Wednesday, February 8, 2012 D aily Herald THE BROWN Since 1891 vol. cxxii, no. 11 47/ 29 TOMORROW 39 / 26 TODAY FEATURE ............ 2 NEWS....................3-5 EDITORIAL............6 OPINIONS.............7 INSIDE Intern slaves Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 criticizes unpaid internships Professor fosters U.’s Native culture CAMPUS NEWS, 2 WEATHER Powwow By ELIZABETH KOH STAFF WRITER With his bushy white hair, active Twitter feed and hipster glasses, Steven Lubar, professor of Amer- ican studies, is not your typical museum director. He presides over a collection of artifacts in- cluding jade coins and primitive spearheads, all lovingly labeled and nestled away in a corner of the Main Green. e Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, which describes itself as a “teaching museum” on its website, is located in a 2,000-square-foot space on the first floor of Manning Hall, barely 50 yards away from the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and University Hall. But despite its central location, the building is more likely to draw prospective applicants looking for the upstairs information sessions than visitors interested in its collections. “A lot of students have never been here which is too bad,” Lubar said. “Museums have to be lively to attract attention, and just having wonderful stuff is sometimes not enough.” But Lubar hopes all of that is about to change. e Haffenreffer Museum, currently in the process of an extended renovation, is re- inventing both its appearance and the experience it offers visitors to attract more students. With a stu- dent group recently approved by the Undergraduate Council of Stu- dents and increasing collaboration with University classes and pro- grams, the museum is launching new programs to gain recognition on campus. Hidden gems abound at the Haffenreffer Sam Kase / Herald The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology features over 1 million artifacts. By AASHA JACKSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER Five adventurous students re- ceived fellowships this year to showcase their multimedia proj- ects addressing international is- sues on the Global Conversation, a blog launched by the Watson Institute for International Studies two years ago. Over winter break, five students were sponsored as AT&T New Media Fellows, each receiving $1,500 in addition to audio and video equipment to document their work and upload it to the site. Since the Watson Institute launched the blog as an outlet for students to share their work and experiences abroad with the Brown community, AT&T has sponsored 35 New Media Fel- lows to go abroad and work on a variety of international projects. Kai Herng Loh ’14, associate new media producer for the blog and one of this year’s recipients, traveled to China over break to study the country’s capacity to innovate as it vies to become even more dominant in global markets. Loh said he wanted to challenge the idea portrayed in American media that China “is not really capable of producing innovation.” Loh created a video documen- tary counteracting the media’s portrayal, though he added that the documentary will not be as thorough as he hoped because “it was hard to get higher-level government officials to go on video,” he said. The blog is like “Facebook with a purpose,” said Karen Lynch, editor of the Global Conversa- tion. “It gives Brown students an Fellows showcase adventures abroad on blog Courtesy of Tala Worrell Tala Worrell ‘14 interviewed current residents of her uncle’s old house in Bula’a. By ELIZABETH KOH STAFF WRITER For the seventh consecutive year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has given the University a red-light rating for its sexual harassment policy in a report assessing free speech codes on college campuses. The red-light rating is given to schools with at least one policy that “both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech,” according to the report. The University’s sexual harass- ment code was flagged for being “too vague” and “over-broad,” said Azhar Majeed, the foundation’s associate director of legal and public advocacy. “This policy gives purported examples of sexual harassment, which encompasses speech, such as suggestive jokes of a sexual na- ture,” Majeed said. “Something as obvious as a joke on ‘South Park’ or the ‘Daily Show’ would potentially be a suggestive joke of a suggestive nature” that could constitute sexual harassment, Ma- jeed said. The 2012 report rated 392 col- leges and universities, 65 percent of which received a red-light rat- ing. Harvard, Cornell and Colum- bia were also labeled as red-light for some of their policies. Since 2005, the foundation, a nonprofit education organiza- tion that advocates free speech on campus, has been rating col- leges around the country. It be- gan rating Brown in 2006. The released ratings are based on “publicly available policies” from Freedom of speech foundation flags U. policy By ALEXANDRA MACFARLANE SENIOR STAFF WRITER Faculty members voted unani- mously at yesterday’s faculty meet- ing to support President Ruth Simmons’ actions in dealing with the city’s demands for additional payments. e faculty also voted on the academic calendar and heard re- ports on the presidential search process, athletics and brain sci- ence research at the University. Simmons discussed the city’s requests for increased contribu- tions from the University to help bridge the city’s $22.5 million deficit and also outlined plans the University has made to help the city. Simmons explained the commitments that the University had made to the city, starting with a memorandum of understanding made in 2003 between the city and other in-state universities. In all, Simmons said, the University pays $4 million to the city in voluntary contributions and tax payments annually. Simmons drew a comparison Faculty votes to support U. dealings with city By ELI OKUN SENIOR STAFF WRITER In light of rapid increases in book digitization over the last few years, some universities are taking steps to implement cost-effective e-textbook programs. ough the option has been explored at Brown, the Univer- sity is unlikely to follow their lead anytime soon, said Steven Souza, director of the Brown Bookstore. is semester, Cornell, the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin partnered with Internet2, a higher education networking consortium, to launch an e-textbook pilot program. e pilot program seeks to provide the participating universities with a way to incorporate e-textbooks into a traditional classroom setting using a business model that will lower costs for students and publishers, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month. During the current trial phase, universities are covering the costs of the e-textbooks for students in the courses testing out the program. Bookstore unlikely to implement e-textbook program continued on page 3 continued on page 4 continued on page 5 continued on page 4 continued on page 5 OPINIONS, 7 FEATURE
Transcript
Wednesday, February 8, 2012Daily Heraldthe Brown
Since 1891vol. cxxii, no. 11
47/ 29
t o m o r r o w
39 / 26
t o d ayFeature............2news....................3-5editorial............6opinions.............7insi
de Intern slavesRebecca McGoldrick ’12 criticizes unpaid internships
Professor fosters U.’s Native culture
CAMPUS NewS, 2 wea
therPowwow
By ElIzaBEth KohStaff Writer
With his bushy white hair, active Twitter feed and hipster glasses, Steven Lubar, professor of Amer-ican studies, is not your typical museum director. He presides over a collection of artifacts in-cluding jade coins and primitive spearheads, all lovingly labeled and nestled away in a corner of the Main Green.
The Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology, which describes itself as a “teaching museum” on its website, is located in a 2,000-square-foot space on the first floor of Manning Hall, barely 50 yards away from the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and University Hall. But despite its central location, the building is
more likely to draw prospective applicants looking for the upstairs information sessions than visitors interested in its collections.
“A lot of students have never been here which is too bad,” Lubar said. “Museums have to be lively to attract attention, and just having wonderful stuff is sometimes not enough.”
But Lubar hopes all of that is about to change. The Haffenreffer Museum, currently in the process of an extended renovation, is re-inventing both its appearance and the experience it offers visitors to attract more students. With a stu-dent group recently approved by the Undergraduate Council of Stu-dents and increasing collaboration with University classes and pro-grams, the museum is launching new programs to gain recognition on campus.
Hidden gems abound at the Haffenreffer
Sam Kase / HeraldThe Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology features over 1 million artifacts.
By aasha jacKsonContributing Writer
Five adventurous students re-ceived fellowships this year to showcase their multimedia proj-ects addressing international is-sues on the Global Conversation, a blog launched by the Watson Institute for International Studies two years ago. Over winter break, five students were sponsored as AT&T New Media Fellows, each receiving $1,500 in addition to audio and video equipment to document their work and upload it to the site.
Since the Watson Institute launched the blog as an outlet for students to share their work and experiences abroad with the Brown community, AT&T has sponsored 35 New Media Fel-lows to go abroad and work on a variety of international projects.
Kai Herng Loh ’14, associate new media producer for the blog and one of this year’s recipients, traveled to China over break to study the country’s capacity to innovate as it vies to become even more dominant in global markets. Loh said he wanted to challenge the idea portrayed in American media that China “is not really capable of producing innovation.”
Loh created a video documen-tary counteracting the media’s portrayal, though he added that the documentary will not be as thorough as he hoped because “it was hard to get higher-level government officials to go on video,” he said.
The blog is like “Facebook with a purpose,” said Karen Lynch, editor of the Global Conversa-tion. “It gives Brown students an
Fellows showcase adventures abroad on blog
Courtesy of Tala WorrellTala Worrell ‘14 interviewed current residents of her uncle’s old house in Bula’a.
By ElIzaBEth KohStaff Writer
For the seventh consecutive year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has given the University a red-light rating for its sexual harassment policy in a report assessing free speech codes on college campuses. The red-light rating is given to schools with at least one policy that “both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech,” according to the report.
The University’s sexual harass-
ment code was flagged for being “too vague” and “over-broad,” said Azhar Majeed, the foundation’s associate director of legal and public advocacy.
“This policy gives purported examples of sexual harassment, which encompasses speech, such as suggestive jokes of a sexual na-ture,” Majeed said. “Something as obvious as a joke on ‘South Park’ or the ‘Daily Show’ would potentially be a suggestive joke of a suggestive nature” that could constitute sexual harassment, Ma-jeed said.
The 2012 report rated 392 col-leges and universities, 65 percent of which received a red-light rat-ing. Harvard, Cornell and Colum-bia were also labeled as red-light for some of their policies.
Since 2005, the foundation, a nonprofit education organiza-tion that advocates free speech on campus, has been rating col-leges around the country. It be-gan rating Brown in 2006. The released ratings are based on “publicly available policies” from
Freedom of speech foundation flags U. policy
By alExandra MacfarlanESenior Staff Writer
Faculty members voted unani-mously at yesterday’s faculty meet-ing to support President Ruth Simmons’ actions in dealing with the city’s demands for additional payments.
The faculty also voted on the academic calendar and heard re-ports on the presidential search process, athletics and brain sci-ence research at the University.
Simmons discussed the city’s requests for increased contribu-tions from the University to help bridge the city’s $22.5 million deficit and also outlined plans the University has made to help the city. Simmons explained the commitments that the University had made to the city, starting with a memorandum of understanding made in 2003 between the city and other in-state universities. In all, Simmons said, the University pays $4 million to the city in voluntary contributions and tax payments annually.
Simmons drew a comparison
Faculty votes to support U. dealings with city
By ElI oKunSenior Staff Writer
In light of rapid increases in book digitization over the last few years, some universities are taking steps to implement cost-effective e-textbook programs. Though the option has been explored at Brown, the Univer-sity is unlikely to follow their lead anytime soon, said Steven Souza, director of the Brown Bookstore.
This semester, Cornell, the Uni-versity of California at Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin partnered with Internet2, a higher education networking consortium, to launch an e-textbook pilot program. The pilot program seeks to provide the participating universities with a way to incorporate e-textbooks into a traditional classroom setting using a business model that will lower costs for students and publishers, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month.
During the current trial phase, universities are covering the costs of the e-textbooks for students in the courses testing out the program.
Bookstore unlikely to implement e-textbook program
continued on page 3
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continued on page 5
oPiNioNS, 7
feature
Claire Peracchio, PresidentRebecca Ballhaus, Vice President
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation 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.
Grilled Cajun Chicken, Vegan Mediterranean Stew, Vegan Brown
Rice Pilaf
TODAY FEbRUARY 8 TOmORROW FEbRUARY 9
C R O S S W O R D
S U D O K U
M E n U
C A L E n DA RBy MaddIE BErg
Staff Writer
As the only Native American faculty member at Brown, Elizabeth Hoover MA’03 PhD’10 hopes to continue her efforts to bring American In-dian culture into the University’s consciousness. Hoover held the first annual powwow on campus as a graduate student 10 years ago, and she now plans to help develop a Native studies program that will raise awareness of the culture in the academic sphere.
Hoover’s celebration of her Mo-hawk and Micmac heritage began at a young age, continuing through her undergraduate years at Williams College and her graduate years at Brown and finally culminating in her position as a visiting assistant professor of ethnic studies and American studies.
Hoover grew up in what she re-fers to as “the boondocks of upstate New York.” Because she lived in a diverse community where she had little contact with her cultural roots, she spent much of her childhood traveling across the Northeast to traditional powwows and ceremo-nies where she could get in touch with her heritage.
“It was just something that was always important to our family, even though our neighbors didn’t all nec-essarily take part in the same tradi-tions,” she said. “The way to hang on to Native traditions is by coming to these gatherings and going to ceremonies and going to powwows.”
But Hoover did not find this Na-tive American culture accessible in her college years. Williams “ba-sically had no (Native American) community,” Hoover recalled. She attempted to change this by organiz-ing a powwow at Williams, a tradi-tion she would later start at Brown. The powwows attract residents of local communities and feature ritu-alistic dances and ceremonies, she said.
“I wanted to bring more Native people to that campus,” Hoover said. When she attended Williams, there were only three or four other Native American students, she said.
As an undergraduate, Hoover’s attempts to recruit more Ameri-can Indian students proved dif-ficult. Upon asking an admission officer what the school was doing to increase recruitment of Native Americans, he said, “Oh, we just tell them to go for Dartmouth be-cause they have a good program there,” Hoover recalled. “My jaw
just dropped. It was just shocking.”As a professor at Brown, Hoover
said she hopes recruitment efforts will be more successful. Hoover has been active in University efforts to reach out to local Native people and make them aware of Brown’s welcoming community.
Hoover originally came to the University to get her master’s degree in anthropology and museum stud-ies. With her expertise in museum studies, Hoover hoped to help dis-play the crafts of Natives “in such a way that it doesn’t make these folks look like they vanished,” she said.
But Hoover soon decided the more urgent issues facing Natives were environmental, as the high chemical levels in many tribal areas affect their health. She pursued her doctorate degree in anthropology, focusing on how contaminates af-fect the reproductive abilities of the Mohawks in Akwesasne, N.Y.
At Brown, Hoover discovered a more active and slightly larger
Native population than the one at Williams. Since her first year as a graduate student, Hoover has taken part in the activities of Natives at Brown.
“I was very happy that they had a Native student group here,” she said. “It was very nice.”
Soon after joining the cultural group, which currently has 10 ac-tive members who meet once a week, Hoover started a powwow much like the event she organized at Williams.
“I was like, all right, somebody else has to raise the money, but I’ll invite the drummers and the dancers because that’s the fun part,” Hoover said.
The tradition has continued with the University hosting its 10th an-nual powwow last year.
Hoover also hopes to leave a lasting legacy in academia with a Native studies program at Brown. Hoover and other professors are currently organizing all the classes that cover Native peoples into a co-hesive group. In the fall, the pro-fessors of these classes will come together to create a Native studies program within the ethnic studies department.
“It’s going to be a while before we can get them to hire another Native studies professor,” Hoover said, “so it’s about how we can work with the resources we have to bring it together.”
Before the program is fully im-plemented, Hoover said she hopes Brown will attract more Native students by “letting people in the local communities know that they are welcome here and that their students will thrive here.”
U. to offer Native studies program
Courtesy of Elizabeth HooverElizabeth Hoover MA ’03 PhD ’10 started Brown’s first native American powwow.
Campus news 3the Brown Daily heraldwednesday, February 8, 2012
opportunity to showcase some of the great work that they are doing — otherwise it might just sit there on their laptops,” Lynch said. “And it also helps to bring alumni back in connection with Brown in the context of interna-tional matters.”
Nicholas Carter ’11.5 is explor-ing how the street music of Carta-gena, Colombia conveys the his-tory of the city’s Afro-Colombians and the city’s different social, cultural and political processes.
“I’m trying to discover what life is like here and how music and dance function in these pub-lic spaces and also how they give meaning to the musicians, danc-ers and people passing through,” said Carter, who has plans to stay in Cartagena for a few more months and hopes to find a job in the city.
Brigitta Greene ’12, former deputy managing editor at The Herald, investigated the problems surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
“The price of oil reached a high enough level that more expensive drilling practices that have been known but (are) not economical to use are now worth it,” Greene said.
Tala Worrell ’14 plans to create a mini-documentary to shed light on the recent revolution in Egypt through her own family’s experi-ences, and Kaori Ogawa ’12 will produce a photo documentary on France’s recent assimilatory immigration policy, according to the blog’s website.
The 2012 New Media Fellows have shared information about their projects on the blog, but the Global Conversation website is becoming more popular among other members of the Brown community. Anybody with a brown.edu email address can post on the site, which allows its users to upload audio and video con-tent. The site is currently on track to reach a milestone 100,000 hits in March, according to Lynch.
The number of site visits in November 2010 more than dou-bled by February 2011 and then doubled again by November 2011, according to Lynch. She added that plans are in the works to re-vamp the website to make it more user-friendly.
“Most of the content was com-ing from the fellows, but increas-ingly we’ve just seen people reg-istering on the site and sharing things,” Loh said.
“It gives all these projects that are being done some value in the sense that it frames that all as act-ing as contributions to a larger discussion,” Carter said.
“Taking mostly unconven-tional stories from all around the world and presenting them together is something that can really make people aware of the variety of stories that there are and the diversity of human ex-periences,” he added.
Applications for summer fel-lowships are due Feb. 27, Lynch said.
Courtesy of Tala WorrellWorrell investigated Egypt’s revolution by tracing her family history.
Courtesy of Tala WorrellWorrell explored sites in Cairo, such as the Citadel, as part of her project.
Courtesy of Tala WorrellTala Worrell ‘14 captured the view of the Saladin Citadel of Cairo.
International student blog doubles readerscontinued from page 1
the following summary includes a selection of major incidents reported to the department of public safety between Jan. 2 and Feb. 5. it does not include general service and alarm calls. the providence police department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. dps does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, ppd or the office of student life. dps maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls, which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters at 75 Charlesfield st.
jan. 210:35 a.m. An employee reported that two projectors, five laptops
and five flash drives had been taken from 4 Richmond Square during a time span of 12 days. There were indications the site had been broken into. The case is under investigation.
jan. 286:50 p.m. Four to six black males approached four males heading
east on Bowen Street between Thayer and Brook Streets and robbed them of their personal belongings while flashing a small caliber handgun. The suspects were described as being of thin build, with one donning a Chicago Bulls cap, another wearing a white and red striped top and the rest dressed in black sweatshirts. The suspects fled, running westbound down Bowen Street. The case is under investigation.
jan. 305:35 p.m. A student reported that $40 had gone missing from his
wallet at the Pizzitola Center, during the approximately four hours he spent working out at the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. The student had stored his belongings in a locker at the Pizzitola Center, with his wallet placed in a pants pocket, but he returned to find his wallet no longer in his pants and rather thrown in the locker. The lockers do not have locks, he said.
feb. 14:26 p.m. An employee, who had parked her vehicle in Lot 90 on
Lloyd Avenue at approximately 2 p.m., returned just over two hours later to discover that the rear passenger side window had been broken and two gym bags taken.
feb. 51:24 a.m. While walking northbound on Brown Street, a male
individual was approached by a black male, assaulted and robbed of his personal items. The suspect, who was described as wearing a light grey sweatshirt and jeans, fled east on Bowen Street in a tan or silver vehicle. The case is under investigation.
By DAV i D C H U n Gn E W S E D i TO RC R i M E LO G
Campus news4 the Brown Daily heraldwednesday, February 8, 2012
288 public universities and 104 private universities, according to the report. Policies analyzed include Internet use guidelines and protest and discrimination policies.
The foundation uses federal standards to evaluate whether a policy violates free speech. In the case of sexual harassment poli-cies, the foundation relies solely on the Davis standard, established in the 1999 Supreme Court case Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which holds that student behavior must be “severe, pervasive and objectively offen-sive” to qualify as sexual harass-ment, Majeed said.
“Davis is the only decision handed down by the Supreme Court, and that makes it a con-trolling decision from the nation’s highest court,” he added.
“There are many external or-ganizations that provide assess-ments and rankings using any range of criteria and methodol-ogy,” wrote Vice President for Public Affairs and University Re-lations Marisa Quinn in an email to The Herald. “I am not aware of the criteria used by (the founda-tion) so am not able to comment on the assessment.”
“The University community values and promotes freedom of speech and freedom of expression and ensures that its principles and standards of community conduct are clear, shared and well under-stood,” Quinn wrote.
Student responses to the rating were conflicted. “The examples
(the foundation) gave were very vague, I guess necessarily, because it’s a hypothetical example and not like a real-life example,” said Jean Mendoza ’12. “I never con-sidered them problematic, but I can see why they would.”
“I never really evaluated it be-cause I’m inside Brown, but just hearing an outsider judge and evaluate our system and point out this flaw, that makes you
question how Brown functions,” Mendoza said.
“Reading the (sexual harrass-ment) policy didn’t come across as vague or over-broad,” said Zack McKenzie ’14. “It just came across as concise, more in that it’s not a 50-page policy. It’s easy enough for students to understand. So while it lacks specific elaboration that could go on for pages, it does enumerate its policy clearly.”
U. defends sexual harassment policy
Courtesy of the Foundation for individual Rights in EducationA free speech organization criticized the University’s sexual harassment policy.
continued from page 1
between the University’s level of donations and the funds given to New Haven by Yale. Though Yale gives considerably more to its hometown, Brown proportion-ally pays more of its endowment to the city of Providence than Yale.
Simmons also explained the chronology of the negotiations between Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and the University, saying that last April the mayor asked her for an additional $5 million to aid the city. Simmons said she told him, based on faculty gover-nance, that it was complicated to deliver additional donations in a timely manner, though Taveras was invited to make a pitch to the meeting of the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, last May.
Going forward, Simmons said she set terms for future discus-sion between the city and the University regarding donations. The University should not be the only nonprofit singled out, she said, adding that she could not partner with the city if the mayor continued to vilify the University to the press.
The University “cannot see the city fall apart,” she said, but dona-tions must be made in a rational way. “We have no choice but to work hard to see what we can do to help without crippling the Uni-versity,” she said.
Faculty members also voted
not to change the academic cal-endar, which is determined by the faculty rules and regulations. This motion was separate from the four other options proposed in the December faculty meet-ing, which proposed changing the starting date of the school year in 2013 since it conflicts with Rosh Hashanah.
This motion was approved after much debate about the merits of beginning before or after Labor Day as well as University attempts to accommodate religious holi-days within the calendar. Faculty members also discussed the role of teaching versus the role of re-search, as a shorter summer break would conflict with many faculty plans to conduct research.
Chung-I Tan, professor of physics and chair of the Campus Advisory Committee, spoke on behalf of the Campus Advisory Committee for the Presidential Search. The process is ongoing and on schedule, he said, and the Corporation and the committee are working together in the next steps of the search process. He emphasized the need for confi-dentiality to ensure the best results for the next president and did not take any questions.
Provost Mark Schlissel ’15 gave a report about athletics to faculty members. He highlighted efforts to reduce the number of recruiting slots to prospective students and to increase the academic caliber of incoming student athletes. These efforts involve using an academic index to track recruits’ perfor-mance at the University as com-pared to that of their peers who are not involved with athletics.
Schlissel also talked about ini-tiatives to improve and broaden the academic career of current student athletes. Athletes should not be as clustered in certain courses, he said, adding that the dean of the College wants athletes to think more broadly about their academic life.
Schlissel discussed the ongoing efforts of the Brain Science Initia-tive, an interdisciplinary program that attempts to study the brain on multiple scientific levels. There are around seven positions open to candidates in multiple depart-ments, and the administration is working on fundraising for the initiative, he said.
Faculty votes against calendar change
continued from page 1
www.browndailyherald.com
Campus news 5the Brown Daily heraldwednesday, February 8, 2012
Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez
CO M i C S
a makeover at ManningThe Haffenreffer Museum,
which according to Lubar now possesses approximately 1 mil-lion artifacts, originally began as the private collection of Rudolf Haffenreffer, a Rhode Island phi-lanthropist who founded the King Philip Museum in Bristol in the early 1900s. In 1955, the museum, along with 220 acres of land, was donated to the University and named after the late industrial-ist. The Haffenreffer Museum operated remotely in Bristol un-til 2006, when the University set up the display space in Manning Hall. Today, the museum occupies both buildings, and the location in Bristol serves as the Collections Research Center.
The first floor of Manning Hall has since received a makeover. With a brand new sign on the pre-viously unmarked door and the interior walls of the museum re-done in primary colors, the display space seems as bright and cheerful as an IKEA storeroom. But instead of Swedish furniture, the walls and stands are lined with artifacts.
Lubar springs to life as he talks about the new exhibits — his voice speeds up and he eagerly elaborates on the artifacts. The museum cur-rently features three exhibits — ar-tifacts from aboriginal Taiwan and early Rhode Island and Chinese paintings.
“Up until two years ago, the museum did one exhibit in the whole space every other year,” Lubar said. Now, in addition to three exhibit galleries, the museum has also added a CultureLab to simulate its Bristol facility, he said.
A small, well-lit corner, the CultureLab features some of the museum’s artifacts that are not on display with information on their histories and significance.
Inter-disciplines The Haffenreffer Museum is
also establishing new connections to draw visitors, from partnering with classes on campus to initiat-ing other joint ventures with the University. Two of the museum’s current exhibits are the results of a collaboration between the museum and the University’s ongoing Year of China initiative.
“The planning has been in the works for a while,” said Year of China coordinator Shana Wein-berg. In addition to the Manning displays, the Haffenreffer Museum and Year of China have collabo-rated on sister exhibits such as one of Daoist robes at the Rhode Island School of Design and a satellite exhibit featuring a Chinese impe-rial robe in Faunce.
The Haffenreffer Museum is also seeking a return to its “teach-ing museum” roots by involving classes and other students in its ex-hibits. Lubar said an ethnic studies class will be curating an exhibit in April, and a class on the archaeol-ogy of money recently explored the museum’s collections.
“We’ve got a couple of classes that are bringing students by to actually handle objects and learn from objects,” he said. “It should be used like a library.”
The Haffenreffer Museum has also reached out to students out-side the social sciences — the new-ly-installed Chinese paintings have integrated technology. A group of students working with Andries van Dam, professor of computer sci-ence, has created a touch screen system, Lubar said. “If you want to know more about any object, you can touch it and it tells us who it is, what the various symbolism is,” he said, referring to the portraits.
The display is crisp and clean and shows off the 17th-century paintings in bright high-quality resolution. Lubar said the project offered computer science students
the opportunity to apply their skills to the real world.
Collaborating with these stu-dents also offers the museum the opportunity to update its exhibits and bring in more attention, he said.
new and old friends
The Haffenreffer Museum has traditionally made use of an unof-ficial student advisory board to attract interest. Last semester, this board successfully applied for UCS recognition and is now a Category I student organization. Members of the Haffenreffer Museum Stu-dent Group are trying to “bring the museum to the students and bring the students to the museum,” said co-president Hannah Sisk ’13.
The group organizes visits to the gallery on campus and trips to the Bristol site so that students can “see what it takes to run a large scale museum,” she said.
It has also expanded to include three committees managing on-campus outreach, general pro-gramming and exhibit curating.
Sisk, who became involved with the group out of her “love for the ancient and the old,” said not many students take advantage of the museum. “It’s kind of a really odd situation that we have hundreds of thousands of objects and artifacts in collection over there but only a small gallery to show them here,” she said.
“You’d be surprised how many people stumble in and say, ‘I had no idea this was here, this is cool,’” Sisk said.
Lubar said he does not want to look too far into the future but plans to increase student outreach.
“What we’re eager to do is to move all of our collections close to campus so that students can get access to them more easily,” he said. Then “we will be able to really open it up and say, ‘Come and play with this stuff.’”
Museum asks students to ‘come and play’continued from page 1
The eventual goal is for students to pay a base course-materials fee and then gain access to all the e-textbooks at reduced prices, accord-ing to the Chronicle. Universities would purchase e-textbooks in bulk at lower costs, a move that appeals to publishers because it provides a steady source of income in an in-creasingly multidimensional and uncertain industry.
In a rapidly evolving technologi-cal world, it is important for uni-versities to consider all the options and determine what works best for students and faculty, said Clare van den Blink, assistant director for aca-demic technology services and user support for Cornell Information Technologies, who is overseeing the program at the university.
“That’s what we’re doing the pilot to find out, because (online) text-books are different than if you’re reading for your own enjoyment,” she said. “Right off the bat, I would say if you have a textbook that has multimedia embedded, then it sort of lends some different opportuni-ties for unique kinds of learning.”
Cornell bookstore sales have been steady in recent years, van den Blink said, adding that the semester-long pilot program will evaluate the software program, Courseload, as well.
A separate program at Indiana University, spearheaded over the past few years as a pilot program and implemented university-wide at the start of this school year, has relied on a different business model to make e-textbooks widely avail-able. The Indiana University eText Initiative includes a fee for books in each class that is mandatory but lower than traditional costs. Publishers eliminate printing costs and get paid each semester that a student uses an e-book, rather than only receiving pay when books are sold to the university, according to Nik Osborne, leader of the Indi-ana initiative and chief of staff for the vice president for information technology. This system generates financial incentives for all parties, he said.
Students have responded favor-ably thus far, Osborne said, add-ing that emerging technologies will only make the software more palatable in future years.
“The software’s getting better and better to where books are be-coming less and less of the static PDFs,” he said. “It’s actually inter-active, so students and faculty can highlight, annotate — they can share their annotations directly.”
Osborne said the changes have gone smoothly because the choice to use e-textbooks is entirely at each professor’s discretion, and students can print out any part of the e-text-books free of charge.
At Brown, a major shift to e-textbooks is not a top priority, for matters of both cost-efficiency and interest, Souza said.
“What I’ve observed in the past is that e-textbooks aren’t all that different in price,” he said. “The stu-dents haven’t embraced it. … We’ve kind of made that a back-burner topic because of the lack of interest.”
Mike McDade, textbook depart-ment manager at the bookstore, said the issue is not the unavail-ability of e-textbooks, which have proliferated as options at most ma-jor publishing houses in the past few years.
“I think the reticence particu-larly on this campus is twofold,” he said. Given the bookstore’s popular textbook rental program and other low-cost options like Amazon, the appeal of even the cheapest e-text-books is limited, McDade said, cit-ing a large biology e-textbook that sold fewer than 10 copies in a class of 200 despite its $40 price tag. In addition, most e-textbooks are not returnable, a system frequently in-compatible with the fluctuations of shopping period.
Though bookstore sales, like those across the nation, had been falling for a few years, the intro-duction of the textbook rental pro-gram in January 2011 has stopped the decline, Souza said. Sales have remained steady for the past few semesters.
On campus, students who have used e-textbooks before expressed mixed reactions to the technology. Poulomi Chakrabarti GS said she has used online textbooks in many of her classes and finds it both a cheaper and more efficient method, but she also recognizes some of the drawbacks.
“It takes a while to get used to, and I write on my readings and I highlight, which is difficult to do on an online textbook,” she said.
‘Lack of interest’ stymies e-books
continued from page 1
editorial6 the Brown Daily heraldwednesday, February 8, 2012
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Rhode Island officials approved a decennial redistricting bill last Wednesday that will restructure political boundaries throughout the state’s two congressional districts. The legislation’s passage has left politicians and citizens alike questioning the bill’s impartial-ity and the degree of influence its chief beneficiary, Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., had in its controversial passage. While the bill purports to give minorities a greater voice in government, we believe this is just a public justification for political self-interest.
Although numerous Rhode Island politicians, including House Minority Leader Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, have com-plained about the bill’s adverse effects on their respective House districts, the biggest consequence of its passage occurs on the district level. Democrats currently hold seats in each of the two congressional districts, and the bill dictates that thousands of registered voters from the district of Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., would be incorporated into Cicilline’s district, while strongly GOP towns would become part of Langevin’s district.
The bill bodes tremendously well for Cicilline and his supporters, but it will hurt Langevin’s campaign toward re-election. Though the bill’s supporters claim it was designed to enhance minority voices in Rhode Island politics, it seems likely that it was intentionally designed to serve the best interests of Cicilline and his constituents. Several politicians have accused Cicilline of gerrymandering, or manipulating the boundaries of the districts in his favor. We believe it is unacceptable for lawmakers to pass legislation that deliberately panders to a politically powerful position or influence, especially when the legislation affects the voting public.
However, the issue reaches a broader perspective than ger-rymandering. The state GOP, as marginalized as it already is, will lose even more influence and voters in Cicilline’s district due to redistricting. The bill is significantly less generous to Republicans and their voters, and it significantly boosts Cicilline’s re-election chances. Even though we may oppose many of the Republican Party’s views, Rhode Island will not benefit from a bill that, in es-sence, creates a more divisive attitude in an already partisan state. As history shows, political offices ultimately resemble despotism without formidable challengers to keep them in check. Although Cicilline is certainly no despot, it seems that he is willing to cross measures, and borders, in order to sustain his position. Given Cicilline’s recent track record, it is especially vital for a politically healthy Rhode Island that challengers always be granted the op-portunity to question policy and offer other sensible options to the voting public.
Because Rhode Island is such a small state, the redistricting bill affects a sizeable number of Rhode Islanders, making it of crucial importance that the bill is carried out in a fair and egalitarian fashion. We have faith in the political process, and in spite of our political views, we concede the importance of the GOP in sustaining the state. We cannot support a redistricting bill that was conceived without the best interests of Rhode Island at heart.
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opinions 7the Brown Daily heraldwednesday, February 8, 2012
Toward the end of the fall semester, The Herald published a four-part series entitled “Mission Drift?” that examined how the University has changed during the tenure of President Ruth Simmons and what those changes might mean for the future of our university-college. In addition to being an unexpected but welcome departure from more traditional Herald coverage, it is per-haps the only place where one can begin to understand Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment in a broader context, and how this vision for the University’s future differs markedly from that of some of her prede-cessors.
As the series notes, the Magaziner-Max-well Report, which was published in 1967 and ultimately led to the formation of the New Curriculum, suggests that institution-al self-study is an important part of Univer-sity activity. While the “Mission Drift?” se-ries is in no way an attempt at serious self-study, it does serve as a good starting point for reflecting on both the present state of our institution — a natural first step in the self-study process — and what might hap-pen after Simmons steps down at the end of the academic year.
The last piece concludes by saying that the University’s 19th president will have to decide between a more outward focus —
that is, emphasis on rankings and revenue — and a more inward one, where the under-graduate educational experience reemerges as the most important priority. While there might be something to be gained from framing the presidential search in this way, or even as a choice between someone who will continue in the same vein as Simmons and someone who envisions something dif-ferent, it seems to oversimplify matters.
Earlier in the series, Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 offers, albeit indirectly, an-other possibility. He says Brown’s mission
statement must be “interpreted in each gen-eration anew, but it’s written in a way that’s broad and ambitious and aspirational, that can meet each generation’s interpretation.” And here seems to be a more useful crite-rion by which to judge a potential presiden-tial candidate — whether he or she can in-terpret the mission statement in a way that not only corresponds to student interpreta-tions but also indicates a willingness to ex-plore opportunities presented by ever-de-veloping technology.
Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard, wrote an essay published in the
New York Times earlier this year in which he speculates on potential changes to the educational system. Setting aside the fact that Summers has had some questionable views on differences between the sexes and that Harvard is one of the universities the “Mission Drift?” series accuses Brown of imitating, there are some worthwhile ob-servations, including ideas about learning to process information rather than impart it, increasing collaborative efforts and in-tegrating the benefits of advanced technol-ogy.
I am not suggesting that Spencer Stuart, the search firm assisting the presidential search committees, give Summers a call. I only mention his name as a recent exam-ple of someone who is thinking about how higher education can evolve in the 21st cen-tury — a trait the new president on College Hill ought to possess. The same openness that characterizes our curriculum and sup-posedly pervades our self-proclaimed liber-al environment should also extend to new possibilities for developing the Brown edu-cation. As the “Mission Drift?” series right-ly suggests, growth does not need to be the
sole measure of development.The series is also right to question the ex-
tent to which the changes enacted by Presi-dent Simmons had some sort of philosoph-ical underpinning. In an institution with a history that includes President Henry Wris-ton’s outline for a university-college and the Magaziner-Maxwell Report, the absence is conspicuous. The Plan for Academic En-richment, which is essentially the hallmark of President Simmons’ tenure, seems to of-fer goals rather than the reasons for having such goals.
For me, the most telling quote to emerge from the series came not from Simmons but from Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73, who said Brown is now a “high-powered re-search university” and that “the university-college concept is not as relevant to people.” It remains unclear how the University, with what appears to be an increased focus on growth and peer imitation, can maintain the distinctive character that brought so many of us to College Hill.
As responsible journalists, the series’ re-porters included a question mark within the title of their series in order to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. As someone who played no part in the development of the series and whose sole responsibility as an opinions writer is to ensure his opinions are clear, I feel there is no need to include the question mark.
Sam Carter ’12 encourages everyone to read the “Mission Drift?” series. He can be
All around, hints of spring abound. The temperature rises, the birds sing and min-utes of sunlight gradually increase by the day. But one thing seems to notify college students that it is springtime more than anything else — internships. Emails fill our inboxes with opportunities, recruiters come to campus and friends discuss their summer work plans with each other. In all of the excitement and anxiety, we some-times forget to consider one of the most important questions: Is it paid?
The number of students taking intern-ships today is unprecedented in modern American history. A survey conducted by the National Association for Colleges and Employers claims that only 9 percent of college students in 1992 took internships, compared to a jaw-dropping 80 percent in 2008. According to an article published by National Public Radio, “More than 1 mil-lion Americans a year work as interns.” This all sounds dandy if you believe an in-ternship is a valuable experience that pre-pares students for the workforce by provid-ing hands-on training, but a closer exami-nation reveals a sobering reality.
Of the million American internships a year, approximately half are unpaid. Ac-cording to the United States Department of Labor, unpaid internships in for-profit in-dustries are legal so long as they meet cer-tain criteria, including that the internship
is educational, benefits the intern, does not directly benefit the employer and does not displace paid employees. Unsurprisingly, many employers have taken advantage of this vague language at the expense of dis-solving a healthy American middle class.
At a time when a list of internships on a resume is often more marketable than a college degree, it is undeniable that intern-ships lead to economic opportunities. But a survey conducted by NACE in 2011 reveals that while 61 percent of paid interns in the for-profit sector received job offers, only 38 percent of unpaid interns working at for-profits did. So why is this the case?
Students with paid internships reported that they received hands-on training, per-formed professional tasks and had more responsibilities than those who worked as unpaid interns, who performed more cleri-cal work. This means that nearly half a mil-lion Americans working as unpaid interns a year perform menial tasks like folding boxes, stuffing envelopes and shredding files, while another half a million receive a
paycheck and training that actually makes them employable in the future. It seems then that most unpaid internships are in direct contradiction with the U.S. Depart-ment of Labor’s criteria, since they do not provide educational training, are of no benefit to the intern, provide an immedi-ate benefit to the employer and replace paid jobs with free student labor.
At a time when jobs are scarce, unpaid internships pose a serious threat to paid employment. Employers can re-market once-paid positions as unpaid internships. With the surplus of student labor willing to work for free, employers are almost guar-
anteed that an open unpaid position will be filled — if not by you, then by one of your peers. So long as the Department of Labor’s regulations contain such vague language, there is nothing stopping employers from abusing this surplus of free labor.
In addition to replacing paid labor and failing to provide educational training, un-paid internships perpetuate the growing socioeconomic divide. Today, many em-
ployers expect resumes with a laundry list of internships, which is fine if mommy and daddy are capable of paying for an apart-ment, food and transportation for the sum-mer. But what about students who come from families that cannot afford to fund three months of living? If students do need to earn money during the summer in or-der to pay for things like books in the fall, they may take a paying job that does not necessarily provide the educational train-ing that is supposed to come with an in-ternship. And according to another survey conducted by NACE, students who had in-ternships had higher starting salaries after graduation than those who did not have in-ternships. Thus, lower-income students are essentially required to work for free now in addition to having to pay off student loans in the future if they want to be as market-able as their wealthier friends after gradu-ation.
So this spring as you make your sum-mer plans, consider the effects of unpaid internships. If you cannot find an intern-ship that provides educational training or a salary, then instead of sitting over a paper shredder for hours without pay, why not do something more meaningful, like volun-teer? Volunteering is the same as an unpaid internship in that you can put it on your re-sume, but instead of perpetuating this un-equal system of opportunity, volunteering helps communities in need.
Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 is an English concentrator from Andover, n.J.
With the surplus of student labor willing to work for free, employers are almost guaranteed that an open unpaid
position will be filled — if not by you, then by one of your peers.
As the “Mission Drift?” series rightly suggests, growth does not need to be the sole measure of development.
By REBECCA MCGOLDRiCKopinions Columnist
By SAM CARTERopinions Columnist
Daily Heraldthe Brown
Campus newswednesday, February 8, 2012
By shEfalI luthraneWS editor
The University has publicly con-demned a bill that would require publishers to approve open access to government-funded research.
Currently, if research receives any funding from the National Institutes of Health, it must be made publicly available via an index maintained by the National Library of Medicine. Studies pub-lished in subscription-based jour-nals must become public within one year of initial publication. The Research Works Act would require consent from subscrip-tion-based journals before stud-ies they have published could be made publicly available.
The University condemned the legislation for “a whole variety of reasons,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15. He cited the limita-tions it could impose on commu-nity access to student and faculty research as the most troubling part of the proposal.
“It’s a bill that would benefit for-profit publishers at the ex-pense of the scholarly community and the public by imposing an increased barrier to access to the product of our research,” Schlis-sel said.
Faculty members are not currently required to publish their research in open journals, Schlissel said. If the bill passed, members of the University com-munity who did not subscribe to particular journals would have difficulty accessing the studies published both at Brown and at
other institutions.Schlissel, whose own research
in the biological sciences is fund-ed by NIH grants, said it would be “disappointing” if someone had to subscribe to a journal to read his findings.
“It’s a matter of public policy,” he said. “As a country, we’d like to lower the barriers to the access to research.”
The bill has also been con-demned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Uni-versity of California and Oxford University presses, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month. But it has received support from the Association of American Publishers.
“At a time when job retention, United States exports, scholarly excellence, scientific integrity and digital copyright protection are all priorities, the Research Works Act ensures the sustainability of this industry,” said Tom Allen, president and chief executive of-ficer of the Association of Ameri-can Publishers, in a release from the organization.
Clyde Briant, vice president for research, initially brought the bill to Schlissel’s attention. Schlissel told President Ruth Simmons he recommended condemning the bill, an action Simmons told him she supported.
The University is currently considering a policy that would make all research done at Brown freely accessible to the public, The Herald reported last Octo-ber. Such policies are already in place at MIT and Princeton.
U. condemns bill limiting public research accessBy laurEn PoPE
Contributing Writer
As part of a nearly 50-year-old partnership with Tougaloo Col-lege, Brown students will travel to the school in Tougaloo, Miss. this spring break to explore the civil rights movement. Francoise Hamlin, assistant professor of Africana studies, and Maitrayee Bhattacharyya ’91, associate dean for diversity programs, will lead the trip. They will choose approxi-mately four students through an application that was due yesterday.
“Mississippi and its history (have) a lot to teach students in the northeast about the nation — through its contrast and similari-ties,” Hamlin wrote in an email to The Herald. By bringing students to Mississippi “to breathe the air, visit sites of the mass movement and sites of murder, a better un-derstanding of this national his-tory can be grasped.”
The students who participate will “benefit enormously” from the trip, Hamlin added.
The University formed its part-nership with Tougaloo, a liberal arts and historically black college, in 1964, instituting collaborative research and exchange programs, according to the Brown Universi-ty-Tougaloo College Partnership website. The partnership includes a teaching program, through which Brown graduate students act as faculty at Tougaloo, and a semester exchange program for undergraduate students from both schools.
Hamlin said she hopes the trip will be a way to “re-strengthen” ties between the two schools and will generate interest in the semes-ter exchange. “It’s an educational and research trip as much as it is a trip to expand social and cultural connections,” she wrote.
While the application was open to all undergraduate stu-dents, the majority of students
who applied are enrolled in Ham-lin’s AFRI 1090: “Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945,” she wrote. One graduate student in Ham-lin’s HIST 2790: “Rethinking the Civil Rights Movement” will also participate.
The students in Hamlin’s courses who are selected to
participate in the trip will have background knowledge of the civil rights movement in Mississippi. In preparation for the trip, they will read two additional books and participate in a seminar with Hamlin. Once they arrive in Mis-sissippi, the students will do some archival work, Hamlin wrote.
Students head south to research civil rights
b e a r i n g t h e n e w y e a r l i g h t
Sam Kase / HeraldThe bear statue on the Main Green celebrates Chinese new year with a lantern.
Courtesy of Francoise HamlinBrown students will visit Tougaloo College to study the civil rights movement.
Courtesy of Khalila DouzeStudents will visit this store which was associated with a brutal 1955 murder.
