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www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island [email protected] News..... 1–3 Arts ......... 4 Sports........5 Editorial.....6 Opinion.......7 Today .........8 ARTS, 5 Ride thru time INSIDE D aily Herald THE BROWN vol. cxlv, no. 82 | Friday, October 1, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891 SPORTS, 7 OPINIONS, 11 Work to win School Spirit Students hail the ‘Queen of the Parkways’ in film Undefeated squad fights to keep streak intact Wicken GS on keeping school pride in perspective Watson hosts conference exploring the ‘Next Leſt’ BY JONATHAN STALOFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Watson Institute for Interna- tional Studies hosted a conference, “The Next Left: Globalized Social Democracy in the North and South,” on Wednesday and Thursday to dis- cuss how politicians can face modern global issues and crises. Held in the Joukowsky Forum, the conference was a follow-up to one held in the spring. The major topics of discussion included the economic strategies and the effects of globalization on the “Next Left” movement — a European movement founded by Alfred Gusenbauer, former chancellor of Austria and Watson Institute professor-at-large, New Graduate School dean Weber settles into role BY LUISA ROBLEDO SENIOR STAFF WRITER On July 1, Peter Weber began his role as the new dean of the Gradu- ate School. After teaching in the Department of Chemistry for over 20 years, Weber said he is excited to take on new tasks. “It’s great to be in this position,” he said. Though he has not yet defined his major projects, Weber said he plans to address his students’ needs immediately and continue to improve their experience. One of his goals is to further facilitate the assignment of graduate teaching assistants to the courses they are going to teach because “they don’t know until quite late,” he said. He would also like to finish the process of making the Grad School application materials entirely com- puter-based to make the process much more efficient. Housing is another subject he aims to tackle. Weber said he will create discussion forums with the help of the Graduate Student Coun- cil, through which he hopes to learn whether students are satisfied or not. “My objective is to listen,” he said. “If there is a problem, I would like to know about it.” Since this is only his third month on the job, Weber said there are still a lot of “dimensions of these issues” he needs to figure out before he works on a solution. The Grad School, he said, fosters the University’s “research mission” and complements its college edu- cation. Whether it is by serving as teaching assistants or by working closely with undergraduates, gradu- ate students are “a very important Sound art pioneer visits U. BY ALICIA DANG STAFF WRITER Christina Kubisch, a pioneer in the field of sound art, gave a presentation on her career to a packed List 225 Thursday evening. A composer by training, Kubisch has developed new techniques to realize her sound installations, such as magnetic induction and experimenting with ultraviolet light and differ- ent cable arrangements. Her artistic explorations are described on her website as a “ ‘synthesis of arts’ — the dis- cover y of acoustic space and the dimension of time in the visual arts on the one hand, and a redef- inition of relationships between material and form on the other.” Currently a professor for sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saarbrucken, Germany, Kubisch was brought in as the third visitor in the visiting artist series by the Media and Elec- Undocumented students protest status BY ALEXANDRA ULMER SENIOR STAFF WRITER When Christian ’11 fell sick as a child, he almost never went to the doctor. When his classmates got their pictures taken for their driv- er’s license, he sat on a bench and watched. When guidance counselors began discussing colleges, he feared he wouldn’t even be able to apply and envisioned his job at McDonald’s becoming a full-time one. Christian is one of thousands of college students without documents that allow them to be in the United States legally. Though they can receive diplomas, most lack Social Security numbers, health care and many professional possibilities. “Coming to Brown was going from being someone who has no rights to someone who has every- thing,” said Christian, who asked that his full name not be revealed be- ResLife investigating fake ‘surveillance’ letter BY SYDNEY EMBER NEWS EDITOR Administrators are investigating a forged letter posted Wednesday in Keeney Quadrangle. The Office of Residential Life is reviewing the circumstances sur- rounding a letter announcing the installation of security cameras in Keeney and Pembroke campus, ac- cording to Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Services Richard Bova. The letter, created by Evan Do- nahue ’11 as part of a project for a modern culture and media class, was addressed to residents of Kee- ney and Pembroke and signed by “Residential Life.” Bova said he was looking into information regarding the hoax, though he said he could not com- ment on further actions because a student was involved. “It’s all under review,” Bova said, though he said he has not spoken directly with the student. His office is in the process of removing the letters from Keeney bathroom doors, he said. The forged letter had claimed that a number of closed circuit television cameras would be installed by the De- partment of Facilities Management in Keeney and Pembroke during the fall. Cameras would go up in Keeney “in the next few weeks” and on Pem- broke later this fall as a response to complaints “regarding the treatment of emergency exit signs inside Pem- broke buildings and in the Keeney Quadrangle,” it claimed. It went on to state that the instal- lation was approved by the Corpora- tion at its May meeting “as part of Brown’s continuing investment in capital projects.” The project was designed for MCM 1700M: “Techniques of Sur- veillance” and was intended to evalu- ate how people behave when they think they are being watched, said Donahue, a Herald editorial cartoon- ist. In addition to posting the letter, Donahue also put up markings in Keeney hallways meant to suggest imminent camera installation and sent an e-mail to Residential Peer Leaders in Keeney after the letters were posted in the residence hall, he said. Natalie Basil, associate director for ResLife, sent an e-mail Thursday afternoon to RPLs notifying them that the letter was fake. “Please know that any time there are going to be changes that will impact you and your residential com- munities to this degree, you would be asked to give your input through a focus group and receive notice from myself or your Community Di- rector prior to these changes being announced in your communities,” Basil wrote in the e-mail. The fake letters “struck a chord,” said Dylan Field ’13, a Residential Counselor in Keeney. Field said he was initially worried about the pos- sibility of camera installation, adding that his group of RPLs discussed the letter at a meeting Wednesday before learning it was a scam. He said he began taking down posted letters this morning. ResLife does not have plans to publish a response to the letter, Bova said. “Sending out a broadcast e-mail is not the way to approach this,” he said, adding that he is leaving it up to RPLs to notify other students that the letter was forged. Emma Wohl / Herald Students gather in front of Faunce to advocate providing undocumented students a path to citizenship. Katie Green / Herald New Dean of the Graduate School Peter Weber is ready to get to work continued on page 3 continued on page 3 continued on page 2 continued on page 4 ARTS & CULTURE FEATURE
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www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island [email protected]

News.....1–3Arts.........4Sports........5 Editorial.....6Opinion.......7Today.........8 ARTS, 5

Ride thru time

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 82 | Friday, October 1, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

SPORTS, 7 OPiniOnS, 11

Work to win School SpiritStudents hail the ‘Queen of the Parkways’ in film

Undefeated squad fights to keep streak intact

Wicken GS on keeping school pride in perspective

watson hosts conference exploring the ‘next Left’By JOnAThAn STAlOff

Contributing Writer

The Watson Institute for Interna-tional Studies hosted a conference, “The Next Left: Globalized Social Democracy in the North and South,” on Wednesday and Thursday to dis-cuss how politicians can face modern global issues and crises.

Held in the Joukowsky Forum,

the conference was a follow-up to one held in the spring. The major topics of discussion included the economic strategies and the effects of globalization on the “Next Left” movement — a European movement founded by Alfred Gusenbauer, former chancellor of Austria and Watson Institute professor-at-large,

new Graduate School dean weber settles into roleBy luiSA ROBledO

Senior Staff Writer

On July 1, Peter Weber began his role as the new dean of the Gradu-ate School. After teaching in the Department of Chemistry for over 20 years, Weber said he is excited to take on new tasks.

“It’s great to be in this position,” he said.

Though he has not yet defined his major projects, Weber said he plans to address his students’ needs immediately and continue to improve their experience. One of his goals is to further facilitate the assignment of graduate teaching assistants to the courses they are going to teach because “they don’t know until quite late,” he said.

He would also like to finish the

process of making the Grad School application materials entirely com-puter-based to make the process

much more efficient.Housing is another subject he

aims to tackle. Weber said he will

create discussion forums with the help of the Graduate Student Coun-cil, through which he hopes to learn whether students are satisfied or not.

“My objective is to listen,” he said. “If there is a problem, I would like to know about it.”

Since this is only his third month on the job, Weber said there are still a lot of “dimensions of these issues” he needs to figure out before he works on a solution.

The Grad School, he said, fosters the University’s “research mission” and complements its college edu-cation. Whether it is by serving as teaching assistants or by working closely with undergraduates, gradu-ate students are “a very important

Sound art pioneer visits U.By AliciA dAng

Staff Writer

Christina Kubisch, a pioneer in the field of sound art, gave a presentation on her career to a packed List 225 Thursday evening.

A composer by training, Kubisch has developed new techniques to realize her sound installations, such as magnetic

induction and experimenting with ultraviolet light and differ-ent cable arrangements.

Her artistic explorations are described on her website as a “ ‘synthesis of arts’ — the dis-covery of acoustic space and the dimension of time in the visual arts on the one hand, and a redef-inition of relationships between material and form on the other.”

Currently a professor for sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saarbrucken, Germany, Kubisch was brought in as the third visitor in the visiting artist series by the Media and Elec-

Undocumented students protest statusBy AlexAndRA ulmeR

Senior Staff Writer

When Christian ’11 fell sick as a child, he almost never went to the doctor. When his classmates got their pictures taken for their driv-er’s license, he sat on a bench and watched. When guidance counselors began discussing colleges, he feared

he wouldn’t even be able to apply and envisioned his job at McDonald’s becoming a full-time one.

Christian is one of thousands of college students without documents that allow them to be in the United States legally. Though they can

receive diplomas, most lack Social Security numbers, health care and many professional possibilities.

“Coming to Brown was going from being someone who has no rights to someone who has every-thing,” said Christian, who asked that his full name not be revealed be-

resLife investigating fake ‘surveillance’ letterBy Sydney emBeR

neWS editor

Administrators are investigating a forged letter posted Wednesday in Keeney Quadrangle.

The Office of Residential Life is reviewing the circumstances sur-rounding a letter announcing the installation of security cameras in Keeney and Pembroke campus, ac-cording to Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Services Richard Bova.

The letter, created by Evan Do-nahue ’11 as part of a project for a modern culture and media class, was addressed to residents of Kee-ney and Pembroke and signed by “Residential Life.”

Bova said he was looking into information regarding the hoax, though he said he could not com-ment on further actions because a student was involved. “It’s all under review,” Bova said, though he said he has not spoken directly with the student. His office is in the process of removing the letters from Keeney bathroom doors, he said.

The forged letter had claimed that a number of closed circuit television cameras would be installed by the De-partment of Facilities Management in Keeney and Pembroke during the fall. Cameras would go up in Keeney “in the next few weeks” and on Pem-broke later this fall as a response to complaints “regarding the treatment of emergency exit signs inside Pem-broke buildings and in the Keeney Quadrangle,” it claimed.

It went on to state that the instal-lation was approved by the Corpora-tion at its May meeting “as part of Brown’s continuing investment in

capital projects.”The project was designed for

MCM 1700M: “Techniques of Sur-veillance” and was intended to evalu-ate how people behave when they think they are being watched, said Donahue, a Herald editorial cartoon-ist. In addition to posting the letter, Donahue also put up markings in Keeney hallways meant to suggest imminent camera installation and sent an e-mail to Residential Peer Leaders in Keeney after the letters were posted in the residence hall, he said.

Natalie Basil, associate director for ResLife, sent an e-mail Thursday afternoon to RPLs notifying them that the letter was fake.

“Please know that any time there are going to be changes that will impact you and your residential com-munities to this degree, you would be asked to give your input through a focus group and receive notice from myself or your Community Di-rector prior to these changes being announced in your communities,” Basil wrote in the e-mail.

The fake letters “struck a chord,” said Dylan Field ’13, a Residential Counselor in Keeney. Field said he was initially worried about the pos-sibility of camera installation, adding that his group of RPLs discussed the letter at a meeting Wednesday before learning it was a scam. He said he began taking down posted letters this morning.

ResLife does not have plans to publish a response to the letter, Bova said. “Sending out a broadcast e-mail is not the way to approach this,” he said, adding that he is leaving it up to RPLs to notify other students that the letter was forged.

Emma Wohl / HeraldStudents gather in front of Faunce to advocate providing undocumented students a path to citizenship.

Katie Green / HeraldNew Dean of the Graduate School Peter Weber is ready to get to work

continued on page 3

continued on page 3

continued on page 2

continued on page 4

ARTS & culTuRe

feATuRe

Page 2: Friday, October 1, 2010

sudoku

George Miller, PresidentClaire Kiely, Vice President

Katie Koh, TreasurerChaz Kelsh, 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, 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. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [email protected]. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260Daily Heraldthe Brown

FRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010THE bROWN DAILy HERALDPAGE 2

CampUS newS “It’s either grad school or getting married or going to McDonald’s.”— Alexandra Filindra, member of bIRc

cause of his immigration status. “But now I feel stuck. I won’t be able to change my family’s socioeconomic status even though I went to an Ivy League school.”

Last week, the Senate blocked debate about a bill that included an amendment known as the Devel-opment, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. Passage of the DREAM Act would grant Christian and other undocumented students a path to citizenship. He watched on live television as the measure fell short by four votes.

Undocumented students cur-rently enrolled in college therefore remain in limbo — at Brown as well.

The University admits undocu-mented applicants, whom they cat-egorize as international students, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. “And if we admit them, we agree to fund them,” Miller said. “It’s hard to tell how many there are on campus. I don’t have a figure.”

Three agreed to share their sto-ries with The Herald.

‘Running on hope’When Christian was seven, his

family took a plane from Mexico to the United States. He landed in Chi-cago, which marked the first time he saw snow, and entered the coun-try with a tourist visa. He has since overstayed that visa — by 16 years.

Throughout high school, Chris-tian kept his status a secret. “If someone doesn’t like you, they can just call the immigration office,” he said. “I’m always terrified of cops. If I ever get stopped, I think, oh my God, they’re going to send me 2,000 miles south to Mexico.”

In addition to avoiding the police, Christian learned to stay away from medical problems, since he didn’t have health insurance. “But I broke my arm once,” he said. “It cost us a fourth of my mom’s wages. She had to take a second job.”

Both because of financial hur-dles and his undocumented status, Christian initially deemed college unfeasible. But he was recruited by Brown’s cross country team.

Members of the team personally delivered a letter Christian wrote to President Ruth Simmons, explaining his legal situation. “I wrote that I should have a chance because all the other schools I applied to refused me because I didn’t have a social security number,” he said.

Throughout his time at college, he has become increasingly open about being undocumented, he added. Last spring, during a docu-mentary screening organized by Brown Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, he chose to announce his status for the first time.

“I just straight up said, ‘Hello, my name is Christian, and I’m an undocumented student at Brown.’ It felt strangely good, but it was scary,” he said.

Christian has since told his story at high schools across Rhode Island. He said he recognizes many of his former beliefs in the students — the idea that both jobs and education are out of reach for undocumented students no matter how hard they work.

Though he says his time at Brown has been a haven, his im-pending graduation is reviving the likelihood of his returning to Chi-cago and working at a fast-food res-taurant under a fake Social Security

number once more.“I have hope, but I’ve been run-

ning on hope for a while now,” Christian said. “I grew up like an American, and kids who grow up American want more.”

mounting activismHigh school friends of Steve ’12

probably thought his parents were extremely strict.

They wouldn’t let Steve get his driver’s license — because they didn’t want to buy him a car. They forbade Steve from going on a school-sponsored trip to France — because they didn’t think he needed to leave the country.

“It had become second nature for me not to tell anyone what the real issue was,” said Steve, who also asked that his full name not be re-vealed because of his immigration status. His family used a tourist visa to leave its native Hong Kong when he was one year old, and he hasn’t left the United States since.

He was one of few undocumented students in his Vermont high school, and felt isolated from the issue un-til recently. Steve, who transferred to Brown this semester, had been selected to be a residential advisor his sophomore year at Vanderbilt University. But when he was unable to produce adequate documents, he was told he could not take up the position — a rejection that marks one of the sharpest reminders of his precarious situation.

“I had always been able to ignore my status in some way or another,” Steve said. “I’m slowly getting to terms with it, but I’m still not going to go around parading my status. Brown is the first time I’ve actually joined the immigrant rights group.”

But Steve said he still avoids thinking about his predicament. Otherwise, he added, resentment

toward his parents for bringing him to the United States spills over, and worries about his future submerge him.

“I firmly believe the DREAM Act will pass eventually,” he said. After a pause, Steve added: “I can go to grad school if legislation doesn’t pass, just to buy time. But other than that, what can I really do other than go back and work in my parents’ res-taurant?”

inspired to transferWhen Alejo Stark ’12 was a child,

he dreamed of becoming a profes-sional pilot.

“But obviously I hit this issue where I had to be a citizen and I wasn’t even a resident,” he said. “Once I began realizing all the roadblocks, I realized I had to do something. I went from being very afraid to being very active.”

In 2000, Stark left his native Argentina under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows certain for-eign nationals to travel to the United States for a maximum of 90 days. The five members of his family lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Mi-ami. His father worked as a busboy, among other jobs, while his mother cleaned houses.

Stark said he initially lived in a constant state of fear — once, when he was peeking out from behind his blinds, he mistook a van delivering gas to neighbors for a police car. Detention and deportation occurred often in his community — even to the priest of his family’s church. “My legs literally shook every time I passed a state trooper,” he said.

But as the challenges grew to include the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to attend college, so did Stark’s determination to strive for change. His college counselor, unsure how to handle his situation,

advised him to go to community college.

During his two years at Miami Dade College, he grew much more vocal about his status and became an active member of the group Stu-dents Working for Equal Rights. Last spring, he decided to transfer and be-gan calling universities to ask if they accepted undocumented students.

Stark cited Tam Ngoc Tran, who was killed in a car crash last spring, as a model who influenced his col-lege search. Tran was of Vietnamese origin, born in Germany and raised in the United States — but lacked citizenship of any of these countries. While a graduate student at Brown, she advocated for immigrant rights.

“She was one of the reasons I applied to Brown,” Stark said. “She’s kind of an icon.”

He transferred to Brown this se-mester — which marks the first time he has health coverage. “I can run down the stairs now,” Stark said. “I have peace of mind.”

But he has also intensified his efforts to diffuse certain misconcep-tions about undocumented students — for example, that they’re eligible for federal aid.

“There is a huge escalation in frustration that is a product of feeling really disappointed by the political system,” Stark said. “But it’s a really hard position to be in — how do you get political capital if you don’t have a vote?”

An uncertain pathThe three undocumented stu-

dents said anti-immigrant rhetoric is swelling as the national debate grows increasingly polarized. But they also added that these divisions are spurring more activism on the part of undocumented students.

“In the past five years, the way undocumented students speak about their status has changed dramati-cally,” said Associate Professor of American Civilization Matthew Gar-cia, who said that this new wave of activism disrupts conceptions of immigrants as criminals. “The im-age is never of these undocumented immigrants who are the best and the brightest.”

Despite the surge in activism, few options are available to undocu-mented students after they graduate from university.

“It’s either grad school or getting married or going to McDonald’s,” said Alexandra Filindra, postdoctoral research associate in public policy and a member of the immigrants’ rights coalition. “Someone with a Brown degree mowing lawns or cleaning houses? It’s such a waste of an incredible investment.”

The economic downturn has eclipsed immigration reform from the political agenda, she added. But ultimately, the urgency of the issue will propel legislation forward.

An estimated 65,000 undocu-mented students graduate from high school each year, a number that makes ignoring the problem difficult, according to Filindra.

“They’re basically doomed to a life in the shadows,” she added. “But these are the people who can be leaders.”

Student but not citizen: undocumented undergrads at Browncontinued from page 1

Page 3: Friday, October 1, 2010

CampUS newSFRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010 THE bROWN DAILy HERALD PAGE 3

“There is a need for an alternative.”— Alfred Gusenbauer, Watson Institute Professor-at-Large

taiwan issue discussed in ‘strait’ chats By AnnA lillkung

Contributing Writer

Strait Talk, a non-partisan dialogue group, is starting a series of infor-mal, biweekly chats on Taiwan-China relations. The first chat was held on Sept. 22.

All upcoming sessions are open to everyone in the Brown community in-terested in learning more and talking about the Taiwan Strait issue.

The aim of the hour-long chats is to bring together people who are inter-ested in the issue, according to Sarah Yu, former Strait Talk Symposium chair and a Herald opinions colum-nist. The chats will also be covered on the Watson Institute for Interna-tional Studies blog Global Conversa-tion. Dates for upcoming chats will be posted on Strait Talk’s Facebook and Twitter.

Strait Talk was initiated in 2005 by Johnny Lin ’08, who formed the group with other undergraduates, ac-

cording to Strait Talk’s website. Lin grew up mainly in the U.S., but his family was separated by the conflict between China and Taiwan, according to Yu. The year 2005 marked a particu-larly sensitive period in Taiwan Strait politics, with the United States arming Taiwanese forces, and Lin thought it was time to get people together to discuss the issues, Yu said.

Every year, Strait Talk selects fif-teen delegates who come together for a week-long symposium. This year’s symposium —the sixth since the program began — takes place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 at Brown. At each symposium, each party — Taiwan, mainland China and the U.S. — is represented by five delegates.

“The symposium has been con-sistent and successful on the Brown campus,” said Alina Kung ’12, the Strait Talk Symposium chair.

The symposium ends with a pre-sentation, open to the public, of the final consensus report agreed to by

all fifteen delegates, providing rec-ommendations on the Taiwan Strait issue, Yu said. The report will later be presented at the Asia Society in New York City where it will be introduced to policy makers and researchers, Kung said.

Delegates are selected through an application process and must be under 30 years of age and able to represent an American, Taiwanese or Chinese perspective on the conflict. Applicants come from many universities in the U.S., though, historically, Brown tends to produce more applicants than other schools, Yu said. This year’s deadline for submitting applications — which can be found on Strait Talk’s website — is Sunday, Oct. 3.

As an organization, Strait Talk has grown every year since 2005, ac-cording to Kung, and now includes a chapter at the University of California at Berkeley. Kung characterized the group as a space for “game changers in the global community.”

part of Brown.”“It’s a good partnership,” he

said. “They really help each other.”

“I went to graduate school, and I loved it,” Weber said. “So I want to make graduate education the most thrilling experience a student would have in his or her lifetime.”

which introduced a new plan for so-cial democracy around the world.

“Traditionally, the left needs four elements,” Gusenbauer said at the conference’s opening. “The one is an idea about the world, the second is a program of change, the third is an agent of the idea and transformation and the fourth is a crisis.”

“One is to say we are quite lucky because one of the four elements which is necessary we have: the crisis,” he said as the crowd of pro-fessors chuckled.

“There is a need for an alterna-tive not only in Europe, but in the world and that’s what we are work-ing on, and this seminar offers an excellent intellectual opportunity to come forward with policy propos-als,” Gusenbauer told The Herald.

In his opening remarks, Gusen-bauer spoke of the need for eco-nomic growth on the global scale

to include equal access to advanced means of production and of the in-equality produced by the competi-tive nature of society.

Michael Kennedy, director of the Watson Institute and mod-erator of the conference, said “the most important thing is that these conversations have not taken place elsewhere. We are bringing social science perspectives with real policy questions that pose uncomfortable answers.”

“The nature of the conference builds on a long Watson legacy. Wat-son has always been concerned with development in a global sense,” he added.

The conference also featured Professor-at-Large Ricardo Lagos, president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. Lagos, known for signing free trade agreements with the United States, the European Community, China and other nations while in office, brought different experiences to the

conference than those of his col-leagues in Europe.

Lagos said he would discuss using new instruments in govern-ment such as the media, rethinking international institutions like the G-20 and establishing new ways of listening to the people.

“We need a better understanding of how the post-crisis world is going to be and in what direction we are going to move in,” Lagos said. “We need to learn the lessons needed so politics can influence the markets in a better way.”

After the first day of debate and discussion, Gusenbauer told The Herald, “I think it’s getting a very good overview. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow to talk about the economic rationale of the New Left agenda.”

Attributing the saying to Mao Zedong, Gusenbauer said, “Even the largest march starts with the first step.”

Max Monn / HeraldAt the Watson Institute for International Studies’ “Next Left” conference, Professor-at-Large Ricardo Lagos spoke about working together in a “post-crisis world.”

Conference focuses on economic growth

new dean settles in to head grad school

continued from page 1

Film about parkway is ‘one big special effect’By cRySTAl VAnce gueRRA

Contributing Writer

A recent documentary produced by Charles Greene ’13 and directed by Eliza McNitt, a sophomore film stu-dent at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, blurs the line between documentary and dream.

Greene and McNitt said their mission in making “The Magic Motorway,” a film about the Mer-ritt Parkway in Connecticut, was to inspire awareness about and, hope-fully, attachment to the parkway.

The Merritt Parkway Conser-vancy approached Greene at the beginning of this past summer and proposed the project to him, McNitt said.

“We were approached to make a documentary that would appeal to a younger crowd,” Greene said.

The conservancy had been de-pending on donations to maintain the parkway, Greene said. But its steady decomposition and the lack of awareness from a younger gen-eration have necessitated a change in strategy.

“Our purpose is to show people

how beautiful it is, that we are really lucky in Connecticut to have such a beautiful place,” Greene said.

“It’s known as the ‘Queen of the Parkways,’ ” McNitt said.

Featuring 68 bridges and adorned with native trees and plants, the 37.5-mile parkway — running from the state line in Greenwich, Conn. to the Housa-tonic River in Stratford, Conn. — is a highway meant for enjoyment, not merely traveling from place to place, Greene said.

“You would get on (the park-way), and that would be your des-tination,” he said.

The opening of the parkway in 1938 “strangely coincided with the World’s Fair,” McNitt said. Expand-ing upon the idea of the “dream fair,” a popular concept from the time, McNitt and Greene wrote a screenplay that is nothing short of magical.

“It tells the story of two kids who travel along (the parkway) in time,” Greene said.

Moving from the 1930s through 2010, “The Magic Motorway” is about “driving into the future,” McNitt said.

continued on page 4

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Page 4: Friday, October 1, 2010

The contrast between the past and the present is significant. Completed in 1940, the parkway “represents one of Connecticut’s greatest Depression-era public works projects,” according to a 2010 press release by the Merritt Parkway Conservancy.

According to the Conservan-cy’s website, during the parkway’s groundbreaking event in 1934, U.S. Rep. Schuyler Merritt — after whom it is named — said, “This great highway is not being constructed primarily for rapid transit but for pleasant transit. This county (Fair-field County) is fortunate in having such beautiful backcountry and it is our great duty to see that these beauties are preserved.”

Since its construction, proposals to add more lanes or to turn it into a highway have challenged the Mer-ritt Parkway’s existence. Today, the parkway is one of 11 sites named on the National Trust for Historic Places’ list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places.

This lack of concern is what mo-tivated the Conservancy’s directors to seek out McNitt and Greene. Currently, the parkway suffers from maintenance issues which raise driv-er and road safety concerns, McNitt said.

Since many youth “don’t under-stand or appreciate it,” McNitt said, “we had to appeal to a younger group of people to celebrate the parkway.”

To do so, McNitt and Greene de-cided on “breaking away from tradi-tional documentary,” said Greene. The film itself is an eight-minute time warp of the parkway’s history from past to present.

Meant to symbolize the experi-

ence of traveling the Merritt Parkway at its grandest moment in the 1930s, Greene and McNitt combine archival film and original footage to produce what McNitt described as “one big special effect.”

Part of the documentary was filmed against a green screen in a garage while the actors sat in a 1939 red Packard convertible, said Mc-Nitt. Archival footage of the parkway was merged with original takes — all filmed within one weekend — breaching the boundaries of time to show the parkway’s history.

McNitt and Greene are not new to filmmaking. Last year they entered the C-SPAN “Studentcam” National Documentary Film Contest, respond-ing to a prompt to create a documen-tary about America’s most pressing issue and potentially have their film

screened at the White House. Their film, “Requiem for the Honeybee,” about bee colony collapse disorder, won first prize, McNitt said.

Born within two hours of Greene in the same room on the same day, McNitt said her friendship and col-laboration with Greene will undoubt-edly continue. “He’s always been a twin,” she said.

Despite his passion for filmmak-ing, Greene said he has chosen to pursue a more academic life by at-tending Brown.

“Getting a well-rounded education is something that can only help you if film is where you want to wind up,” Greene said.

Mutually acknowledging the sup-port and energy that they each put into film, Greene and McNitt await the film’s release in early November.

arts & CultureThe brown Daily Herald

FRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010 | PAGE 4

hay exhibit showcases amusements of yoreBy fei cAi

Senior Staff Writer

Even in the days before iPods and movies, Americans and Brits knew how to have fun. An exhibit explor-ing popular forms of entertain-ment from England and the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries is currently on display in the John Hay Library.

“Early American and British Popular Amusements” contains pieces from the personal collec-tion of Don B. Wilmeth, profes-sor emeritus of theatre, speech and dance, and from Brown’s own special collections.

The exhibit includes hand-colored prints and engravings, playbills, broadsides and many visual representations of the types of amusements that were common in centuries past. These pieces illuminate the popularity of pleasure gardens, performance by child prodigies and even min-strel shows.

One of the earliest pleasure gardens — a kind of predeces-sor to today’s amusement parks — was Vauxhall Gardens in Lon-don, founded in 1661 and closed in 1859. Pleasure gardens like Vauxhall typically featured musical entertainment, food and drink, hot air balloon rides and performers like tightrope walkers.

While most of the items on display showed entertainments that everyone could enjoy, such as satirical prints and pantomimes, places like Vauxhall “drew a fairly high- class clientele in the UK,”

Wilmeth wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The exhibit also showcases the many forms of indoor amuse-ments from the early 19th cen-tur y. Before the invention of the feature film, entertainment ventures included magic lan-tern exhibits and other devices that created optical illusions. “Early American and British Popular Amusements” features an aquatint by William Henry Payne, called “The Halfpenny Showman” that depicts a classic peepshow.

Another display in the exhibit includes the original 1884 pro-gram from an equestrian show, managed by W.F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. These shows were usually what the performers believed to be recreations of frontier life and later went on to inspire the popular notions of the American Wild West.

Wilmeth wrote that he spent almost six months going through his collection to determine what to put in the exhibit, but the current display only holds one-third of his total collection.

“I just wanted to share them with the Brown community,” he wrote. “This represents a large aspect of popular culture that most people know little about — and it was a great reflector of tastes and what was thought to be entertain-ing at the time.”

“Early American and British Popular Amusements” will be ex-hibited at the John Hay from Sept. 13 – Oct. 28.

Katie Green / HeraldIn addition to his work on “The Magic Motorway,” charles Greene ’13 also won first prize in a c-SPAN National Documentary Film contest in 2009.

tronic Music Experiments program within the Music Department, in collaboration with the Creative Arts Council and the Digital + Media pro-

gram at the Rhode Island School of Design.

In addition to presenting visual il-lustrations of her past work, Kubisch played acoustic scripts of her instal-lations, darkening the room and

encouraging the audience to close their eyes in order to fully enjoy the compositions.

Kubisch’s career has included installations on electronic music, video performances, electromag-netic induction, use of solar energy on different surfaces, the effect of weather on the sound quality of bells and experimenting with pigments on speakers.

One of her permanent exhibi-tions is the installation of sound-magnifying objects on the thin metal interior of a renovated factory in Germany. Visitors to the factory can hear sounds resonated from outside, a process that emphasizes the rela-tionship between humans, sounds and nature.

“There is so little sound art in the media space because it takes time and space” and most installations are temporary in nature, Kubisch said. Having even one permanent piece in a public space is “satisfying,” she added.

She has also designed 33 “Elec-tronic Walks in the World” in which participants wear specially designed headphones and go around cities to

detect sounds generated by different objects and magnified by the head-phones. She gives each participant an instructional map of interesting locations she found, in addition to exploring sounds from “machines, hidden devices, art, advertisement — everything that is moving.”

“Every city is different, every walk is a discovery,” Kubisch said. “You can hear things at places you expect and don’t expect.”

In addition to the presentation, Kubisch conducted an electronic walk workshop in Providence with Brown and RISD students on Tues-day and showed her new movie about her sound installation work on Wednesday in the Music Depart-ment. She has also been meeting with students to talk about their work.

Kubisch is working on integrat-ing new elements to her works, such as photography, and aims at realizing some compositions that are completely acoustic. She has also developed a sound-detecting backpack and plans to make other appliances that include a more physi-cal dimension.

Students said they found Kubisch’s presentation interesting and inspiring.

“Hybridity is one of the qualities that characterize contemporary art,” said Jung Min Lee ’11, a modern culture and media concentrator, who said she found the presenta-tion closely related to her own work. “This is an opportunity for us to be aware of and learn about current trends and artistic practices and how to apply what one has learned to his own production.”

“I find her interests in place and mapping really intriguing,” said Bet-sey Biggs, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cogut Center for the Humani-ties. “It’s exciting to have someone so central in the field to come work with students directly.”

“It’s been great,” said Jacob Richman, a doctoral candidate in the Media and Electronic Music Ex-periments program, who was also in charge of organizing Kubisch’s visit. “We feel lucky and happy to have the most prominent person in the field of sound art to come here.”

“We study her works all the time,” he added.

‘most prominent’ sound artist Kubisch presents her career

Film asks a new generation to care

continued from page 1

continued from page 3

Page 5: Friday, October 1, 2010

SportsweekendFRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010 | PAGE 5

The brown Daily Herald

Squad hopes to stay undefeated, grab Governor’s CupBy eThAn mccOy

Contributinxqg Writer

Fresh off last week’s historic 29-14 victory over Harvard, the football team (2-0, 1-0 Ivy League) will hit the road Saturday for the first time this year as they travel to Kingston to battle the University of Rhode Island (1-2, 1-0) for the Governor’s Cup.

Oftentimes in football, teams can suffer a letdown after momentous and emotional wins and come into the following week unprepared. The Bears’ goal is not to let this happen on Saturday.

“We’re 2-0, exactly where we wanted to be,” said quarterback and tri-captain Kyle Newhall-Caballero ’11. “Now we have to focus on this next week and not get hung up on the big win against Harvard.”

For Newhall-Caballero, Satur-day looks to be another stepping stone in the quarterback’s recovery from an injury sustained in train-ing camp, when he hit his throwing hand on a teammate’s helmet. The 2009 All-Ivy First Team selection sat out the first game of the sea-son against Stony Brook, but saw snaps in the Harvard game as he alternated series with fellow senior Joe Springer ’11.

“We need to find a way to con-tinue that momentum we had at the end of last game,” Newhall-Caballero said. “What we do going forward is going to be what makes the difference here on out.”

Brown’s defense and special teams will look to keep up their strong play from this past week as well. In the win over Harvard, Bru-no’s defense limited the Crimson to a mere 112 yards of offense and forced three turnovers. Tri-captain linebacker Andrew Serrano ’11 led the effort with seven tackles and a forced fumble and was named the Ivy League defensive player of the week. Kicker Alex Norocea ’14 was both the Ivy League’s special teams player and rookie of the week after tying the school record for most field goals in a game with five.

Like Brown, URI is riding into the game on a high note. The Rams overcame away losses to Buffalo

and Fordham to pull off a huge up-set over New Hampshire, who at the time were the No. 8 team in the Football Championship Subdivision. On the way to the 28-25 win, URI gained 215 yards on the ground, led by running back Ayo Isijola and quarterback Steve Probst. The Rams had the following week off, and now are well-rested and ready for Bruno.

“They got two weeks to pre-

pare for us,” Newhall-Caballero said. “They have athletes up front. They’ve got some big guys, espe-cially on their defensive line. And they talk a lot of trash, but we’re not gonna go there.”

The game will be the 95th meet-ing between the two schools, and Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, a former Bear defensive back, will be on hand to present the Governor’s Cup to the winning side. Brown took home

the cup last year with a 28-20 vic-tory, but it is the 2008 battle that remains fresh in the minds of the juniors and seniors of this year’s squad.

“Two years ago, we were in the same situation (as this season),” Newhall-Caballero said. “We beat Stony Brook, then we beat Harvard in a huge game at home. Then we went down there — we were ranked No. 23 in the country — and we got

crushed.”The Bears know they must avoid

a reprise of that 37-13 drubbing if they are to hoist the cup and keep up this season’s early momentum.

“We want to keep rolling. No setbacks. We want to continue to climb throughout the rest of the season,” Newhall-Caballero said. “No valleys, all peaks from here.”

Kickoff in Kingston is set for 1 p.m.

Jonathan bateman / HeraldKicker Alex Norocea ’14 tied the school record for most field goals in a game, earning him Ivy special teams and rookie of the week honors.

Page 6: Friday, October 1, 2010

editorial & LettersPAGE 6 | FRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010

The brown Daily Herald

E R I K S T A Y T O N A N D E VA N D O N A H U E

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

C O M M E N T A R Y P O L I C YThe editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R P O L I C YSend letters to [email protected]. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

A D V E R T I S I N G P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

diamonds and coal

Coal to the “Techniques of Surveillance” class for posting all of its information on a public website. It may be too meta even for MCM, but we are watching you.

Coal to the cluster “flukes” caused by printing hysteria. We just want our PawPrints!

A diamond to Kabob and Curry for heating things up at the Blue Room. We still want the microwave back though.

A diamond to Playboy features, because “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” according to Professor of Economics Glenn Loury, who was recently highlighted alongside the Girls of the Pacific-10. Though he does not read the magazine, he posits the “interesting articles attract attention.” No, that’s probably not what’s drawing “readers” to the publication’s pages.

Coal to National Grid for the Thayer Street blackout, and for interfering with the completion of our homewo- ... No, we changed our minds — diamond for getting the blackout started before we even got to Fish Co.

And on that note, a diamond to the GISP that went to Fish Co. and “asked people if they were in love.” Though what you felt on the dance floor is not all there is to love, it may be just the tip.

And a good luck diamond to the Corporation as they descend onto campus this weekend. We’d tell you which dorm has the best party, but we’re still waiting for you to build it.

Diamonds and Coal is written by Herald staff. Submit your own at diamondsandcoal.com.

Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Rebecca ballhaus, Alexander bell, Nicole boucher, Fei cai, Kristina Fazzalaro, Sarah Mancone, claire Peracchio, Lindor Qunaj, Mark Raymond, Luisa Robledo, caitlin Trujillo, Alexandra UlmerStaff Writers Anna Andreeva, Anne Artley, Anita badejo, casey bleho, Amy chen, Alicia Dang, Sarah Forman, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Thomas Jarus, Julia Kim, Kristina Klara, Leonardo Moauro, Emily Rosen, bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Qian yinSenior Sales executives Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Samantha WongSales Associates Roshni Assomull, brady caspar, Anna cook, Siena deLisser, begum Ersan, Tommy Fink, Ryan Fleming, Evan Gill, Debbie Lai, Jason Lee, Katie Lynch, Sean Maroongroge, Zahra Merchant, Edjola Ruci, Webber XuSenior finance Associates Jason beckman, Lauren bosso, Mae cadao, Margot Grinberg, Adam Fernfinance Associates Lisa berlin, Mahima chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Nicholas Robbins, Daniel Slutsky, Emily Zhengdesign Staff Rebecca ballhaus, caleigh ForbesWeb Staff Warren Jin, claire Kwong, Adam ZethraeusPhoto Staff Qidong chen, Janine cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savitcopy editors Nicole boucher, Zoe chaves, Greg conyers, claire Gianotti, Aida Haile-Mariam, Victoria Hartman, Tiffany Hsu, christine Joyce, Mrinal Kapoor, Abby Kerson, Juhee Kwon, Matthew Lim, Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Rajan Mittal, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, carmen Shulman, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, carolina Veltrieditorial Page Board members Anita Mathews, Tyler Rosenbaum, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak

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corrections

An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Illegal immigration poses threat, says local activist,” Sept. 28) misstated Terry Gorman’s estimate of how much illegal immigration costs Rhode Island. The correct figure is $440 million.

An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Tutoring program expands services, staff,” Sept. 30) incorrectly stated that Eoseek was a separate company from BearPaw Tutors. In fact, it is a branch of the company. Also, the name of Adam Rodriquez ’10 was misspelled, and the correct address for BearPaw is 223 Thayer St. The Herald regrets the errors.

Sun rises, sun sets, Herald inbox waits for you — Your letters, your love.

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Page 7: Friday, October 1, 2010

FRIDAy, OcTObER 1, 2010 | PAGE 7

opinionsThe brown Daily Herald

“When some loud braggart tries to put me down,” sang Mike Love in 1963, “and says his school is great, I tell him right away, ‘Now what’s the matter, buddy, ain’t you heard of my school? It’s number one in the state.’ ” The Beach Boys’ “Be True to Your School” no doubt meant more to teenagers in their native California than it should to the upstanding young citizens of College Hill to-day — not least because their competition for the state’s top slot was a little fiercer than a few drunk cookery students and some hip-ster artists staggering under the weight of their ironically-oversized spectacles.

For most of us, however, pride in one’s “alma mater” remains a curiously enduring anachronism, like patriotism, Sarah Palin and Crocs: It ought not to have any place in our grown-up world, and yet it still produces an instantaneous gut reaction.

I detest Oxford University, for example. I’m fully aware that it has a rich history of picturesque architecture, heretic-burning and even some modest scholarly achieve-ment. At the time of writing, Oxford alum-ni hold 11 places in Her Majesty’s Govern-ment. (Three of them also possess chins.) Oxford even churned out the two men most responsible for the reputation of my native Britain, particularly in the U.S., as a land of charmingly befuddled and deeply sincere characters who never know when to cap-

ture your heart (step forward, Hugh Grant) or bomb your house (turn around and walk away, Tony Blair).

Not even its tremendous comedic poten-tial can endear Oxford to me, however, be-cause I went to the University of Cambridge, the Single Greatest Institution in the History of the Universe.

See? I didn’t even mean to write that. It just came out. The fact is that the mere men-tion of the old place gets my blood pump-ing. Not only does it bring back all manner

of memories (or at least it would, if I’d had less of a good time while I was there) but it makes me feel in an absurd way that I’m con-nected to centuries of traditions and achieve-ments, none of which involve Hugh Grant.

This is patently ridiculous: I had no more to do with the discovery of the double helix or the formation of Monty Python than you did, unless you’re considerably older than you look. Yet the simple fact of having run around the place between my eighteenth and twenty-second birthdays (and having been born there, although I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t get a lot done around that time) makes it assume great significance to

my development as a semi-certified human being.

As “consumers” (yuck) of the “product” of higher education these days, we face an absurd amount of choice about where to pre-tend to study. There are, at a conservative es-timate, something in the region of 1,386,000 universities in the U.S. alone. A tiny twist of fate — the prejudices of a family member, say — could have sent you off to California or New York or, heaven forbid, Dartmouth. No doubt you’d be just as gung-ho about

your new place in life as you were upon skip-ping through the Van Wickle gates.

As one stumbles along the graduate-pro-fessional path, however, a slightly more logi-cal set of imperatives becomes clear. One wants to go to a graduate school with re-sources or a reputation that caters to one’s particular interests, for example. One of the peculiarities of grad school is that in many cases, one spends more time there than at one’s undergrad institution, and yet seldom does one come to identify as strongly with the latter place of study.

This state of affairs is particularly in ev-idence at Brown, which is overwhelmingly

geared towards undergrad education in en-rollment, culture and resources. Ask one of the mole-like creatures you see emerg-ing blinking from the GCB at five p.m. how strongly connected they feel to Brown and the answers won’t vary hugely, I suspect: it’s our place of work, and we probably won’t be boring our grandchildren with proud stories about it in the future. And not just because half a decade on a diet of cheap beer and tinned carbohydrates will render many of us incapable of, or too unattractive to hope for, procreation.

None of this is to say that grad students are completely disconnected from the rest of University life. Even as I shuffle between the key appointments in my schedule — writing my dissertation in the library and writing my dissertation on my sofa — I ponder occa-sionally some things about Brown that I like mentally to associate myself with. Brown’s liberal reputation; the colonial architecture, so much more enjoyable than the Ikea-goth-ic fakes of the last place I studied, Yale; the impressive work of the Slavery and Justice Commission; the fact that this is where John Krasinski developed his laconic shrugging technique: none of these have anything to do with me, yet I still enjoy an intangible as-sociation with them.

Not as much, though, as I enjoy hating Oxford.

Stephen Wicken GS, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the History department, has a rich history of picturesque architecture,

heretic-burning and even some mod-est scholarly achievement. He can be

reached at [email protected].

Be (mostly) true to your school(s)

Too often, I hear students tell me that poli-tics is always about voting for the lesser of two evils. Liberal Brown students some-times complain that no candidate in a race fully represents their interests. And while I tend to disagree and believe that the Rhode Island Democratic ticket is filled with inspir-ing and progressive candidates, Chris Blaze-jewski still stands out among them.

Brown students should have no trouble supporting Chris Blazejewski’s campaign in November, not only because of his commit-ment to a more vibrant economic future and to robust civil rights, but also because of his willingness to engage Brown’s community. As founder of Drinking Liberally, a monthly gathering of young political activists, Chris understands the importance of getting stu-dents involved.

Blazejewski is running to replace Da-vid Segal, who retired to run for Congress, as state representative for Rhode Island’s second district (where many off-campus students live). Just as Representative Se-gal worked tirelessly to advocate on behalf of progressive policies in the state house, Blazejewski will undoubtedly be an integral part of the state legislature’s progressive caucus next year.

Blazejewski recognizes that the most important issue facing our state and nation

today is unemployment. He wants to cre-ate good jobs that will stay in Rhode Island and, like most Brown students, recognizes the potential that green jobs hold to bolster our economic revitalization. On his website, Blazejewski writes, “by focusing on green and clean technology jobs — such as solar, water, and wind energy, design, and manu-facturing — we can harness our state’s sus-tainable, natural resources while creating professional and working-class jobs that pro-

vide career paths, excellent wages, and a boost to our economy.”

Education is also a top priority. While many states cover two-thirds of funding for education, Rhode Island has generally cov-ered a mere one-third. Despite the recent passage of a school funding formula, more must be done for education, or else cities like Providence will continue to be forced to raise property taxes. Blazejewski real-izes this, and sees another funding source: he will eliminate tax cuts for Rhode Island’s wealthiest five percent, which would provide the state with millions of dollars. Rather than give tax breaks to the rich, Chris will make

R.I. students his main concern.A number of other issues generally come

up every year in the state legislature and are of concern to students. Rhode Island Speak-er of the House Gordon Fox recently told the Brown Democrats that a marriage equality bill will likely reach the floor next session, and Blazejewski is a strong supporter of the bill. Same-sex marriage has faced too many defeats recently, from California to Maine, but by voting or volunteering for Blazejew-

ski, we can bring equality to our very own Ocean State.

In addition to his support for equal mar-riage rights, Blazejewski is dedicated to oth-er key civil rights issues. For example, he pledges to defend a woman’s right to choose, a right that comes under attack from conser-vative state representatives every year. Like-wise, he promises to fight against those who discriminate against or seek to attack Rhode Island’s immigrants to score cheap political points.

While Blazejewski will be a strong advo-cate for these progressive views, his value also lies in his dedication to this community.

He has met with the leaders of student or-ganizations across campus, learned more about how he can represent us, and pledged to work with those of us who want to lobby for, or even craft, legislation. He knows that students can be passionate activists, and he promises to work with us hand in hand.

The choice between Chris Blazejews-ki and his opponent, Richard Rodi, is clear. Rodi — who is running as a Tea Party-backed candidate — opposed the federal health care reform bill that passed one year ago. Using the same, tired right-wing talking points that universal health insurance would lower the quality of care, Rodi opposed legis-lation that would prevent insurers from dis-criminating against Americans because of pre-existing conditions and allow students to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they are 26. As many of us prepare to enter the workforce in a difficult job market, this legislation lifts a major burden from our shoulders, apparently to Rodi’s dismay.

In November, the residents of District 2 will have a choice between a community leader with a vision to bring jobs to our state, and a tea-drenched independent that thinks tax cuts are the only answer. Brown students have the choice to get involved or sit on the sidelines. In the 2010 elections, every vote counts; every phone call matters. I hope that you too will support Chris Blazejewski.

Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11 is the president of the College Democrats of Rhode Is-

land. He can be contacted at [email protected].

I support Chris Blazejewski

Rather than give tax breaks to the rich, chris will make R.I. students his main concern.

For most of us, pride in one’s ‘alma mater’ remains a curiously enduring anachronism, like

patriotism, Sarah Palin and crocs: it ought not to have any place in our grown-up world, and yet it

still produces an instantaneous gut reaction.

STEPHEN WIcKENopinions columnist

JEREMy FEIGENbAUMGuest columnist

Page 8: Friday, October 1, 2010

fRidAy, OcTOBeR 1, 2010 PAGE 8

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