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Eitorial....10Opinion.....11

Toay........12

IndIa, In theory

Pulitzer Prize-winning

author Jhumpa Lahiri rea

rom her work Tuesa

News, 4

up, up and away

University o Caliornia

aministrators stan irm

on big ee increases

Higher E, 3

teachIng teachers

Brian Juge ’11 calls ora renewe emphasis on

proessors’ teaching skills

Opinions, 11

i n s i d e

aily

erald

the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 116 |

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

| Serving the community daily since 1891

  b,  

By suzannah weIss

enior

taff

riter

More than 1,600 Brown studentshave signed up to be immunized

against H1N1 this week, now that

the vaccine is available to all college

students 24 and under in Rhode Is-land. About 350 students ventured

to a makeshit clinic in Josiah’s to

get the vaccine Tuesday, the rst

day immunizations were available

on campus.

“I was amazed that it was that many,” said Director o Health

Services Edward Wheeler. “That’s

pretty good or the rst day.” A medical service provider, the

Wellness Company, is administer-

ing vaccines on behal o the RhodeIsland Department o Health along-

side nurses rom Health Services,said Wheeler, who sent e-mails to

undergraduates Monday and Tues-

day about the online appointment-

making system.

The health department, which

decides when and how to distribute

the vaccine, required that studentsmake appointments in order to re-

ceive the vaccine, a decision Wheeler

said was a “smart move.”

The appointment-only system“works much better when you’re

doing such a high number o vac-

cines,” he said.

“So ar it has been running really

smoothly,” Wheeler said.

He said he expects 350 to 400

students per day and about 4,000 to

5,000 in total to receive the vaccinebeore the clinic ends Dec. 18. The

health department has allocated the

University enough vaccine to meet that demand, he said.Net semester, students will be

able to make appointments to get

vaccinated at Health Services, he

said.

The health department recom-

mends that college students get vac-

cinated regardless o whether or

not they have recently experienced

fu-like symptoms — and even i they

have previously tested positive or

the swine fu.

G ’0 M S

By Max godnIck

taff

riter

Jeremy Goodman ’10 is among

35 students nationwide who will

receive the prestigious Marshall

Scholarship or two years o grad-

uate study in the United King-

dom, the University announced

Tuesday.

A triple-concentrator romBethesda, Md., Goodman is on

track to graduate this May with

an Sc.B. in cognitive neurosci-ence, an A.B. in physics and an

A.M. in philosophy, according toa University press release. He iscurrently spending the semester

abroad studying philosophy at

University College, London.Goodman said he will use his

scholarship to study philosophy

at Oord University.“It’s ... an amazing honor and

incredibly humbling to havebeen chosen,” Goodman said

Tuesday.

Up to 40 American students

are selected or the Marshall each

year and are given the unding

to study at the graduate level at

any U.K. institution in any eld

o study.

The lengthy and demanding ap-

plication process began this sum-

mer or Goodman, when he ap-

S:‘P’ 

By nIcole FrIedMan

enior

taff

riter

The University will ace “very pain-

ul” budget cuts in the scal year beginning in July necessitated by

a sharp drop in revenue, President

Ruth Simmons said at a monthly

aculty meeting Tuesday.

The Corporation recommended

that the University decrease its

payout rom the endowment by 20

percent next scal year, Provost Da-

vid Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said. The

endowment lost $740 million in thelast scal year and was valued at the

end o June at around $2 billion.

Since the University’s three main

sources o income — tuition andees, undraising and outside re-

search unding — will not increase

enough to make up the lost revenue

rom the endowment, there will be

“signicant reductions” in expen-ditures next scal year, Simmons

said. She added that the University

could not incur much more debt

without putting its nancial health

at risk. “Simply put, our plannedexpenses, no matter how urgent

or how worthy, cannot eceed our revenue,” she said.

Though the nal budget will not

be approved until the Corporationmeets in February, the University

Resources Committee — the group

o administrators, aculty and stu-

dents that reviews budget requests— will make its preliminary budget

recommendations to Simmons at

the end o the semester. The University chose to cut $30

million rom the annual general bud-

get at three points — this year, next year and in the scal year beginning

in July 2010 — rather than cut $90

million all at once, Simmons said. Though some peer schools made

huge reductions last year, preerring

to have “all the pain at one time,”

Brown’s slower timeline “should

not be taken to mean that we do not

have a severe problem,” she said.

Rather, spreading out the cuts

over three years allows the Univer-

sity to “keep people working longer”

and take more time making its deci-

sions, she said.

Kertzer reminded the aculty that, o the $30 million to be cut rom next year’s general budget

— which does not include the Divi-sion o Biology and Medicine — $7

million has already been saved by

reducing capital expansion plans.

The organizational review process,

which is currently seeking ways to

cut spending by altering administra-

Courtes o Jerem Gooman

Jerem Gooman ’10 was among 35 American stuents aware aMarshall Scholarship this ear. He plans to complete a program at Oor.

J D   b 

By BrIgItta greene

enior

taff

riter

The City Plan Commission unani-

mously approved an amendment to

the University’s 2006 InstitutionalMaster Plan Tuesday night, clear-

ing the rst o two bureaucratic

hurdles beore renovations canbegin on a new medical school

building in the Jewelry District.

Administrators hope to begin

construction on the acility at 222

Richmond St. this spring or sum-

mer, to be completed by August 2011, said Michael McCormick,

assistant vice president or plan-ning, design and construction at

Facilities Management, at the

meeting.

The University must also ap-

pear beore the Providence Zoning

Board o Review beore construc-

tion can begin, he said.

The original master plan didnot include major planning or the Jewelry District, much o

which has developed over the past three years, McCormick said. The

amendment detailed broad plansor the downtown area — includ-

ing streetscape improvements on

Richmond and Ship Streets — as well as construction specics or the Medical Education Building.

The plan also includes a pro-

posed renovation o the Rhode

Island Center or Innovation and

Entrepreneurship, currently

housed at One Davol Square.

Representatives o the Provi-dence Preservation Society, the

Providence Foundation and the

Jewelry District Association spoke

in support o the amendment.

Though the University current-

LEANING TOWER Of PLASTIC

Kim Perle / HeralAs part o the Beon the Bottle campaign, a tower was constructe us-ing a week’s worth o reccle water bottles rom Keene Quarangle.

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sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, President Michael Bechek, Vice President Jonathan Spector, Treasurer Aleander Hughes, Secretary The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, ecluding vacations, once duringCommencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy ree or each member o the community.

POSTMASTER

please send corrections to P.O. Bo 2538, Providence, RI02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Oces are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

eii p: 401.351.3372 | Bi p: 401.351.3260

aily

erald

the Brown

WEdNESdAy, dECEMBER 2, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAGE 2

MPS



wS

“It just wasn’t goo P.R. or the meical school.”

— Philip Gruppuso, associate ean o meicine, on a rule allowing meicalstuents to grauate without passing the USMLE Step 1 eam.

M S   q

By Bradley sIlverMan

ontributing

riter

Last week the Alpert Medical Schoolfoated a proposal that would require

medical students to pass Step 1 o

the United States Medical Licensing

Eamination in order to graduate.On Nov. 24, the Faculty Eecu-

tive Committee met with Associ-

ate Dean o Medicine Philip Grup-

puso about the proposed change

to the medical school’s graduationrequirements. Currently, students

at Brown’s medical school are re-

quired to take the USMLE Step 1,

but do not need to pass it, Grup-

puso said.

The new requirement would take

eect beginning with the entering

class o 2014, according to Grup-

puso.

The USMLE Step 1 is the exam’s

rst part and is normally taken at

the end o the second year o medi-

cal school. It is the rst licensing

test that medical students take, and

at many schools a passing score is

required to continue to the third

year, Gruppuso said.

Step 2 is usually taken during the

nal year o medical school, and stu-

dents at Alpert are not required to

take this exam, Gruppuso said. Thenal requirement, Step 3, is usually taken during a student’s internship,

the rst year o residency, according

to the USMLE Web site.

The primary purpose o Step 1 isto assess a student’s ability to apply scientic concepts that are essential

to the practice o medicine, includ-

ing elds such as anatomy, genetics

and physiology, according to the

USMLE Web site. It is taken during

a single session over the course o

eight hours and consists o sevensections o 48 questions each, or

a total o 336 questions.

It is dicult to obtain a good

residency without scoring well on

the USMLE Step 1, Gruppuso said.

Because o this, most medical stu-dents strive to pass the eam any-

way, making the proposal largely

symbolic. Furthermore, it is not

possible to practice medicine with-out passing the USMLE Step 1, headded.

Students who do not intend to

practice medicine will be able toreceive waivers exempting them

rom the requirement, he said.

The unding guidelines o many

o the ederal loan programs that themedical school depends on now stip-

ulate that medical students pass the

USMLE Step 1, Gruppuso said.

The change is also partially a

matter o reputation. Because Alpert

is one o a very small number o

medical schools that do not requirestudents to pass the USMLE Step 1,

Gruppuso said, there is a perceptionthat its curriculum is not as rigorous

as those at comparable schools.“It just wasn’t good P.R. or themedical school,” he said. While he

does not believe that the percep-

tion is air, he admits that it is realnonetheless. The proposal was rst brought

to the attention o the MedicalCurriculum Committee, where it was approved, beore being sent

to the Biomedical Faculty Council,

Gruppuso said. From there, it went

to the Medical Faculty Executive

Committee and then nally to the

University’s FEC.FEC Chair Chung-I Tan, a pro-

essor o physics and chair o the

department, said while the pro-

posal is largely an internal matter

or the medical school, all gradua-tion requirement changes must gothrough the University FEC.

Tan said he anticipates that onceit has been thoroughly vetted, it willbe approved by the FEC within two

or three months.

“We would like to do it early sec-ond semester,” he said, to have the

new policy in place beore the net academic year.

tive structures and processes, is

projected to save another $14 mil-lion, he said.Finding areas to cut the nal $9million is dicult because o pres-

sure to remain competitive, along

with “particularly painul” increases

in utility costs and debt service, hesaid. “I you do absolutely nothingnew, there are all sorts o infation-

ary pressures that lead to added

costs,” he said.

On top o that, the University

needs to keep up with its peers in

compensation and graduate student stipends — both o which were ro-

zen or the current scal year — and

nancial aid oerings.

BioMed, which has already made

a necessary $10 million in cuts, is

dependent on the University endow-

ment only to support nancial aid

or medical students, Kertzer said. It

will be challenged to nd new und-ing or nancial aid next year, which

Kertzer called both a competitive

and “humanitarian” issue.

Simmons also announced at the

meeting that the University will o-

cially be re-accredited or 10 yearsby the New England Association o

Schools and Colleges.

The aculty also unanimously ap-proved our motions on its agenda,

including ocially establishing a

doctoral program in Aricana Stud-ies.

Three o these motions — the

doctoral program, changing thename o the Program in Ancient Studies to the Program in Early Cultures and creating a master’s

program in Behavioral and Social

Science Intervention — will now

go to the president and Corporation

or review. The ourth motion immediately

changed the Faculty Rules and Reg-

ulations to refect an updated pro-

cedure or appealing actions taken

in response to sexual harassment

charges.

plied or a nomination rom Brown.

Ater reviewing his submission,

a committee o aculty and deansendorsed his application. Ater being selected or an in-

terview in early November, Good-

man conducted mock interviews

with Linda Dunleavy, associate

dean o the College or ellowships

and pre-law.

Goodman said he ound theadvising process benecial and

eective.

“Dean Dunleavy was really incredibly helpul and patient

throughout the whole application

process in terms o looking over essays,” he said.

“We ran a couple o mock in-terviews, which were extremely

helpul,” he said. “I think (the

ellowship committee) does a re-ally good job o helping studentsthrough the process to maimizetheir chances o doing well.”

Goodman’s interview was held

Nov. 16 in Washington, D.C.

In the interview, “We mostly

talked about philosophy,” he said.

“The rst question was, ‘Eplain

what string theory is and whether it is science,’ and I actually had an

answer, so that was good.”

Goodman heard o his accep-

tance at 3 a.m. the next night ater

returning to London.

“I was jet-lagged and exhausted

when I ound out,” he said. “It was

pretty surreal.”

Dunleavy praised Goodmanas an exemplary student with a

unique intellect.

“Jeremy is remarkable because

o his ability to thrive both in the world o philosophy and the hard

sciences,” Dunleavy wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “The Marshall

represents a wonderul opportu-

nity or him.”

Goodman has been active at Brown in reviving the long-dor-mant Philosophy Departmental

Undergraduate Group, o which he

is president. He also coordinated

the inaugural Brown Undergradu-ate Philosophy Conerence, an an-

nual event that was held or the

rst time this year.

While at Brown, Goodman hasspent his summers working at theNational Institute or Neurological

Disorders and Stroke, where he

conducted brain scans on epilep-

tic patients to localize language

processing areas.

Goodman said he is lookingorward to the experiences that

await him.

“It’s really exciting to go (to Ox-

ord) right now,” he said. “Oxordhas an incredibly strong program

in philosophy, and it’s a really vi-brant community right now.”

Brown aculty members with whom Goodman worked during

the process “have all been ex-tremely supportive o my appli-cation and generally have been

inspiring throughout my academic

career,” he said. Ater completing the two-year

B.Phil. program at Oxord, Good-

man plans to pursue a Ph.D. in

philosophy.

w    ,    

continued from

page

F  b b 

continued from

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MPS

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WEdNESdAy, dECEMBER 2, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAGE 3

“All we’re asking is or people to put a rat o the sllabus up there.”

— dean o the College Katherine Bergeron

P k    b 

By thoMas Jarus

ontributing

riter

Shopping period might be a littlebit easier or students in 2010.Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95

P’98 has asked aculty to upload

their course syllabi to the Univer-

sity’s old and inrequently used

course-preview site by the spring

semester. The preview page di-

rectory, courses.brown.edu, com-

bines descriptions rom Banner

with additional inormation rom

proessors. The decision to ask proessors

to submit their syllabi came as a result o longstanding eorts by

the Undergraduate Council o Stu-dents to improve shopping period,

according to Dean o the CollegeKatherine Bergeron.

To acilitate uploading course

inormation, Computing and In-

ormation Services developed the

Academic Services Gateway, which

oers “centralized access” to on-

line teaching tools.

In an e-mail sent to aculty Nov. 11, Kertzer announced thecreation o the Gateway and its

related tools.“Among these tools is an easy way or you to upload your course

syllabus so that students can access

it at the beginning o the semester

when choosing their courses,” he wrote.

Bergeron said the technology

has created an easy way to make

syllabi available to the student

body.

Teachers “don’t need to havea MyCourses site,” she said. In-

stead, they can enter their syllabiinto a database that includes all o

the courses oered during a given

semester.

Though some proessors may

not have the nal versions o their

syllabi ready or shopping period,

Bergeron said provisional versions

will suce.“All we’re asking is or people

to put a drat o the syllabus up

there,” she added.

The availability o syllabi will

allow students to move “past Ban-

ner,” said Robert Taj Moore ’11,

chair o academic and administra-tive aairs or UCS. Students will

also be able to “see what proessors

are teaching, i the course will be

a better t” than other courses,

he said.

Moore said the University

had to wait or the technology to

catch up with the demand or more

course inormation. “For a long

time, a system didn’t actually ex-ist or proessors to upload their

syllabi easily,” he said. “Now, that system does eist.”

Online syllabi will prove helpul

when students consider classes

meeting at the same time, Bergeron

said.Since this decision comes longbeore the start o the second se-

mester, both Bergeron and Mooresaid they plan to remind aculty to

upload their syllabi as the spring

semester approaches.Moore said UCS is in the pro-

cess o contacting department chairs and “re-emphasizing” the

positive eect this could have onshopping period.

Bergeron credited UCS mem-

bers with spearheading the project.

“These conversations started with

members o UCS, who were try-

ing to get more ino out there or

students in advance o shopping

period,” she said.Bergeron said she will remind

aculty members to upload the syl-

labi, but once they do, the onus is

on the students to properly use theinormation. “It’s just as important or students now to build that piece

into their searches,” she said.

The Universit o Caliornia sstem is moving ahea with apropose 32 percent tuition hike espite a series o stuentprotests. UC Presient Mark yuo sai the sstem — whichserves 190,000 stuents on 10 campuses — has “no choice”but to raise tuition, espite the opposition rom stuentsan universit emploees that has resulte in a bev o legalcomplications an meia coverage, accoring to an article inthe Chronicle o Higher Eucation last week.The most public stuent-aministrator clash occurreNov. 20 at UC-Berkele, where a ramatic conrontationbetween stuents who locke themselves in a classrooman a police team le to the arrest o 41 stuents ortrespassing, accoring to Insie Higher E. Mostl peaceulprotests were hel throughout last week on other UCcampuses.These events, combine with the perceive remotenesso some UC aministrators an a September New yorkTimes interview, in which yuo joke about his more than$560,000 compensation package, have e the protestmovement, Insie Higher E reporte.The protests are a result o the UC Boar o Regents’ecision to increase stuent tuition rom $7,788 to $10,000an cut emploee pa to help close the sstem’s eicit o atleast $753 million, accoring to the Chronicle. The shortallhas largel arisen rom cuts in uning rom the state oCaliornia, which aces massive buget eicits o its own.

noofit tat oat to hava, combiaag it aiig Ia

A nonproit organization that has onate mone toseveral American universities, incluing Columbia anHarvar, to promote knowlege o Islamic an Iraniancultures was accuse b eeral prosecutors this month o“illegall proviing mone an services to Iran,” the New yorkTimes reporte last week.The Alavi founation, which onate $100,000 toColumbia months beore Iranian Presient MahmouAhmaineja spoke at the school in the all o 2007, hasenie the allegations, accoring to the Times.Over the past 25 ears, the ounation onate about$332,000 to Columbia or classes in farsi an Persianculture, Columbia spokesman davi Stone tol the Times.“We were as surprise as ever other universit annonproit group that ma have receive such onations aboutthe recent news reports regaring this ounation,” Stonetol the Times.The ounation’s onation an the universit’s invitationto Ahmaineja were not relate an assuming a connectionbetween the two incients “oes not stan up to rationalscrutin,” Stone tol the Times.The ounation owns several properties in Queens another parts o the countr. The government is in the processo seizing some o these properties, man o which havemosques built on them — a move that the ounation hasresiste, accoring to the Times.

notat ax footba ogam

The ootball program at Northeastern Universit has beencancelle in orer to concentrate uning in the school’sstrongest sports programs.Athletics director Peter Rob sent an open letter to theNortheastern communit announcing the en o the school’sintercollegiate ootball program Nov. 23, ater inorming theteam an coaches the night beore.“The past several ears have been isappointing orour ootball program espite the best eorts o our staan plaers,” he wrote. Tight inances, combine with theteam’s lackluster perormances in recent ears, le to theecision mae b the Boar o Trustees, the universit’saministration an presient.“Elevating an sustaining a competitive division I ootballprogram woul require aitional multimillion investmentson an ongoing basis,” Rob wrote.Accoring to Rob’s letter, the crunch or uning since therecession has orce the universit to ajust its uning oschool programs. The result has been “strategic investmentsin areas o strength,” accoring to a Northeasternpress release. Current plaers’ athletic scholarships willcontinue until grauation, accoring to the release.

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uc mii i fim ii i i 