Tuesday, October 6, 2015

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UNIVERSITY NEWSUniversity joins coalition working to develop tools to improve college application process

Partnership with Naval War College leads to series of cybersecurity lectures

Kenyon GS: Society should focus on individuals behind mass shootings rather than guns

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

SINCE 1891

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 79

WEATHERINSIDE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

By KATE TALERICOSENIOR STAFF WRITER

The University has clarified the des-ignation of Residential Peer Leaders, Brown University Dining Services supervisors and Meiklejohn Peer Advisors as “responsible employees,” dictating that they must report any knowledge of cases of sexual miscon-duct or harassment to the Title IX Office, said Title IX Program Officer Amanda Walsh.

The Title IX Office will use this re-ported knowledge to provide survivors with resources intended to aid them in deciding whether or not to take a case to the Title IX Conduct Board, said Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06.

The designation is not new to any group but BuDS supervisors — both RPLs and Meiklejohns have been re-sponsible employees in the past, as dictated by Rhode Island State law. But the administration has increased clarity regarding the role this year, Walsh said.

In the past, some students desig-nated as responsible employees may not have fully realized what the role entailed. Upon realizing that they were obligated to report incidents of sexual assault, some students — particularly RPLs — came forward to the Univer-sity with concerns about the circum-stances in which they must fulfill the role, said Sazzy Gourley ’16, president of the Undergraduate Council of Stu-dents.

“Students have expressed frus-tration about what it means to be a responsible employee and how the information was communicated,” Gourley said.

All Meiklejohns and RPLs con-tacted for this story declined to com-ment, with RPLs citing an email from a community director asking them not to speak to The Herald.

In deciding which employees would be classified as responsible employees, the University was bound by Rhode Island state laws. “Those designated employees in a leadership or supervi-sory position, or who have significant responsibility for the welfare of stu-dents or employees” are designated as responsible, according to the Univer-sity’s Sexual and Gender-Based Harass-ment, Sexual Violence, Relationship

University clarifies role of responsible employeesTitle IX Office to rely on knowledge reported to students designated as responsible employees

By BAYLOR KNOBLOCHSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Dean of the College Maud Mandel and Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’12 will present an initial proposal for a winter term at Tuesday’s faculty meeting, Mandel said.

The proposed Winter Session will feature “a handful of intense, creative experimental courses in January” that span three weeks and cover the stan-dard 48-contact-hour requirement of semester courses, Mandel said.

A working group composed of faculty members, staff members and students, co-chaired by Mandel and McLaughlin, formed last January to discuss the idea of a January term, which the group agreed to call Win-ter Session.

The group explored the feasibil-ity and demand for Winter Session in “a preliminary discussion about a

larger discussion,” said Ian Kenyon GS, a member of the committee and a Herald opinions columnist.

The group met “about every two weeks semester and pursued the vari-ous parts of the president’s charge, which were asking us to consider the pros and cons of a winter session,” Mandel said.

These meetings culminated in a set of recommendations encouraging the pursuit of a winter term, which Mandel and McLaughlin presented to President Christina Paxson P’19 and former Provost Vicki Colvin in May.

Due to the transition in the pro-vost position over the summer, “it was really President Paxson and Provost (Richard Locke P’17) who got back to us over the summer,” Mandel said. The two “thought it would be a good idea to take the recommendations of the committee to faculty and campus this semester,” she added.

Mandel and McLaughlin are cur-rently visiting various faculty and stu-dent governance committees to discuss the proposal, Mandel said, adding that so far, it has been met with support.

The two administrators will present

the proposal to the Undergraduate Council of Students’ Academic and Administrative Affairs committee at a meeting Thursday that will be open to the public, said Sazzy Gourley ’16, UCS president.

Financial aid availability and cal-endar consistency surfaced as two key elements that the group made sure to include in its proposal.

“We agreed that the thing we were striving for was inclusion across the student body,” Kenyon said. According to the proposal, students on financial aid would have full access to their aid packages for Winter Session tuition.

In addition to student inclusion, maintaining the University’s sched-ule emerged as a clear priority for the committee. “The idea of moving the calendar was, for many people, a deal-breaker,” Mandel said.

The proposal fits Winter Session into the existing structure of winter break, not disrupting the date of gradu-ation or other large University events.

An additional characteristic of the proposed Winter Session is that it would allow faculty members to offer

Plans for winter session inch forwardAdministrators circulate initial proposal for three-week January term, innovative courses

By AGNES CHANSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Features of student financial aid pack-ages, including outside scholarship reporting and summer earnings re-quirements, can cause financial and logistical challenges for students.

The Office of Financial Aid is work-ing with the Undergraduate Council of Students to address these challenges through the creation of a financial aid advisory board which will facilitate di-rect communication between students and the financial aid office.

“We’ve been working really hard to elevate advocacy efforts around specific financial aid improvements,” said Sazzy Gourley ’16, UCS president. “It is critical to elevate this conversa-tion to the Corporation level, so that Corporation members as well as other

administrators understand how impor-tant it is that we’re resolving some of these barriers to success for students.”

Forty-four percent of all undergrad-uates receive need-based financial aid from the University, said Jim Tilton, director of financial aid. The University set aside $112.5 million for financial aid for the 2015-2016 academic year — an increase from the $104.1 million budgeted last year.

The Office of Financial Aid deter-mines a student’s family contribution based on two forms: the Free Applica-tion for Federal Student Aid and the College Scholarship Service Profile. The FAFSA uses a formula established by the federal government to calculate a family’s expected contribution by tak-ing into account a family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets and benefits.

But because the University also con-siders information on the CSS Profile, the amount of aid the University gives to a student is often different from the value derived from FAFSA.

The CSS Profile paints a clearer

Aid recipients navigate contribution expectationsUCS, Office of Financial Aid collaborate to form advisory board to hear student voices

By AGNES CHANSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Mayor Jorge Elorza joined three other panel members, including University

of Chicago Professor of Surgery Dana

Suskind, to discuss Providence Talks —

a 2013 initiative designed to improve children’s vocabularies — at a policy forum in Petteruti Lounge Monday. The panel members focused on the necessity of increasing children’s vocabularies during the first few years of life in order to reduce the gap in children’s readiness for kindergarten.Suskind introduced her book released last month, “Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain,” during the panel and was available to sign copies afterwards.

The Providence Talks program — which emphasizes the importance

of enhancing parent-child interac-tions to improve learning — won the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2013 Mayor Challenge and received $5 million to fund its implementation. In addition to Elorza and Suskind, the policy forum, which was the first since the program’s inception, also featured Anne Emig, a representative from Bloomberg Phi-lanthropies and Kenneth Wong, pro-fessor of education and chair of the department.

Suskind also serves as a surgeon at the University of Chicago, and she said

Panel surveys Providence Talks’ impactMayor Jorge Elorza and other panelists discuss 2013 education project’s progress, future

» See RESPONSIBLE, page 2

» See FINANCIAL, page 2

METRO

» See WINTER, page 2

MARIANNA MURDOCK / HERALD

Dana Suskind, University of Chicago professor and author of “Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain,” and Mayor Jorge Elorza spoke at a panel Monday on the importance of developing children’s vocabularies.

» See PANEL, page 3

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METROSix maps of Providence demonstrate wide variation in population demographics

UNIVERSITY NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDPAGE 2 • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

and Interpersonal Violence and Stalk-ing Policy.

As BuDS supervisors had previ-ously been trained to report incidences of sexual harassment, it was logical to train them in reporting cases of sexual misconduct as well, Walsh said.

Responsible student employees have expressed a need for greater train-ing so they can better understand and fill this role, Gourley said, adding that the Title IX Office will need additional resources in order to provide this train-ing for such an extensive number of employees in light of all the other ma-jor responsibilities of the office.

Walsh said she and Carey will par-ticipate in a mid-semester fall orien-tation, which all Meiklejohns will be required to attend, to train them about responsible reporting.

Walsh clarified that while the role of a responsible employee is not confiden-tial, it is private — employees are only obligated to report these incidences to their direct supervisor or the Title IX Office.

The role of RPLs at Brown is con-strued from the equivalent role of a residential advisor at the University’s peer institutions, making RPLs’ roles as responsible employees “more com-plex,” Walsh said.

RAs at other institutions are as-signed clear shifts during which they are on duty, Walsh added, noting that “at Brown, RPLs are on duty all the time … making their reporting obliga-tions become burdensome.”

Under current policy, the Title IX Office may conduct a safety risk as-sessment to detect repeat offenses by a certain group or person. If the office does find there to be a risk, “the Uni-versity may step in as the complainant,” Walsh said.

The University will decide when to step in on a “case-by-case basis,” Walsh said. For example, if a case involved any weapons, the University would likely step in as the complainant, she said.

If such a decision were made, the University would “revisit those con-versations” with students who could potentially act as witnesses, while ac-knowledging that some of those stu-dents would not want to participate, Walsh said.

Walsh acknowledged that a conflict of interest would inevitably arise in cases in which the University acted as

the complainant. “Having an external investigator would be essential,” she said, adding that hearing decisions and sanctions would be given by a Title IX panel, rather than by the vice president of campus life, to further mitigate this conflict.

In the past, students designated as responsible employees may have cho-sen to report to a community director in the Office of Residential Life, the sexual assault resources and education advocate or the Office of Campus Life, Walsh said. The creation of the Title IX Office has streamlined this process, al-lowing responsible employees to report all cases to one place, she said.

Some students worry that there is a dearth of confidential resources. “The fact that there is currently, on cam-pus, not a single confidential student authority or leadership support role is really distressing,” said Anastasiya Gorodilova ’16, a member of the Title IX Oversight Committee.

The University currently offers six confidential resources: the Sexual As-sault Response Line, SHARE advocates, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Office of the Chaplains and Reli-gious Life, Brown Emergency Medical Services and Health Services.

“Brown does not have the legal power to create confidential resources,” said Justice Gaines ’16, a member of the Sexual Assault Task Force.

Because the term “confidential” is only applicable to certain groups like counselors, social workers and medical workers under Rhode Island law, the University may only hire resources that are already confidential, rather than create them, Walsh said.

While this legal designation makes it difficult to certify students as con-fidential employees, Walsh noted that though the general student body is not confidential, it is also not required to report.

Gourley said many students have expressed the need for confidential resources tailored to their unique iden-tities on campus. “If it were possible to have confidential resources in the Brown Center for Students of Color, the LGBTQ Center and the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, that would be best,” he said.

At the end of the academic year, the University will conduct a review of all new Title IX policy updates, includ-ing the responsible employee policy, Carey said.

» RESPONSIBLE, from page 1

picture of the student’s family back-ground by considering factors such as non-custodial parents’ income and assets owned by siblings, Tilton said. In addition, parents who make less than $60,000 per year will have zero parent contribution, he said.

Outside scholarships may also have an unpredictable effect on students’ financial aid packages.

Federal law states that outside scholarships cannot reduce the amount that parents contribute to the total cost of attending a university. Instead, they can be used to cover the student con-tribution portion, which includes sum-mer earnings expectations — $2,650 for first-years and $3,100 for sophomores, juniors and seniors, work-study re-quirements — $2,800 per year — and student loans.

But if an outside scholarship ex-ceeds a student’s expected contribution, the Brown University Scholarship will be reduced. The school determines the amount parents contribute based on their income and this amount does not change — even with outside scholar-ships, according to Brown’s policy. All other Ivy League schools have the same policy regarding outside scholarships.

“Everyone is always telling you, ‘If you need help paying for school, look for outside scholarships.’ When I re-ceived outside scholarships … I was very surprised to find out that they actually decrease the amount of Brown scholarship I was getting,” said Lauren Galvan ’16. “I spent the time and effort applying for them hoping that they would supplement the financial aid … that I was receiving from Brown.”

Kiera Peltz ’16 also said she was shocked to find out that anything over the student’s expected contribution would be reduced from Brown’s finan-cial aid package. Though the policy stems from the Brown’s status as a pro-vider of exclusively need-based aid, the University estimates are not always accurate, “especially for people who are not relying on their parents for any financial support,” Peltz said.

“It’s really a disincentive to get out-side scholarships, because there’s only so much you can get it for,” Peltz said. “If a student is willing to go out and try to get scholarships to pay for college, he or she should not be disincentiv-ized from doing that. That should be applauded as a proactive effort to pay

for their university experience.”Since Brown’s outside scholarship

policy is based on federal regulations, Tilton said he does not envision a change in policy. Considering that outside scholarships can take away the burden of work, summer earnings and loans, it seems like a reasonable prac-tice, he added.

These policies do not change re-gardless of “whether you are the presi-dent of UCS, whether you are an athlete or whether you are a concert pianist,” Tilton said.

The summer earnings require-ment, which may prevent students from taking on unpaid or low-paying internships, can also be reduced or eliminated in other ways. This sum-mer, 203 students were granted sum-mer earnings waivers by the Center for Careers and Life After Brown to pursue internships paying below $1,000. This marks a jump from the 87 students who were supported with SEW the previ-ous summer, said Aixa Kidd, director of BrownConnect, adding that alums, parents and donors have played a major role in expanding the funding available for the program.

BrownConnect also launched a LINK/SEW program — a bundle that includes one Linking Internships and Knowledge award and one SEW — to support both internships at home and abroad, Kidd said.

Those undertaking internships at home are granted the regular LINK/SEW award, which includes $3,500 from the LINK award and an additional $3,100 to cover the summer earnings expectation. Students traveling abroad for internships can apply for the inter-national LINK/SEW, which includes an additional $1,500 to cover housing and travel costs.

Though funding for internships has increased significantly in recent years, more can still be done to ensure all the needs of students are met, Kidd said. The additional $1,500 for internships abroad may still not be sufficient for students who have “amazing opportu-nities abroad in more expensive cities,” she added.

“The LINK and SEW programs were incredibly instrumental in me being able to work at the White House,” Peltz said. “That was one of the times when Brown really stepped it up and made me feel like they really wanted me to succeed.” But the amount of fund-ing that the University has to support

students traveling for summer intern-ships is still limited, Peltz said, adding that the amount she received did not cover the full cost of living in Wash-ington, D.C., over the summer.

Increasing funding for internships is one of multiple concrete recommen-dations that emerged from discussions between students and Corporation members, Gourley said. Other rec-ommendations that emerged from this focus group include reducing the costs of textbooks, meal plans — specifi-cally over spring break — and sum-mer storage as well as increasing fund-ing for Brown summer courses and health insurance, reducing summer earnings expectations and increasing clarity around loan options outside of Brown financial aid.

“We’re looking closely at what kinds of expenses students are experienc-ing throughout the year,” Tilton said. “What that allows us to do is hear di-rectly from students who are affected by our policies. It’s been incredibly helpful.”

Input from students is crucial to driving this conversation forward, Gourley said. This advisory board aims to increase awareness within the administration about students’ main concerns and personal experiences and, through this dialogue, generate recommendations for solutions. UCS will hold campus-wide appointments for this board.

The University needs to work on making outside scholarship policies clear, especially because it is very dif-ficult for students from middle class families to estimate the amount they will receive, Galvan said, adding that “shedding more light on how outside scholarships could affect the financial package would be beneficial to a lot of students who have a middle class income.”

Though her outside scholarships cover the entirety of her student con-tribution portion, Galvan has had a total of eight jobs in addition to other extracurricular commitments during her time at Brown. She has used that income to cover expenses such as text-books and travel. “I live in Texas, so I can’t just take a $20 train home. It’s rather pricey,” she said.

While she finds her activities re-warding, Galvan said balancing work and school has been stressful. “It does take a toll on your health — your physi-cal health and your mental health.”

» FINANCIAL, from page 1

new, innovative courses.“It will allow for intensive and high-

ly focused courses, like studio classes in art and music or deep training in the usage of some sort of particular scientific or engineering instrument or method,” Mandel said.

The structure would allow profes-sors to pursue pedagogical innovation and course development, Mandel said.

Wendy Edwards, chair of the vi-sual arts department and committee member, said she has taught high-im-mersion courses and seen “how much people grow and develop when they are given that opportunity.”

When students can take one class at a time, it gives them an opportunity to expand their academic horizons, she said. “You could be a biology major, but you decide to take a studio class, and you don’t have to worry about anything else,” she added.

A Winter Session would be “a great way to try out something new, and it’s also a different learning environment,” said Ria Mirchandani ’15, the only un-dergraduate on the committee.

“I left Brown wishing I had had more time there, so I think Winter Session would have been a great way to get that out of my system,” Mirchan-dani said.

Though the proposal includes in-ternational and online courses as well as courses for graduate students, those would likely be part of a “phase two” implementation of Winter Session, Mandel said.

One concern regarding the poten-tial launch of on-campus courses as part of Winter Session regards facili-ties logistics.

“Having students on campus during Winter Session is difficult, and you’re opening up a can of worms in terms of other costs,” Kenyon said, adding that dining services, residence halls

and various student services would need to be maintained over the break.

“We are exploring options for din-ing and housing for a potential Winter Session, and I will be having discus-sions with students regarding any po-tential opportunities,” Richard Bova,

senior associate dean of residential life, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Mandel said she hopes the faculty will vote on the proposal in December. A finalized version of the proposal will be made public before the vote, she said.

If the faculty votes in favor of the proposal, a Winter Session pilot phase would begin in either January 2017 or 2018, Mandel said. “It’s going to be quite small at the beginning, maybe seven or eight courses limited to 15 or 20 students,” she added.

» WINTER, from page 1

ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD

If the faculty votes in favor of the working group’s proposal for a Winter Term, students could spend more time on the snowy campus as part of a pilot phase as early as January 2017 or 2018.

UNIVERSITY NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 • PAGE 3

By JULIA CHOISTAFF WRITER

Brown and more than 80 other institu-tions have joined a new coalition that aims to provide high school students with an alternative to the Common Application. The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success will offer ap-plicants a set of online tools starting in January 2016 in the hopes of “leveling the playing field for students from all backgrounds,” according to its website.

Statistics reveal that students from disadvantaged backgrounds often face difficulties with the application pro-cess and struggle with financial aid ap-plications, according to the Coalition’s website. By providing a set of online tools — including a digital portfolio, a collaboration platform for feedback on essays and an application portal — the Coalition hopes to “recast the application process as the culmination of students’ development” over the course of high school.

Colleges and universities must have at least a 70 percent graduation rate to join the Coalition. Members of the Coalition include all eight Ivy League schools, Stanford University, Amherst College and Williams Col-lege.

Discussions about the Coalition began in the 2013-14 academic year, when the Common App experienced significant technical issues, wrote Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 in an email to The Herald.

“It seemed prudent to think about an alternative platform … to miti-gate the disruption of similar techni-cal problems in the future,” Miller wrote. But as discussion progressed, “the group decided it had the chance to rethink” and develop a more effec-tive process than the Common App, he wrote.

“The platform tools … will help make applying to college a more natu-ral culmination of students’ develop-ment over the course of their high school careers, rather than a one-time transaction,” he wrote. They will also “allow students to begin planning for college much earlier — of particular importance to students from under-resourced schools and communities,” he added.

But several admission experts pointed out what they perceive as sev-eral flaws in the Coalition’s approach.

Though the Coalition’s “chief ob-jective is allegedly to encourage under-privileged students,” these students of-ten do not have access to computers or experienced guidance counselors, said Brian Taylor, director of Ivy Coach.

The Coalition’s collaboration plat-form will create more work for guid-ance counselors through its editing and feedback features, Taylor said. Admission officers will also need to work harder to maintain the open line of communication with students that the Coalition calls for, he said.

The Common App financially penalizes universities who accept an additional application, Taylor said. “Mark my words — schools will start dropping out after one year once they realize the unintended consequences. These schools don’t want to face pe-nalization,” he said.

Steven Goodman, educational con-sultant and admission strategist at Top Colleges, said the main problem with the current admission process is that “students who could be coming to uni-versities aren’t … because of the cost,” which the Coalition “attempts to ad-dress but doesn’t address completely.”

“It doesn’t address the issue of who’s going to pay more financial aid for the new students,” Goodman said. “Will universities use more of their institutional resources to increase financial aid funding?” he asked, adding that he anticipates more stu-dents coming to see him earlier for consultations.

Ann Selvitelli, director of college counseling at Suffield Academy, a private school in Connecticut, said the Coalition’s mission is “admirable.”

“The portfolio could be a good idea,” she said, though she noted that students might worry about upload-ing their work during their early high school years for fear it may have a negative impact later.

The Coalition’s launch coincides with other changes in the admission process related to the SAT, the PSAT and financial aid, Selvitelli said. This slew of changes may make the next few years “anxiety-provoking” for ap-plicants, especially coupled with the fact that “all the first-rate colleges and universities are involved,” she said.

Last weekend, Selvitelli traveled to the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s 71st Nation-al Conference, where she said there “were not as many concrete answers as people were hoping for” regarding the Coalition.

“We need more time and more in-formation,” she said. “Anything new and unknown is a little bit terrifying.”

U. joins coalition backing Common App alternativeCoalition develops online tools to aid applicants, draws criticism from admission experts

HERALD FILE PHOTO

The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success is designed to help the Office of Admission ease the admission process for underserved applicants.

By ISABELLE THENOR-LOUISCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The University and the U.S. Naval War College have continued to strengthen their partnership established last June, focusing on greater collaboration in research and teaching as well as the cre-ation of a new fellows program.

Since the partnership formed, both institutions have hosted panels and lec-tures concerning contemporary issues of national security. A working group composed of members from both insti-tutions is also exploring possible other expansions to the relationship, said Sue Eckert, senior fellow in international and public affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

Located in Newport, Rhode Island — just a 40-minute drive from Brown — the Naval War College aims to educate and develop future leaders of the Navy.

“Through this partnership, we now have a depth of expertise,” Eckert said.

The Watson Institute and the Naval War College invited experts on cyberse-curity to speak at a three-day workshop last month entitled “Cybered Future and Conflict/Governance Implications.” The experts addressed the relationships between cyber development and world governments.

“From our perspective, Watson has the three core programs of development, governance and security. We are now rebuilding our security program since we have lost some faculty,” Eckert said.

Visiting scholars from the Naval War College are currently in residence and doing research on international relations issues at the Watson Institute. Though there are currently no Brown professors

in residence at the Naval War College, the working group tasked with expand-ing the partnership is exploring this op-tion, Eckert said.

Michael O’Hara, a permanent mili-tary professor in the department of strategy and policy at the War College, currently serves as a national security fellow at the Watson Institute. O’Hara’s position as the University’s first national security fellow marks a rare accomplish-ment, said John Garofano, a civilian visiting professor from the Naval War College.

“We are trying to improve knowl-edge about each other’s expertise so that we can increasingly teach sessions or give lectures or perhaps teach an entire course,” Garofano said. “But we still need to get to know each other’s faculty a little more.”

One of the biggest goals of the part-nership is to bridge what Garofano and Eckert call the “civil-military gap.” Both Garofano and Eckert said they believe there needs to be a greater understand-ing between civilian and military cul-tures.

“The best part of Brown, to me, is the students,” Eckert said, adding that it is

important for this generation of students to have “a great awareness and under-standing” of military culture and “people who have been out there in front lines.”

The issue of cybersecurity is a grow-ing concern that affects members of the military and civilians alike, said John Savage P’88 P’95 P’03 P’05 GP’17, pro-fessor of computer science.

“The world is now integrated with high speed communications used in the Internet, and computer security is minimal,” Savage said. “There are two types of big corporations — those that know they’ve been penetrated and those that don’t.”

The University’s partnership with Naval War College does not focus ex-clusively on issues of cybersecurity, Eckert said. Research and collabora-tion between these two institutions also center on topics including the political economy of war, she said.

Looking ahead, the Watson Institute will host a book discussion Oct. 13 on “Meeting China Halfway: How to De-fuse the Emerging US-China Rivalry,” a book by Lyle Goldstein, associate pro-fessor in the department of strategic research at the Naval War College.

Partnership with Naval War College growsCybersecurity lectures, national security fellowship developed through partnership

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Provost Richard Locke P’17, President Christina Paxson P’19 and former President of the Naval War College Ted Carter Jr. agreed on the partnership.

her experience with pediatric cochlear implants — which enable deaf children to hear — has allowed her to see the “indelible impact” of language on chil-dren’s growth. Cochlear implants open up a whole new world for children born to silence, but there were noticeable differences in individual children’s lan-guage abilities after the implantation. Some had language abilities on par with peers, while others were barely able to communicate, Suskind said.

“That difference almost always fell along socioeconomic lines,” she said. “It was a very painful difference to see.”

According to the Providence Public School Department Office of Research, only 52 percent of fourth grade stu-dents in Providence public schools read at grade-level proficiency. In an effort to combat this issue, Providence Talks uses technologies from the LENA Research Foundation — including re-corders, analysis software and mobile services — to develop a comprehensive

picture of language environments and to achieve its goal of closing the vocab-ulary gap among pre-kindergarteners. Participating families receive a free LENA pedometer and bi-weekly men-toring from trained home visitors, as well as information on resources such as read-aloud programs at libraries.

“The implementation of Provi-dence Talks is also aligned with my personal vision and commitment to building strong community schools where each of our children continue to grow,” Elorza said, adding that at the core of the initiative is the belief that children’s most important early teachers are their parents.

The program has already served 170 families and is set to expand its reach to 750 more families within the next year, Elorza said, adding that 1,200 books have already been distributed to families and the program intends to distribute another 10,000 books over the next few years. According to a report published by Providence Talks, those who start out at the lowest

income levels have made impressive progress — on average, the number of words used at home increased by 50 percent.

By the end of the fourth year of life, “children born into poverty will have heard 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers,” Suskind said. Her book speaks to parents from all back-grounds on the critical importance of language exposure when a child’s ability to absorb words is at its prime — studies have long indicated that the first three years of a child’s life are the most crucial to language development.

With the implementation of Provi-dence Talks, the city is setting an exam-ple by “putting the power back where it belongs — with parents,” Suskind said. But in order for a program like Providence Talks to flourish, parents must be backed by social policies that advocate for low-income guardians so they can invest in their own children. “When we advocate for the power of parent-talk, we must also advocate for the parents,” Suskind said.

» PANEL, from page 1

UNIVERSITY NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDPAGE 4 • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

Percent black

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

Percent Hispanic

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Percent of families below poverty line

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

Median household incomeAS A PERCENTAGE OF HIGHEST NEIGHBORHOOD AVERAGE:BLACKSTONE — $87,727

Percent white

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

WANSKUCKCHARLES

HOPE

MOUNT HOPE BLACKSTONE

WAYLAND

FOX POINT

COLLEGE HILL

SMITH HILL

ELMHURST

MOUNT PLEASANT

MANTON

VALLEY

DOWNTOWNFEDERAL HILL

OLNEYVILLE

HARTFORD

SILVER LAKE WEST ENDUPPER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

LOWER SOUTH PROVIDENCE

WASHINGTON PARK

ELMWOOD

RESERVOIR

SOUTH ELMWOOD

Population densityAS A PERCENTAGE OF HIGHEST NEIGHBORHOOD AVERAGE:WEST END — 20,252 PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE

Source: The Providence Plan

Providence in six mapsPopulation demographics vary drastically across the city’s 25 neighborhoods. White, wealthy inhabitants are concentrated on the East Side in places like Blackstone and Wayland, while poor residents of color are condensed in more densely populated South Providence neighborhoods.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOLLY TRACY

A Campus Fairy Tale | Kimberly Saltz ‘17

s u d o k u

c r o s s w o r d

c o m i c

fa l s e a l a r mm e n u

c a l e n d a r

ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD

Fire trucks converged at the intersection of Brown Street and Waterman Street Monday afternoon in response to smoke in Salomon Center due to a worn-out belt in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

TODAYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 • PAGE 5

SHARPE REFECTORY

JOSIAH’S

LUNCH

LUNCH

BLUE ROOM

DINNER

DINNER

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

ANDREWS COMMONS

METABOLISM 101: WELLNESS AT BROWN! 12:30 PMFaunce, Petteruti Lounge

RICHARD KISCH — OBAMACARE12:00 PMTaubman Center

BROWN IN UK & IRELAND INFO SESSION 12:00 PMJ. Walter Wilson, Room 440

PEOPLE OF COLOR SUPPORT GROUP 1:00 PMJ. Walter Wilson, Room 516

WOLF GREENFIELD & SACKS INFO SESSION12:00 PMCareerLAB

BROWN +1 INFO SESSION12:00 PMJ Walter Wilson, Room 440

MORGAN STANLEY PRESENTATION6:00 PMFaculty Club

INFO SESSION FOR SPRING UTRAS4:00 PMFaunce, Petteruti Lounge

SATELLITE DINING

DINING HALLS

Made-to-Order Quesadillas

Pizzas: Bacon Chicken Ranch,Spicy Five Cheese, Garlic, Pepperoni and Meatball

Chicken Kadhai,Aloo Gobhi Masala

Caribbean Jerk Chicken, Garlicky Green Beans, Grecian

Style Beef, Apple Squares

Vegetarian Spinach Strudel with Cream Cheese Sauce, Vegan

Szechuan Spicy Stir Fry

Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Zucchini Frittata, Potato Skins

Bar, Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

Macaroni and Cheese, Stir Fry Tofu, General Tso Chicken Stir

Fry, Apple Squares

TODAY

TOMORROW

OCTOBER

6

T

13

20

27

5

M

12

19

26

4

S

11

18

25

7

W

14

21

28

1

8

Th

15

22

29

2

9

F

16

23

30

3

10

S

17

24

31

Race is not a valid genetic categoryTo the Editor:

Because these letters are usually short, I will focus on just one part of the generally incoherent opinions column in Monday’s Herald (“Maier ’17: The white privilege of cows,” Oct. 5). Before that, I would like to acknowledge my position as a middle-class cisgender white male, and that I am in no way an expert on the history of race formation or privilege.

This opinions column contains this paragraph: “Thus, whenever I see a white college student, reeking of privilege, I recall the coincidence (or causal relationship) between white physical features and animal agriculture. It is still a question whether or not evolution endowed Eurasians with skills utilized to capitalize on the good luck of livestock ani-mals, or whether Eurasian features just happen to be a poor man’s clue to agricultural history.” I have read this part of the column multiple times, and I cannot find a hint of irony.

This statement is incredibly irresponsible and runs counter to scientific consensus. I do not believe the writer truly un-derstands the implications of the statement: that it is open to debate whether white people are or were ever genetically superior to or different from other races. (If white people were better at domesticating animals, could they also be better at managing people? Maybe they’re better leaders. Maybe they’re just smarter.)

I would ask anyone who considers race to be a valid genetic category to read the overwhelming criticism directed at “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History.” I write this letter not out of condescension, but concern for what I hope is simply unclear writing. I am open to criticism and further discussion.

Jake Gogats ’18

According to a recent Herald article (“Residents react to dorm renova-tions,” Oct. 2), students living on Wriston Quadrangle were pleasantly surprised to happen upon the results of summer renovations in their respective dormitories. Though we certainly commend the Office of Residential Life’s attention to these dorms, we urge a serious commitment to the renovation of some of our most neglected dorms, such as Graduate Center and Perkins Hall. While this same article indicated that ResLife is aware of this need, we would like to see comprehensive plans to seriously renovate these two dorms.

Obviously, these buildings require far more extensive and costly renovations than dorms on Wriston. Nevertheless, students living in these dorms complain of issues that do not befit the $7,972 bill they are charged every year for their occupation. This price rivals, and often surpasses, the price demanded by off-campus housing options that offer much better amenities.

Students do not expect to pay nearly $800 a month for a room with chipped furniture, bathrooms with leaky fixtures and kitchens with sub-par appliances. Unfortunately, students living in dorms that have gone unattended by ResLife face this reality. Especially for upperclassmen whose financial aid packages might leave them feeling compelled to stay on campus, this is deeply regrettable.

Moreover, Brown’s housing pales in comparison to that of its peers in the Ivy League, some of whom boast residential college systems that offer hotel-like living situations. It is unclear why, amidst its commitment to strengthening the Brown experience for all students, the administration has yet to commit to substantial renovations of dorms that simply do not reflect the quality expected at an institution such as Brown. While we do not expect every dorm to resemble Andrews Hall — endearingly called “Hotel Andrews” by some students — we expect dorms of a higher quality than Grad Center and Perkins.

In many ways, these dorms reflect the growth of the University. For instance, Grad Center was initially built in 1968 to house, as its name suggests, graduate students. This complex at one point even featured a cafeteria, seminar rooms and a lounge in Graduate Center Tower E. This is no longer the case, as the complex has become a home to un-dergraduates, who enter Tower E only for access to the Bears’ Lair and administrative offices (including, perhaps ironically, ResLife). In other words, as the University has grown and changed, structures once built to accommodate a much smaller university are now experiencing the strain of an evolving community.

While we appreciate ResLife’s stated promises to attend to these dorms, we believe it is time to communicate its plans of action. As the University grows, it must attend to quality in addition to quantity. It is our hope that the high cost of renovating dorms such as Grad Center and Perkins is seen as an investment in the students who spend months residing, studying and learning in them, rather than another burden to alleviate.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Manuel Contreras ’16 and Meghan Holloway ’16, and its members, Emma Axelrod ’18, Noah Fitzgerel ’17 and Aranshi Kumar ’17. Send comments to [email protected].

Keep renovating, ResLife

ANGELIA WANG

E D I T O R I A L

L E T T E R T O T H E E D I T O R

“When we advocate for the power of parent-talk, we

must also advocate for the parents.”— Dana Suskind, professor of surgery at University of Chicago

See panel on page 1

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COMMENTARYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDPAGE 6 • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

Editors-in-ChiefMichael DubinMaxine Joselow

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In the wake of Thursday’s mass shooting tragedy at Umpqua Com-munity College in Roseburg, Ore., President Obama gave a statement to the press. As he expressed sym-pathies to the community and the lives affected, he offered a strong disdain for the repetitive nature of mass shootings in the United States. Referring to the “routine” nature of such evil acts, he prescribed a deep-er look at the politics and lack of in-sight on the state of gun laws in the United States.

The problem here is the delega-tion of blame. America needs to ex-amine the individuals committing these evil acts, not simply the tools they employ.

Obama referred to this tragedy as necessary to politicize, as it is direct-ly linked to our body politic. That is, it lightly touches every single one of us — even across our very campus, where we are fortunate to have not been subject to such a heinous act. But I think before we politicize any-thing, the facts must be thoroughly analyzed.

As calls of stricter gun laws and restrictions on access surfaced across the media landscape over the

weekend, so did the profile of the as-sailant: 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer. Described as “introverted,” “reclusive” and the subject of pecu-liar behavior around his home and online, Mercer was characterized in a thematically similar way to the in-dividuals behind mass shootings in the not-so-distant past.

Mercer led a private life, protect-ed by a guarding mother who aided his gun-purchasing habits, Time re-ported. Where have we heard this before? This is eerily familiar to the family dynamic between the gun-man behind the Sandy Hook trag-edy, Adam Lanza, and his mother Nancy, whom many have blamed for allowing her son access to the Bush-master AR-15 rifle that he used in the massacre.

What these parents — and per-haps others closely linked to the gunmen — lacked was the ability to identify the larger state of their chil-dren’s mental health. While this nu-ance receives attention in the wake of a tragedy, it too often seems to be the less immediately gratifying polit-

ical target to strike. Despite our so-ciety’s rush to demonize an icon of tragedy — the weapon — we contin-uously ignore the critical factor: the mental state of the individual hold-ing the weapon.

In August, Arlene Holmes, the mother of the gunman behind the tragedy in Aurora, Colo., expressed

grief but also the need to press for greater work in mental health causes. “I have heard people say mass shooting cannot be prevented,” Holmes said in court. “I do not wish to succumb to this defeatist attitude. I promise everyone we will continue to educate people.”

Mental health is a part of Amer-ican society that is considerably overlooked in terms of ensuring ad-equate access, knowledge and fund-ing. In late August, fashion designer Kenneth Cole generated media at-tention to the state of mental health in America with a provocative bill-board over New York City’s busy West Side Highway. It read: “Over 40 million Americans suffer from men-tal illness. Some can access care …

All can access guns.” The message was followed by two hashtags: #Gun-Reform and #AreYouPuttingUsOn?

The American Psychological As-sociation criticized Cole’s billboard as misleading, incorrectly correlat-ing mental illness with gun violence and potentially giving mental health a negative stigma. But the APA did

acknowledge that the billboard brings attention to the fact that ap-proximately 38 percent of adults in the United States diagnosed with a mental health condition are able to receive adequate care. While Cole’s billboard remained true to the fash-ion icon’s habit of making flamboy-ant political statements, it never-theless successfully highlighted the chronic need for greater access and awareness of mental health treat-ment options.

The questions have to be asked: If Laurel Harper or Nancy Lanza had been more aware of the signs of mental health conditions, would they have been able to sooner rec-ognize the dangerous peculiarities of their sons? If America defeated

the stigma around mental health and galvanized for expanded ac-cess to services, would a tragedy be avoided? Would even one more life be saved?

Guns will not disappear from our American culture anytime soon. As politicians, advocacy groups and emotional individuals rally against guns in the days and months to come, their collective efforts will be hollow at best. Why? No, I am not agreeing with common pro-gun talking points that more guns will save us, because they will not. I am simply understanding the true force behind the gun: the individual.

This is a time when our society must look at the individual and un-derstand what brought him or her to such an evil act. Shame on Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, as he refuses to even mention the name of the Roseburg gunman in his inter-actions with the press. Not discuss-ing the gunman at this juncture is denying the press, and our society, the ability to examine the key piece of evidence: the person that woke up on Thursday and decided to commit a massacre.

Ian Kenyon GS is a public af-fairs candidate with the Watson Institute for International and

Public Affairs. He can be reached at

[email protected].

Roseburg highlights need to reexamine importance of mental health

Despite our society’s rush to demonize an icon of tragedy — the weapon — we continuously ignore the critical factor: the mental state of the

individual holding the weapon.

COMMENTARYTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 • PAGE 7

IAN KENYONopinions columnist

METROTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

By RACHEL SACHSCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Over 100,000 people came to Provi-dence last weekend for the 10th annual “Flames of Hope: A Celebration of Life” event held by the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. The downtown gathering featured a variety of programs and speakers Sat-urday and races Sunday.

In past years, the weekend focused exclusively on honoring breast cancer patients and survivors, but this year included patients and survivors of all cancers, as well as to their families and friends. Maureen DiPiero, the commu-nity outreach coordinator and health educator for the foundation, said that because the needs of all cancer patients are similar to those of breast cancer patients, they could all benefit from the free education and support.

More than 30 vendors set up tables in the ballroom of the Renaissance Providence Hotel Saturday morning. Each vendor provided services and in-formation related to healthy living and cancer care, including acupuncture therapy and nipple and areola tattoo-ing. Representatives from Neighbor-hood Health Plan of Rhode Island also attended the event to answer questions about resources. Next door at the Vet-erans Memorial, attendees could visit the “survivors lounge,” nutrition lab, general relaxation area and bookstore to explore additional services.

Three nationally acclaimed writ-ers spoke at the celebration: Barbara Musser, author of “Sexy After Cancer,”

Michael Samuelson, author of “Be-yond Cancer Survival: Living a Life of Thrival” and Geralyn Lucas, au-thor of “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.”

Members of the University of Rhode Island women’s basketball team volunteered for the second year in a row. Brianna Thomas, a URI se-nior, helped direct people toward the events on each floor of the Renaissance Providence Hotel. “It’s cool to see so many people helping for an event like this, and it’s cool to be a part of it as well,” she said.

At 3 p.m. the “Celebration Village” in Station Park offered live music, food and dancing. The division between the education component and the cel-ebration marked a change from past years, Dipiero said, adding that when information was provided under one tent in the park directly adjacent to the music and food, “people could get sidetracked from getting needed information.”

The separation was essential to event volunteer Yvonne Bell, who worked Saturday morning alongside her sister, Anna Rodrigues. A two-time breast cancer survivor from Smithfield, R.I., Bell said her greatest hope for the weekend was that visitors would walk away with an understanding of the im-portance of getting tested regularly for breast cancer or other types of cancer.

“Don’t wait,” she said. “Don’t hesi-tate. Don’t say it will go away.”

Members of The State Ballet of Rhode Island took to the steps of the State House Saturday evening to

commence the Illumination of Life program, which honors “breast cancer survivors, families who take care of them and memorializes some that have been lost to breast cancer in the past,” Dipiero said. After the ballet perfor-mance, 150 people carrying torches processed from the State House, lit up in pink, to the river basin, where they proceeded to light the fires for Satur-day’s WaterFire, which was sponsored by the foundation.

Carrying a torch required a mini-mum contribution of $500 to help

fund the foundation’s Hope Bus, an RV that travels around Rhode Island to provide cancer-related education and support to students, adults and families.

“For some it’s healing, for some it might be sadness and an intense feeling of loss and for others it’s a celebration — I made it through, I’m here, I’m alive,” Dipiero said of the Illumination of Life.

Money raised by torch bearers was only one component of the fundrais-ing for the weekend. The Flames of

Hope Run/Walk series, which took place on Sunday, is the foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year. They hoped to collect $300,000 through registration fees and additional spon-sorship of each participant in one of three different races. As of press time, $200,746 had been raised toward that goal, according to the group’s website.

With just eight staff members working at the Gloria Gemma founda-tion, the help of many volunteers was crucial to the success of the weekend, Dipiero said.

Flames of Hope draws thousands to honor cancer survivors, patientsWeekend events designed to raise awareness, funds for developing innovative cancer treatments

JULIANNA LEE MARINO / HERALD

The State House was decked out in pink Saturday for Providence’s “Flames of Hope: A Celebration of Life,” which featured speeches by three nationally acclaimed writers, live music, food and dancing.

A story previously printed on this page contained numerous factual errors that came to light after its publication. The gravity of these errors is such that the story is unfit for publication, and the story has thus been retracted. The Herald regrets the errors.

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