Professional Documents
Culture Documents
104
Daily
By SHefalI lutHra Senior Staff Writer
the Brown
Herald
Since 1891
Faculty ask Spouse support prompts for vision, complaints from faculty fundraising from new president
By PHoeBe DraPer Contributing Writer
Signing out
Nearly 25 faculty members, administrators and search committee members discussed research, interdisciplinarity and the Universitys mission at a Tuesday evening faculty forum on the search for the Universitys 19th president. The transition to a new president offers an opportunity to take a close look at the University and its priorities, said Chancellor Thomas Tisch 76, who chairs the Corporation Search Committee and moderated the forum. He emphasized that the forum should be as conversational as possible. The next president should understand what makes the University distinct without letting it become stagnant, said Thomas Lewis, associate professor of religious studies. The University is distinguished by intellectual curiosity, high regard for the humanities, interdisciplinary collaboration and a blend of teaching and scholarship, he said. The requirement that all faccontinued on page 4
Thirty percent of faculty members are dissatisfied with faculty spouse support, according to a poll conducted by The Herald earlier this semester. While about onethird of faculty was not familiar enough to answer, only 19 percent indicated satisfaction. Faculty frustration is most likely directed at situations where the University tries to simultaneously hire both partners in a couple for two academic positions, said Elizabeth Doherty, senior associate dean of the faculty. When academics land job offers, they may be unwilling to accept unless their partners are also offered positions at the
University. In this case, the couple works with the Office of the Dean of the Faculty to work out a hiring solution. When we recruit faculty, its not infrequent that someone has a partner also in academia, Doherty said. The University does not distinguish between legally married, non-married and samesex couples. A partners a partner, Doherty said. In some cases, there is an available position in the partners field, and the University hires both partners at once. Such was the case with Ross Levine, professor of economics, and Maria Carkovic, professor of economics and director of continued on page 3
Hilary Rosenthal
Hundreds of retirees and union members gathered at the statehouse yesterday to protest a bill that would cut portions of pensions for public workers.
As part of its efforts to foster a more diverse campus community, the University has beefed up staffing and funding for the Third World Center, Student and Employee Accessibility Services, the LGBTQ Center and the Sarah Doyle Womens Center over the past two years, according to a recent update on the Diversity Ac-
tion Plan. The plan, one part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, has also led to increased promotion of religious literacy and support for graduate and international students. At the undergraduate level, the University has expanded support for staff and services. The Office of Student Employment has employed three full-time
Support at the College
staffers to better support employee- and student-access needs. Disability Support Services changed its name to Student and Employee Accessibility Services June 1 to signal a broadening of its focus to employees as well as students, according to Ricky Gresh, senior director for student engagement. Student and Employee Accessibility Services has also set up continued on page 2
Though Halloweek may be over, costumes put away and candy eaten, the thrill of monsters will never die. The vampire has recently dominated popular culture with monster hits like Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
Jeffrey Eugenides 82 did not intend to set his latest bestseller The Marriage Plot at Brown. But I decided that no matter what I did, people would prob-
for the current Brown student as characters walk down Benefit Street, meet up in the Blue Room and party at Hawaiian Night at Sigma Chi. But perhaps even more provocative are the familiar themes of depression, aimlessness and gender relations albeit seen through the lens of the early 1980s. Eugenides two previous novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, take place in his hometown of Detroit. While he manages to squeeze in a few pages of Motor City, he mostly explores new terrain in The Marriage Plot. Though the first third of the book is set in Providence, the plot continued on page 5
FeAture
And the zombie dawn is rising. The zombies popularity has surged most visibly in the entertainment world, with movies and shows like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and The Walking Dead. But recent courses, colloquiums and events on campus prove that the zombies popularity has also taken an academic spin. Raising the Undead: The Image of the Zombie in Transnational Popular Culture, a colloquium series created by Brent Fujioka GS and Amy Johnson GS, held its first lecture Nov. 6 and will continue over the course of the academic year. Thursdays lecture, titled continued on page 4
Brown in the 1980s is the scene for a new novel that explores familiar student woes.
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TODAY 6:30 P.m. Emerging Writers Panel, Brown/RISD Hillel 7:30 P.m. A Night of a Thousand Readings, McCormack Family Theater 7 P.m. ADHD and Women: A Hidden Disorder, Salomon 101 NOVEmbER 9 TOmORROW 6 P.m. Libya: Law and Intervention, Smith-Buonanno 106 NOVEmbER 10 By marSHall katHeDer artS & Culture Staff Writer
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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, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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higher education institutions, ultimately the process of dualcareer partner placement is a game of fierce competition. Couples may receive several offers for dual-career placement and can be swayed by factors such as benefits, salary and tenure. Spousal programs are based on competition, not on any particular desires. Basically, its not out of the goodness of anyones heart, Levine said. People are married. They want to live together. They are going to go to the best university that can hire them jointly. Hiring couples benefits the University because it increases position stability, Doherty said. The dual-career job search can be such an arduous process that couples are less likely than individual faculty members to switch jobs. Theres not a whole lot we can do, Doherty said in response to dissatisfaction reflected in the Herald poll. The hiring process can evolve into a game of giveand-take among the hiring institution, the couples and individual departments, all with contradicting priorities. Dual-career hiring can be complex, Levine said, but his priorities are straightforward. The most important part of my life, besides my kids, is my relationship with my wife, he said. The job will follow the marriage. Online questionnaires were sent to personal accounts of 902 faculty Sept. 25 and advertised on the faculty Morning Mail Sept. 27, Oct. 4 and Oct. 7. The
methodology
poll closed Oct. 8. Only faculty that teach, advise or interact with undergraduate students were invited to respond, and 174 responses were recorded. The poll has a 6.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The margin of error is 11.3 percent
for the subset of faculty focusing in the humanities, 10.5 percent for the subset of faculty focusing in science and 14 percent for the subset of faculty focusing in social science. Find results of previous polls at thebdh.org/poll.
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or between 2011 and 1980. You dont have New Wave and punk rock right now, and maybe it affects peoples style, he said. Critics often remark on the novels style, and it is perhaps appropriate that a book about the study of semiotics includes so many signifiers of taste. Students listen to The Talking Heads and Patti Smith, and they read Italo Calvino. While 80s music tastes remain popular today, there are clear differences between Brown in the novel and the campus in 2011. The Marriage Plot depicts Providence as a corrupt town, crimeridden and mob-controlled with a sketchy downtown. Course titles contain three numbers. All the girls use diaphragms. Indeed, Eugenides describes one characters sexual adventures with the hyperbolic statement: A representative image of Leonards freshman year would be of a guy lifting his head from an act of cunnilingus long enough to take a bong hit and give a correct answer in class. According to a recent Herald poll, only 1 percent of students reported having six or more partners this semester. Some things remain the same. Students constantly drink coffee. Alcohol fuels unexpected sexual adventure. Leonard eats a Buddy Cianci sandwich at Geoff s (inexplicably titled Mutt and Geoff s Eugenides said no one has called him out on any inaccuracies yet). Graduation sparks existential crisis. Themes of aimlessness and post-grad uncertainty have been reworked many times before. In W. Somerset Maughams 1944 novel The Razors Edge, the young Larry Darrell rejects conventional employment and loafs around first by traveling to Paris, then to India for spiritual and religious adventure, as one of protagonists, Mitchell, does. Mitchells travel partner is also named Larry. There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things, Mitchell reflects at one point. That is a high standard to hold any book up to, and its not clear The Marriage Plot as a work of literature achieves it. But its characters passion for finding wisdom in the written word certainly reminds you that it is possible.
inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, The Marriage Plot draws from that of Roland Barthes, Eugenides said. Madeleine obsesses over Barthes A Lovers Discourse though she is initially not sure how to pronounce the authors name until the most pretentious student in her class says it out loud. Though Madeleine is enamored with the marriage plots of Victorian novels, she also holds modern sensibilities. This sets her apart from her mom, a traditional housewife who naively critiques Madeleines shoulder pads as too mannish. Mitchell later captures feminist anger en vogue with the exaggerated observation, perhaps of the Sciences Library: College feminists made fun of skyscrapers, saying they were phallic symbols. Mitchell considers girls at one point, but interrupts himself with a correction excusez-moi: women. Eugenides said this line grew directly out of his Brown experience, when using the word girl instead of woman would get you in trouble. Feminism was a hotter topic back then, he said. Can you say girl at Brown? Eugenides asked in an interview, wondering if female students still police such language. Maybe female students today do not need to, Eugenides suggested. The women I knew would stand against saying girl because they werent sure that they were going to have the power that they wanted, he said. The situation might be different for women today, as certain battles have been won, he said. A lot of the women I knew at Brown would be very against anything that would make them attractive or turn them into an object, he added, something he said he does not see today. Eugenides contrasts not only decades, but also the theater-literary social scene he experienced at Brown with that of the writing students he currently teaches at Princeton. He said he finds his Princeton students to be generally less colorful and more sober-minded and mature than the college peers he remembers. The benefit is they dont seem as if theyre going to have some kind of nervous breakdown, he noted, a fate that befalls one of the characters in his novel. But I cant tell if thats a difference between Princeton or Brown
You may ask yourself girls to women
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An article in last Wednesdays Herald (Eyeing international students, U. ups aid, Nov. 2) incorrectly stated that Mohsan Elahi 14 is a member of the Brown International Scholarship Committee. In fact, he is an ambassador in the groups Ambassadorship Program, which represents Brown at foreign high schools, but he is not a member of the group. The Herald regrets the error.
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opinions 7
they have paid. They do not want us to become one of them, and neither do we. We all know how terrifying the job market is, and literature students like me make fun of our prospects of not finding a better job than making coffee at Starbucks. Its unlikely that I will ever become a world-renowned philosopher or novelist. So why bother pursuing a major in the humanities if it wont help me find a decent job? Many people feel the same way. According to Focal Point, 195 seniors from classes at 100 seats, students who were desperate to get in even formed a black market to trade for a spot (Econ caps spur black market controversy, Sept. 12). It looks like the department failed to recognize how high the demand was. Although I might be anxious about my future and career, at least I have been taking classes I like. More practical-oriented students sometimes complain that they are taking classes that do not really interest them. These two kinds of students are kind thought and how they still affect our lives. We have the desire to be connected to nature, the civilization we belong to and the history of our ancestors. Without such knowledge, we feel lost. For those who are lucky enough to have found their passion, more money or higher social status will not make them significantly happier. College gives us a chance to find the dedication that will later distinguish us from everyone else. But it does not guarantee a good result. We all waste time in classes that we later find to be uninteresting. One may read a whole semester of Descartes and wonder if he or she really knows anything about the philosopher. Many of us graduate and still feel uncertain about the future. Thats okay. Its not our fault, nor is it the liberal arts curriculums. We are all still ignorant, and college is just the beginning of becoming wiser. Even if it is assumed that career-minded courses and majors lead to better job performance and security, we will not easily abandon our passions. As college students, we are still young and brave enough to follow our hearts. The University offers us the luxury to learn whatever we want, get a bad grade, acknowledge our ignorance, make big or silly mistakes, struggle to balance both interest and need and risk failure. Jan Cao 13 is a comparative literature and German studies concentrator. She can be reached at jieran_cao@brown.edu.
We are all still ignorant, and college is just the beginning of becoming wiser.
the class of 2011 concentrated in economics, while another 133 pursued international relations. The Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship program attracted 75 students. In comparison, seemingly less practical concentrations are less popular. The German studies department had only six concentrators. Some economics lecture courses have also been extremely popular some of them had more than 200 students enrolled in previous years. This year, after the department decided to cap some of those
jealous of each other, and each struggles to achieve a balance between academic interest and practical need. We are afraid of failing failing to get a job, failing to live up to parents expectations, failing to have a bright future. But we do not want to give in too easily to job mania either: Its just too cruel to believe that as human beings our fate consists of nothing more than being a little screw in a machine. We read Shakespeare and Homer because we want to know how those hugely important people in the history of man-
Greater expectations
By CAMILLE SPENCER-SALMoN
opinions Columnist
A recent Herald article (First-years somewhat prepared for Brown, Nov. 11) reported that nearly half of Brown faculty members find first-years to be somewhat prepared for Brown, and 11.4 percent considered them to be somewhat unprepared. This may not sound dire or even particularly surprising to most. After all, some of these students are probably just getting used to not being the big fish in a small pond anymore. But when you consider this schools steep acceptance rate and the underlying assumption that all those who make it are supposed to be fully ready to tackle college-level coursework, it strongly suggests a greater problem within the institution that was supposed to prepare them for college: high school. More specifically, public high school. Over half the students here come from public schools. Problematically, American public schools are far from top quality. According to the triennial Program for International Student Assessment, which is supposed to compare the knowledge of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, American kids rank average in reading skills and science and below average in math. Doesnt quite match up with what you would expect for a firstworld country, even one in a recession. To say there is a clear reason for this deficit would be a dramatic oversimplification. But I can point to one key factor: low standards in the form of statewide minimum-competency tests. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandated these tests in an effort to equalize the playing field for students everywhere. The idea is that if students reach a minimum level of achievement in the form of a passing score on their states standardized test then their tionships between different concepts or generally do much creative thinking. Unfortunately, these kinds of higherlevel thinking are what you use in higher education as well as in real life whatever that means. These baseline standards are far too low. The reality is that when you set a minimum standard in a strained situation for example, one sprawling education system the minimum is what you get. I can speak only shortcuts. These are hugely damaging practices if you believe that one of the goals of schooling is to truly learn. Admittedly, I am speaking from the privileged perspective of someone who did not have trouble figuring out the main idea. But I believe that if you treat the children moving through your system as if they have the ability to go farther than that, they will. Achieving any sort of change in public schooling takes a long time and requires a whole mess of interested parties taxpayers, educators, officials, teachers unions to agree, but in this economy its more necessary than ever. You cant just pour money into a highly flawed system, though. You have to restructure it with higher standards, support for teachers and the belief that students of all demographics are capable of thinking for themselves instead of just regurgitating facts. If you must measure achievement by test scores, which is an inherently debatable practice, make sure the tests demand creative thinking. These are sweeping demands, yes, but necessary ones. To sound like an absolute liberal arts student, we as a nation need to shift our paradigms of thinking about public schools. Figuring out a concrete policy will be a long and challenging process, but thats all the more reason to start as soon as possible. Camille Spencer-Salmon 14 is a product of the system. She can be reached at camille_spencer-salmon@brown.edu.
While setting baseline standards is good, chances are the test your state required you to take did not measure how well you could synthesize new ideas, make inferences about relationships between different concepts or generally do much creative thinking.
school will receive funding as a function of student progress. In America, with exceptions like the New York Regents exams, we mainly do minimum-competency testing: Can you find the main idea? What was the authors purpose? Can you read a graph? While setting baseline standards is good, chances are the test your state required you to take did not measure how well you could synthesize new ideas, make inferences about rela-
for my state here (and, admittedly, Florida tends to focus more on standardized tests than other states), but a ridiculous amount of class time was spent teaching to our states exam, taking away from time spent learning history, music or art to limit myself to one grievance. Moreover, teachers in states that implement low standard tests report feeling pressure to give better grades than warranted and maximize scores through test-taking
D e m o c r ac y m at t e r S
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Sydney Mondry / Herald
Stephen Haber, Stanford professor of political science, discussed democracy and the Arab Spring at a talk Tuesday.
The second issue of Aldus, Browns journal of translated works, is currently under production following a well-received first issue published last spring. Possibly the only journal dedicated to the art of translation run by undergraduates, Aldus showcases works of translation produced by students, professors and eminent translators to illuminate an often underrepresented aspect of literature, said its founders, Timothy Nassau 12 and Matthew Weiss 12. To translate something well is as difficult as it is to write well, Nassau said. With campus publications giving little attention to translation, Nassau and Weiss decided to work with other like-minded students to create a journal dedicated to the subject. To get started, Nassau said he emailed student translators he met at a workshop. The founders also reached out
to Dore Levy, professor of comparative literature and a source of indispensable advice and support from the beginning, who has since become the journals faculty adviser, Weiss said. Aldus first issue was distributed to students and faculty on campus, mailed to recipients when requested and published online. Nassau said he estimates the readership is about 15,000 based on web views and distribution of physical copies. The journal was generously received. Three Percent, which Weiss called an authoritative blog on translation maintained by the University of Rochesters Open Letters Press, wrote about Aldus first steps in joining the translation community. In a post entitled Interns They Grow Up Too Fast, the blog mentions Nassaus internship at Open Letters in summer 2009 and how he returned to Brown a bit wiser and with ambition in his heart. Fast-forward two years, and young little Tim has helped launch
Aldus, the post reads. Aldus was also cited on the copyright page of the bilingual edition of Tres, a collection of poems by Roberto Bolano, because portions of the book had previously been printed in the journal. That was the moment when I thought, Weve won, Weiss said. Nassau and Weiss are already considering expanding the journal. They recently created a blog to report on literature that remains untranslated or could use more robust translation. Were trying to do something different with the Aldus blog, Weiss said, Sometimes the hardest part is even knowing a lot of this stuff exists, dormant, waiting to be given life in the English language. With more funding, Nassau believes the journal can reach a wider audience. Imagine seeing Aldus in a Barnes and Noble and knowing it was made by Brown undergrads, he said. It would be tough to do, but it wouldnt be impossible.
Entrepreneurs and cupcakes came together in downtown Providence last night at a panel discussion with Brown alums involved in the Rhode Island business world. The panel
ganizations. Brendan McNally, director of the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, moderated the discussion. He began the debate by asking the panelists to sell themselves and their product to the audience a classic elevator pitch. Julie Sygiel 09, CEO and founder of Sexy Period, sees her fashionable time of the month underwear as a solution to everyday problems, she said. Since 50 percent of the population menstruates, why not provide that market with comfortable and stylish underwear, she asked. Max Winograd 09, president of NuLabel Technologies, came up with the idea for labels without backings while studying political science at the University. Winograd met his co-founders who concentrated in a variety of subjects in a cap-
stone seminar during his senior year. Entrepreneurship is about seeing opportunities out there and exploiting them, he said. Though none of the panelists studied commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship a concentration often deemed most logical for budding entrepreneurs each of them said they saw their the New Curriculum as essential to their career paths. The chance to learn to do your own thing in an unstructured environment at Brown was instrumental in developing the skills to create a business, said Charlie Kroll 01, founder and CEO of Andera, a company that helps banks allow customers to sign up online for financial services. When students are offered the opportunity to decide their own curriculum, they learn how to choose courses more strategically, he said.
Deborah Schimberg 80 P05 P12, who concentrated in comparative literature, called the opportunity to go to Brown for four years an entrepreneurial activity in and of itself. Both the New Curriculum and entrepreneurship demand problem-solving skills, which makes Brown students particularly prepared for the task of building their own businesses, she said. Schimberg is the CEO of Verve, Inc., a company that makes environmentally friendly gum that inhabits the growing natural product niche, she said. McNally asked panelists to describe the biggest mistake thus far in their careers. Many cited the lack of guidance and encouragement from outside influences as a major problem during their initial business years, noting that entrepreneurs can often experience an us against the world
complex. The Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship aims to be a place where business owners can find such support, McNally said. The center wants to help businesses develop, provide a network of connections and give them opportunities to stay in Rhode Island, he said. Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering and famed lecturer of ENGN 0090: Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations, attended the event. He compared the process of making a business work to conducting laboratory work in science-related fields. After the panel concluded, attendees celebrated both the ideals of entrepreneurship and Hazeltines birthday with cupcakes and candles it took the professor two attempts to blow them all out.