” Simmons said. “We’re look-ing to improve it.”
Several Council members said the University should offer more chances to engage with young alums.
“It would be nice to have a base of alumni who are recent grads advise students,” said Sam Gilman ’15, UCS vice president. “Younger alumni have been through recruiting processes that are much more similar to the ones people are going through now.”
Recent alums are good resources because they “recall the transition of going from college to the career field better,” said UCS general body member Stacy Bartlett ’14.
“Younger alumni might also have a better idea of how to look for a job with the technologies that exist,” such as email interviews and LinkedIn, said UCS President Todd Harris ’14.5.
Granting students access to funding for internships emerged as another topic of discussion.
CareerLAB recevies more applica-tions for funding than it has in past years, Simmons said, but “We’re giv-ing out more money than we used to.”
The timing of the University’s fund-ing process is problematic, since many internships notify students of their ac-ceptances past the funding application deadline, Harris said.
CareerLAB should host panel dis-cussions featuring students explaining
CareerLAB looks to improve BRUNetUCS members suggested more interactions with recent alums could benefit undergraduates
JUSTINA LEE / HERALD
The eateries, which currently only take Brown cards and cash, will be able to process credit cards after small card readers are added to each register.
COURTESY OF PROVIDENCE STUDENT UNION
Students performed in a talent show organized by the Providence Student Union to protest the NECAP requirement.
» See EATERIES, page 3
» See ONLINE, page 3
» See NECAP, page 5
Testing success?
Third in a four-part series
An evaluation of Rhode Island’s high stakes assessment policy
A B
D
» See UCS, page 3
university news2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013
ACROSS1 Fur tycoon6 “Due Date” co-
star Galifianakis10 Rock blasters14 Conveyed15 Bassoon cousin16 Wreak havoc in
the streets17 *Victor at Little
Bighorn20 Zilch21 Fantasy game
brute22 Latin lesson word23 New Year’s ___24 *2006 “Survivor”
setting28 Attacked30 November
honoree31 “I’m an idiot!”32 Abs strengthener33 Leave port35 Apportioning word36 *Nursed, in a way39 Gp. that houses
strays42 Bowlers and
trilbies43 Millionaire’s
retreat47 Strudel ___ mode48 Jon Hamm’s
“Mad Men” role__ Draper
49 Vocation50 *All-in-one
appliance54 Dye holder55 Classy56 Fish you can
smoke57 Ricky portrayer58 Handy person
suggested by thestarts of theanswers tostarred clues
62 Nebraska native63 Like Iago, say64 Rice/Lloyd
Webber musical65 Trees used to
make longbows66 Attends to one’s
whistle?67 Unreactive gas
DOWN1 Sawyer employer
2 “Same here!”3 Poseidon’s staff4 __ Day vitamins5 Authority on a
field6 Masked hero who
debuted in the1919 story “TheCurse ofCapistrano”
7 Stunned way tobe taken
8 Member of thefam
9 Casual greeting10 Cookie shop
enticement11 Ferdinand’s love
in “The Tempest”12 Ph.D.’s further
studies13 Jeanne d’Arc, for
one: Abbr.18 Old geezer19 “Come no closer!”24 Consiglieri’s boss25 Penn et al.26 Contained
opening?27 “Too noisy!”29 Big band
instrument33 Defensive effort
34 Ctrl-__-Delete35 Correct37 Superhero with a
hammer38 Even once39 Chain __40 Give a sop to41 Moneymaker44 Not vacant45 Charge for using,
as an apartment46 Potter or jeweler,
e.g.
48 Style of a historicMiami Beachdistrict
49 Get gooey51 Outdoor outings52 Bright again53 Argues
ineffectively57 Comic Chappelle58 Almond __59 Select group?60 Roman salutation61 T. __
By Julian Lim(c)2013 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 10/17/13
10/17/13
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, October 17, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword PuzzleEdited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
Vegan BBQ Tempeh, Pirate Ship Pork Loin, Au Gratin Potatoes with Herbs, Zucchini, Squash and Tomato Stir-Fry
Pot Roast Jardiniere, Orange Chipotle Glazed Tofu, Fried Rice Bowl with Ham, Buttermilk Cornbread
Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta, Tortellini Provencale, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gourmet Turkey Sandwich with Cranberry Mayo, Eggplant Parmesan Grinder, Nacho Bar
TODAY OCTOBER 17 TOMORROW OCTOBER 18
c r o s s w o r d
s u d o k u
m e n u
c a l e n d a r
Poll finds skepticism about online educationA Gallup poll released Tuesday shows a mixture of opinions on online education among the
American public, including significant skepticism about its pedagogical potential.The poll, conducted earlier this month, found low overall approval ratings for online learning:
Thirty-four percent of respondents rated fully online college programs as “excellent” or “good,” compared to 68 percent who said the same for traditional four-year institutions and 64 percent for community colleges.
Respondents also compared online education to traditional classroom-based learning in several different categories. They favored online education for providing broad curricular options and good financial value. But in-person learning was seen as preferable for individually tailoring instruction, fostering student success and providing strong teaching, among other categories.
The category that saw the greatest differential between the two forms of learning was appeal to future employers: Forty-nine percent of respondents said a classroom-based degree would be more attractive in the job search, while just 13 percent thought an online degree would be viewed more positively.
The poll also showed that 5 percent of American adults are currently enrolled in an online course of any sort, but the bulk of online students are in the traditional college or graduate school age range.
In a separate question, roughly half of poll respondents said obtaining the knowledge or skill set necessary for a specific job is more important than obtaining a college degree, but non-white respondents were significantly more likely than white respondents to choose a college degree as more important.
Survey finds negative climate for some Cornell minority students
A student survey examining Cornell’s campus climate found that racial and sexual minorities feel considerably less safe on campus than their white and straight peers, the Cornell Daily Sun reported Tuesday.
Among respondents identifying as queer, 73 percent said they had felt threatened or insulted based on their identities at least “occasionally.” That proportion dropped to 50 percent among gay, lesbian and bisexual students and to 24 percent among straight students.
Nearly half of black students — 45 percent — responded that they had felt threatened or insulted based on their identities, compared to 20 percent of white students, 29 percent of Hispanics and 32 percent of Asians, the Sun reported.
The survey, conducted by the university’s Institutional Research and Planning Office and its University Diversity Council, found that students in racial or sexual minority groups were much more likely to perceive a moderately or very disrespectful campus climate for people in their groups, the Sun reported. They were also more likely to self-report making personal efforts to learn about diversity.
BY ELI OKUN, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORTHIS WEEK IN HIGHER ED
university news 3THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013
lead to large annual fees, since the sys-tem adds on to existing hardware.
Students on meal plan said the change would not significantly affect their dining habits. For instance, Carly Risman ’17 said the new policy would only matter to her if she ran out of points later in the semester.
But students not on meal plan ex-pressed enthusiasm about the change, adding that they believe the new policy could alter their eating habits.
“I never carry cash around campus
and I’m no longer on meal plan so I rarely eat on campus,” said Perri Gould ’14. “I’m super excited that on-campus eateries will be accepting credit cards, because now I’ll be able to eat at the Blue Room in between classes.”
Students said the ability to use credit cards will mostly affect lunch-time habits.
Pa Vue ’14, the unit manager of the Ivy Room, said she believes this change will be more useful “when the Ivy Room is opened in the afternoons, since there tend to be faculty and other profession-als — who don’t have the convenience
of a meal plan on their cards — who have lunch there at that time.”
She added that the ability to use a credit card in the Ivy Room may also be useful since there are “no ATM ma-chines in the building.”
Hoffman and Thacher both said it is unclear if the change will cause an increase in the number of purchases made at dining facilities.
“That would be great, but we’re really not sure — volume is hard to predict,” Thacher said. “The project is primarily about enhancing customer convenience.”
By MAGGIE LIVINGSTONESENIOR STAFF WRITER
Planning for the University’s 250th an-niversary and recent expansion to the Ombuds Office surfaced as dominant discussion topics at the Brown Uni-versity Community Council meeting Wednesday.
Eve Ornstedt, executive director for the newly created Office of the 250th An-niversary, spoke on how to integrate the greater community into the celebration, how technology will be used to enhance events and how to brand the anniversary to reach the widest possible audience.
The celebration will start March 7, 2014 and last through May 24, 2015, Ornstedt said.
Ornstedt said she and a committee including President Christina Paxson, Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn and Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 have met to establish goals for the anniversary. A priority for the celebration is to col-laborate with students, faculty members, alums and community members to tell “the many stories of Brown,” she said.
Ornstedt said the 250th office has worked for the past year on initiatives to brand the celebration, such as launching a website with information and related media. The soft launch for the website will be in January, she added.
“From a technology perspective, this (website) model is something that the University could benefit from going forward,” Ornstedt said.
The 250th office is also consider-ing advertising at T.F. Green Airport,
running a social media campaign and collaborating with undergraduate and graduate student organizations to pub-licize the celebration, Ornstedt said. She added that a grant program has been es-tablished to fund student groups looking to run programs or workshops during the 250th, but undergraduate interest has been low.
Todd Harris ’14.5, president of the Undergraduate Council of Students, suggested recruiting student club am-bassadors to promote the grant program.
Graduate student representatives suggested Ornstedt speak to the Gradu-ate Student Council to boost awareness.
About 300 middle school students from the state will be invited to open-ing day of the 250th celebration for “a day of academic discovery and educa-tion,” Ornstedt said. A graduate student attending the meeting recommended pairing the middle school students with Brown students to better integrate cam-pus members with the local community.
Ruth Rosenberg, the University ombudsperson, spoke about the adjust-ments she has made since the Ombuds Office began serving staff and graduate students Aug. 1. Previously, the office only served faculty members and post-doctoral students.
“I sit outside the administration,” she said, adding that she acts as a confiden-tial, neutral mediator and adviser. “It’s a safe, quiet space where you can come talk about anything.”
Rosenberg said since the office ex-panded, she has had more visitors but still experiences difficulties in attracting postdocs. A graduate student suggested Rosenberg introduce herself and her role to postdocs when they are first hired.
Paxson said she invited Rosenberg to speak at the meeting to boost aware-ness about the office, which she said she hopes will be used more frequently in the future.
At BUCC, admins talk 250th, ombuds expansionThe U. may try to promote the celebration through social media and student partnerships
» EATERIES, from page 1
Jingwei Wu ’14, who took the course from Beijing, laughed and said it wasn’t so bad. The concept of “flow time” — being allowed to turn assignments in within a day or so, depending on when the day ends — provided enough time for reading and completing assignments with care, Wu said.
The class met in person the first weekend of the semester. Whitaker and Taylor attended, and the group had cookies and discussed what worked and what did not. “We have all this rich fodder to improve the next round, be it summer or spring,” Whitaker said.
“I thought the class was such a
success,” Taylor said. “But when I asked the group if they would take an online class back at Brown, 100 percent said no. They said, ‘It’s not the Brown expe-rience’” to take an online course while on campus.
Taylor is working with Whitaker to incorporate the lessons from the sum-mer into a hybrid class for the spring semester. “I’m trying to rethink how I set up the discussions,” Taylor said.
Her plan is to have one class conduct-ed online each week and one that takes place in a classroom — but she hopes the structure will be meaningful rather than formulaic. “I want it to be that online will be most effective for whatever we’re doing on Tuesday,” Taylor said.
» ONLINE, from page 1
how they funded past internships, said Sazzy Gourley ’16, chair of the UCS Academics and Administrative Affairs Committee.
The Council also explored how to boost attendance at student events with the creators of an online events calendar called Ventfull, Pete Simp-son ’14 and Joe Stein ’16, a Herald web producer.
When campaigning for the vice presidency last spring, Gilman called streamlining the events calendar to increase attendance a key priority, The Herald reported at the time.
Ventfull is meant to be a “stu-dent portal to hook onto the school’s
existing system” of Morning Mail, Simpson said.
Students can use Ventfill to filter events by category, including social, organization, performance, music, sports and academic, Simpson said. Students can also “upvote” events to give them a higher “excitement” rank-ing and sign up for notifications about events that relate to their interests, he said.
Ventfull will ideally be released next semester, Simpson said.
Gilman praised Ventfull as “one of the best platforms I’ve heard of.”
Sam Rubinstein ’17, UCS general body member, said he was worried that “the upvoting process will make more people go to events that are
already big on campus and decrease turnout in smaller events.”
“My concern is adding another source of information,” said Elena Saltzman ’16, another UCS general body member. “We already have so many.”
The Council confirmed Har-ris and Gilman in their leadership positions in its semiannual vote of confidence.
Harris said the annual UCS Fall Poll had the highest respondent rate in recent years, with 2,109 students completing the poll and 2,704 stu-dents answering some questions. About 750 fewer students took the poll last year, and around 1,000 fewer in 2011, Harris said.
» UCS, from page 1
www.browndailyherald.com
city & state4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013
By MARCUS SUDACCONTRIBUTING WRITER
Though the federal health insurance exchange — a marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act for people to purchase health care insurance — con-tinues to face technical problems, the Rhode Island exchange has overcome some initial glitches, with advocates expressing optimism about its future.
The state exchange opened Oct. 1 in an effort to facilitate buying affordable health care, since the ACA also requires all Americans to purchase health in-surance by Jan. 1 or incur a fee. The federal government created exchanges for states whose governors declined to create local marketplaces.
Rhode Island is one of 18 states plus the District of Columbia to have adopted a state-based marketplace and has had roughly 5,700 accounts created, with around 800 of those users having completed their health insurance ap-plications, said Dara Chadwick, chief of strategic communications and media relations at HealthSource RI, Rhode Island’s marketplace provider. Health-Source RI has a goal of receiving 70,000 to 100,000 completed applications by the end of 2014, Chadwick said.
“We’re very pleased with the level of interest,” Chadwick said. “People are very excited.”
Angela Sherwin, program director of the University’s Executive Healthcare Leadership Program, echoed Chad-wick’s sentiment.
“There is more interest than antici-pated, and this has put (HealthSource) on a trajectory for higher participation,” she said.
But the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a conservative think tank, has suggested the exchange will not in fact draw many consumers.
The center has “documented both the financial disincentives created by the ACA when it comes to purchasing insurance and identified and quantified the groups of people who are likely to remain uninsured, perhaps up to 97,000 Rhode Islanders,” the group wrote in a statement on its website. “As a result, Rhode Island should be prepared to see enrollment through the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange that is significantly below current ex-pectations,” the center wrote in a report on the ACA.
Rhode Island’s exchange offers 28 health insurance plans, Chadwick said, and the process of selection is “per-sonal, and something different for each
individual.” While HealthSource RI has led the
creation of the exchange, the Rhode Is-land Office of the Health Care Commis-sioner reviews all the offered plans as well as the insurers included on the ex-change to make sure they comply with federal law, said Kathleen Hittner, the state health insurance commissioner.
Rhode Island’s exchange includes plans offered by UnitedHealthcare, Neighborhood Health Plan and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Though those three providers already have strong presences in the state, Hittner said she thinks in-surers from out of state may also enter the marketplace.
HealthSource RI has targeted pri-marily small businesses as well as fami-lies, Sherwin said.
Hittner added that she particularly expects young people to sign up for the exchange.
Nationwide, insurance reform ef-forts have tried to persuade young, healthier people to purchase cover-age, since including them in the insur-ance pool can drive down the cost of premiums.
The size of the state changes the dy-namic of health reform, Sherwin said.
“One of the nice things about Rhode Island as a state is that everybody knows everybody,” she said. “The exchange can facilitate conversations between hospi-tals, insurers and companies in no way that could be done before.”
Technical issues have plagued the establishment of marketplaces on both the federal and state levels. Nationally, the federal exchange suffered signifi-cant problems — many were unable to purchase insurance on the site’s launch date, and technical concerns have persisted over the past two weeks. That same day, Rhode Island’s exchange temporarily crashed. But HealthSource RI quickly added new servers, Chad-wick said, and it has not faced similar issues since.
Though these issues may highlight the unanticipated level of interest, other potential problems lie within the state-federal health insurance partnership. “There has been a problem connect-ing to the government,” Hittner said, though she added that those issues were unrelated to the government shutdown.
Sherwin said Rhode Island’s mar-ketplace launch went more smoothly than the federal government’s in part because of the state’s size.
“Rhode Island is smaller,” she said. “The federal government took on 34 states all at the same time. For them, it’s like the big bang.”
Sherwin and Chadwick also said the rollout of the exchange has been largely unaffected by the government shutdown.
R.I. health exchange continues to enrollThousands have created accounts to get insurance after initial issues with the exchange were fixed
city & state 5THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013
proved difficult for Asia Ochoa, a junior at Hope High School, who said that when taking the test she asked herself, “Did I even learn that?”
“Teachers are saying, ‘It’s what you should know,”’ Ochoa said of the con-tent on the NECAP. Though she said her classes prepared her for most of the test, “there were things I was missing.”
Classical High School senior Kate Gasper passed all the required NECAP tests her junior year. “English was very easy, and the math wasn’t too difficult,” she said, adding that her classes prepared her for those sections but not the sci-ence section, which is not a graduation requirement. Despite her success on the tests, Gasper said she supports “the anti-NECAP movement.”
“There should be a test, but because NECAP wasn’t created as a graduation requirement, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Gasper said. She added that there should be some way to hold Rhode Island students to national standards but the NECAP should not be tied to graduation.
Hideki Tani, a sophomore at Classical High School, said the NECAP was “unfair because if you’re having a bad day, it could determine whether you graduate or not.” He added that there were “a lot of factors” besides intelligence and material reten-tion that could affect test performance.
When asked if he was nervous for the test next year, he said “a little, because I struggle in math.”
“It’ll depend on my teacher. If they’re good, then they’ll prepare you for NE-CAP,” Tani said, adding that he thought some teachers would not prepare him well enough to pass the test.
The silent majority?State Education Commissioner Deb-
orah Gist, who spearheaded the move to make the NECAP a graduation require-ment, has acknowledged student opposi-tion but said “it’s important to recognize that an organized group of students in one community doesn’t necessarily speak for every student in the state.”
“I meet with students all the time. I meet with student groups. I meet with individual students. I meet with indi-vidual students and families. I meet with people when I go out in the community and visit schools, so I am very regularly in communication with students and parents,” she said. Some students are less concerned about the requirement than others, she added.
“I’ve definitely talked to students who have told me that they’re not sure what all the reaction is about,” Gist said. “I’ve heard a variety of opinions from students that are not all one voice.”
At a press conference following the board’s vote to uphold the requirement, Chairwoman of the Board of Education Eva Mancuso, who has provided key sup-port for Gist, said, “The time for discus-sion is over. … We are using the NECAP as a graduation requirement, period.”
“I’m not going to get involved with sideshows with 16 year olds,” Mancuso said.
A students’ unionA talent show in front of the Rhode
Island Department of Education build-ing drew a crowd of students, teachers and supporters of the agenda of the Providence Student Union, a group of students and organizers that has orches-trated numerous events across the state in an attempt to do away with NECAP testing. Student performances at the rally ranged from rapping to playing the violin to performances by dance groups and vocalists.
Sam Foer, a junior at the MET School, said he “doesn’t agree with high-stakes tests at all.”
“Even at the MET” — which boasts a distinct educational philosophy based on hands-on learning — “our education is put toward prep for the NECAP,” he said.
“I really struggled in middle school” Foer said, and “would have dropped out” had he not transferred to the MET.
Foer has been “taken out of classes” to get extra NECAP prep time. “It puts a roadblock in front of education,” he said, “because the stuff on the NECAP is stuff you’ll never use.”
Foer said he felt confident taking the reading and writing sections earlier this year after studying. “I was very nervous (about NECAP) my freshman year, but I’ve done what they wanted me to do — I studied.” But he said he was still nervous about the math section. “I don’t know if I will be proficient.”
“Lots of kids break down in the middle of the test, because their whole life is on the line,” he said.
Cheyanne McLaychlan, one of the event’s coordinators and a PSU member, said the NECAP is “just a test” that does not allow students to showcase their potential effectively. Its narrow approach to subjects is “unfair,” she said.
“Schools can support and encourage us to do better, instead of just telling us,” McLaychlan said, adding that she would like to see more after-school programs and tutoring for struggling students.
The NECAP is “set up to make stu-dents fail,” said Bryan Varela, a Provi-dence high school student and member of the PSU, who added that the test was not covered in the curriculum. In place of the NECAP, Varela proposed “some-thing more career oriented” and specific to student interests, proposing com-puter simulations, engineering projects or group work as possible substitues for the test. “It would show what the student needs to know and would be better for the student,” he said.
Justin Farmer, a sophomore at the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Per-forming and Visual Arts, said standard-ized tests in general are not “preparation for the real world.” When asked how he feels about taking the NECAP next year, he said he is “kind of nervous.”
“Some kids are just not good at standardized tests, and they’re forced to suffer,” he said, adding that high school graduation should be based upon “grades and personal interviews,” which would determine whether the student was ready for the next step.
Brown students reflectA large majority of Brown students
said they believe standardized test results should play at least “a small role” in high school graduation requirements.
A poll conducted by The Herald found that only about 12 percent of stu-dents believe standardized test scores should play no role in graduation require-ments for public high schools. About 40 percent of students said they believe scores should account for a small role, 41 percent said they should play a moderate role and 5 percent said they should play a large role.
Students at Brown generally found state standardized tests “pretty easy,” said Jacob Kirschenbaum ’17, or “not some-thing to complain about,” said Melitzi Torres ’15.
Kirschenbaum, who attended Scars-dale Senior High School, said he took the New York Regents standardized test and is “definitely against it.”
“It was the easiest test we took all year, and it counted a lot because the teachers knew we’d all get high scores,” he said.
Torres said that as one of the top stu-dents in her class at Shea Senior High
in Providence, she was not as “stressed” about the NECAP as many of her class-mates, though the test did not yet consti-tute a graduation requirement.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” Torres said. “My high school was notoriously poor-performing.”
Changes to the curriculum “got rid
of freshman biology and replaced it with Integrated Science, which was basically prep for the NECAP math,” she said.
In place of the NECAP, Torres sug-gested students create portfolios of their work, which would “show how they’ve improved” over the four years they spent in high school.
This series will explore the debate over Rhode Island’s implementation of a standardized testing requirement for high school graduation, with a focus on history, policy and implementation since the creation of the NECAP. Read it online at: thebdh.org/testing.
Tuesday: Following the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized testing benchmarks have gained increasing importance in Rhode Island’s public schools. In 2012, the Rhode Island Department of Education tied performance on the state’s NECAP exam to graduation eligibility.
Yesterday: Increasing pressure for high performance on standardized tests has shifted classroom dynamics and forced some teachers to alter curricula.
Today: Tying testing performance to graduation eligibility has had a range of effects on students at Providence’s highly differentiated high schools.
Tomorrow: As Rhode Island moves toward implementing the Common Core Standards through the new PARCC exam, policymakers and politicians are reevaluating the graduation requirement.
Testing success?
A four-part series
An evaluation of Rhode Island’s high stakes assessment policy
A B
D
» NECAP, from page 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70%
Mt. Pleasant HSClassical HSR.I. Average
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100%
2012-132011-122010-112009-10
Mt. Pleasant HSClassical HSR.I. Average
Disparities in NECAP scoresStatewide average test scores mask the stark di�erences between schools such as Providence’s Classical and Mt. Pleasant high schools.
MathPercent of 11th grade
students pro�cient
ReadingPercent of 11th grade
students pro�cient
Source: Rhode Island Department of Education ASHLEY SO / HERALD
commentary6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013
Earlier this month, Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general, filed a lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges Inc., a for-profit company that specializes in selling one product: education. In this instance, the company was accused of distorting job placement rate figures, providing false and deceitful advertis-ing and even illegally using the official U.S. military seals in order to attract veterans. Unfortunately, situations like the case of Corinthian Colleges Inc. are not unique. The puppeteers behind the for-profit industry have established an economic sector for the sole sake of rent-seeking. Such development is problematic, and we condemn the for-profit education sector as a whole.
On free-market and arguably moral terms, the idea of a for-profit college can make sense. More people have come to realize the value an education brings to their employment prospects, but they may not have the resources or abilities to attend nonprofit or public colleges. This is when for-profit colleges can enter the labor market — offering what many, especially those from low-income brackets, desire and demand. Based solely on these premises, for-profit colleges could also be seen as a moral force, supplying education to those who may appreciate their inherent monetary value the most.
But the for-profit college industry has not only ignored the only principles that give it legitimacy, but has also completely reversed them. Instead of filling a sorely needed gap in educational attainment, these companies allocate a huge portion of their budgets toward advertising and marketing — often at the direct expense of efforts toward improving the quality of education. Consequently, advertising frequently overstates the value of for-profit education, resulting in consumers overpaying for a service that does not deliver.
But instead of criticizing what the for-profit institution has now become, perhaps we should focus on how to provide a meaningful and rewarding college education to anyone who desires one. Education is a long-term investment whose values are realized through its effects on a society’s growth. If we commodify education in such a reductive way, quality will also suffer. After all, the industry in question has one principal concern: generating profit.
Education determines much of a person’s livelihood. It is meant to help the individual advance in all aspects of life. An entrepreneur or business-man can certainly fail at a business and still not compromise his values, wealth or even desire to create more businesses. But many of the students who have been tricked into attending these schools may lose not only the money they spent, but also something just as, if not more, important: the belief that education is valuable.
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“I’m not going to get involved with sideshows with 16 year olds.” — Eva Mancuso, chairwoman of the R.I. Board of Education
See necap, page 1.
Last week, Emma Hall ’16 created the short film “Autofill: A Gender Study.” This 4 minute and 41 sec-ond video focuses on societal mi-croaggressions that have become “norms” and stereotypes of gender and feminism revealed through Google searches, including one-line statements such as “rape vic-tims should take blame” and “femi-nists are ugly.”
After only 24 hours on You-Tube, the video had gained more than 1,000 views and was repeated-ly shared on mutiple social media platforms. At press time, the video had over 3,400 views. Simple in its creation and truthful in its words, “autofill: a gender study” manages to rip open the societal shield that we all live behind.
It was made quickly. Hall con-ceived of it on a Wednesday, filmed it that Saturday and Sunday, edited it on Monday and Tuesday, and up-loaded it Tuesday night. But it has been subconsciously brewing in her mind for quite a while. She want-ed to create something that would speak for her and force others to lis-ten. The result is a video that also speaks for countless others who feel silenced in today’s society.
Hall, like many, was tired of baseless complaints against “femi-nist beliefs” toward oppression and sexism. These same beliefs pinpoint problems in our current society that
have been continuously ignored so much they have become “norms.” This video was a chance to unmask these microaggressions and display them for what they really are.
All of the Google searches and verbal microag-gressions in the video come from Hall’s own experi-ences as a woman. These are things she has seen and heard — things you’ve probably heard, too. She me-ticulously aligned each statement so that phrases such as “women should be dominated” were placed alongside assertions like “women shouldn’t vote” to em-phasize the ridiculousness of both. Her video served as a platform on which every type of microaggres-sion could be voiced.
But this project is not only di-rected towards women. The video includes derogatory societal norms and statements commonly di-rected towards men, as well, while also acknowledging that “gender is not a binary.” Hall also notes that the term “rape victim” can refer to anyone, and that “any person, re-gardless of gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or economic background, can be a victim of or affected by sexual as-sault.” When I spoke to her, she emphasized that the microaggres-sions the video is combatting can be directed at anyone. “This is not
a women’s issue, this is a people’s is-sue,” she said.
It is a people’s issue. After watch-ing this video, I realized that state-ments I’ve heard throughout my life and brushed off as ignorant are
actually the most searched phrases on Google. On the one hand, I know that people could just be searching these microag-gressions to gain insight into their histories or ori-gins. But there is no denying that a good proportion of these Google searchers really do
believe that “men should be able to hit women” or that “women need to know their place.”
Not only does her video make me aware of this societal issue, but it also makes me want to do some-thing. Simply ignoring people who use microaggressions will get us no-where. In a way, ignoring the prob-lem is just as bad as supporting it. By ignoring it, we allow this type of thought to thrive, letting the num-ber of Google searches increase and expanding the number of silenced voices.
It’s time to be vocal and stop this verbal violence. This is our chance to change — not only society, but also ourselves.
It seems to be almost a constant background fixture of national de-bate — periodically taking to cen-ter stage in the aftermath of hor-rific tragedy. Just last month, Nico Enriquez ’16 wrote a column call-ing for stronger firearms regula-tion (“The blind gun,” Sept. 20) in which he made many points that, to me, seemed at best misleading and at worst either factually inac-curate or logically fallacious.
Enriquez began with a purely emotional appeal derived from an-ecdotal evidence and supported by rhetoric. Among other selected sto-ries, he presents the example of Me-gan Bookstaver: “A college student … dead because of an unregistered gun. No criminal charges are being filed.” Given the contextual tone and lack of details, one could eas-ily misinterpret this case as an in-stance of lax regulatory policy di-rectly precipitating the murder of an innocent woman and allowing her killer to get away scot-free.
In reality, Bookstaver was acci-dentally killed when her boyfriend was cleaning one of her family’s many firearms. The gun, a long gun, was not registered because
registration of long guns is not le-gally required. No criminal charg-es were filed because no crime was ever committed. Bookstaver’s fa-ther steadfastly continues to sup-port gun rights.
Of course, the only thing gun control advocates like bringing up more than individual victims of gun violence is multiple victims of gun violence. For instance, En-riquez writes that “Thirteen people were gunned down … in the mid-dle of Chicago.” But “gunned down” may be a bit of a strong term — giv-en that there were zero fatalities in that case. Additionally, Enriquez failed to mention that the firearm used to perpetrate the crime was il-legal, so it seems unlikely that more stringent legal restrictions could have prevented this incident.
When repeatedly bringing up cases like these, the purpose is nev-er to present some new and con-vincing logical argument, but rath-er to get people riled up. It is obvi-ously true firearms can be used to perpetrate appalling crimes — no one is on the other side of that ar-gument. But it’s not logically in-consistent to agree with that point while simultaneously supporting gun rights. Let’s quit it with the demagoguery and stick to sub-stance.
If you ever watch Michael Moore’s film “Bowling for Colum-
bine,” you’ll notice that he never actually conducts any sort of cost-benefit analysis on his proposed changes in firearms policy. It’s tak-en for granted that since people die because of guns, it would be crazy not to ban guns. And Moore is by no means alone in this view. Invari-ably, when a mul-tiple-victim shoot-ing occurs, media frenzy is sure to follow — imme-diately condemn-ing conservatives as murderers by proxy. Enriquez’s column is just a drop in this ocean of hair-trigger emotionalism.
The one empirical argument in Enriquez’s column makes a compa-rision to driving fatalities. Decades ago, automobile-related deaths were more prevalent than they are today. Enriquez points out that au-tomotive regulations were initially resisted by a “well-financed indus-try lobby,” and that when restric-tions finally were passed, deaths declined. Similarly, organizations like the National Rifle Association resist proposed firearms regula-tions in today’s world.
I completely agree with these points as matters of fact, but I dis-agree that the conclusion is that we should more heavily regulate guns. Success through increasing regu-
lation in one industry doesn’t lead me to believe that the same success will necessarily be had through in-creasing regulation in an altogeth-er different industry. Moreover, the analogy is simply unnecessary. Why bother looking at driving fa-
tality data with re-spect to automo-tive policy when we could just look at firearm fatality data with respect to firearms policy?
Media person-alities relish pointing out that the United States has by far the high-est gun death rate. Moore’s film features a montage of countries’ names with their respective statis-tics. Ironically, Moore essentially admitted the fallacious nature of making such comparisons by not-ing the inexplicable crime differ-ences between Canada and the United States even though they have similar gun laws.
It is more instructive to exam-ine the temporal changes in gun crime rates over a period dur-ing which firearms regulation changed. During the 1970s and 80s, both Washington, D.C. and Chicago instituted gun bans and saw massive increases in crime, both of which went away as soon as the bans were lifted. Island nations with strict border controls — such
as Ireland and Jamaica — experi-enced similar effects. The intuition behind these findings is that ban-ning guns disarms law-abiding citi-zens while having little effect upon criminals, encouraging crime. The empirical findings corroborate this understanding.
Enriquez also raised concerns that firearms manufacturers cre-ate “interfaces that allow children to shoot themselves.” As is the case with mass shootings, acciden-tal gun deaths are extremely rare events that garner disproportionate media coverage. Each year, more children drown in buckets than shoot themselves or other chil-dren. And don’t get me started on the real killer — bathtubs. This is a laughably weak basis for criticism, but it does make for a nice sound-bite on the news.
Toward the end of his column, Enriquez proposed policies that demonstrated a real dearth of un-derstanding of firearms technology and the related politicized termi-nology.
But maybe gun control advo-cates like Enriquez are right about something. Maybe 30,000 people don’t have to die every year. Tell your Congressman. Deregulate.
