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News.....1-3Sports....4-5 Editorial.....6Opinions....7Today.........8

Soccer Still kickingM. soccer kept its playoff hopes alive with a win over Yale

Sports, 5Voting for changeUCS will vote on adopting a majority system for passing resolutions next week

News, 3JUSt SloW DoWnMike Johnson ’11 has a word of advice for bikers and pedestrians

Opinions, 7

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deDaily Heraldthe Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 105 | Thursday, November 12, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

nonprofit founder talks up innovationBy emily roSen

Staff Writer

Diana Wells ’88, president of the global social entrepreneurship or-ganization Ashoka, spoke about the future of business-based ventures for achieving social change before a small crowd in Barus and Holley Wednesday night. Wells outlined Ashoka’s mission and discussed the group’s future in the rapidly growing movement.

The event was sponsored by Brown’s Social Innovation Initia-tive.

Founded approximately 30 years ago by Bill Drayton — the “father of

social entrepreneurship,” according to Wells — Ashoka is a worldwide organization that supports efforts to achieve social change.

“Ashoka came out of the idea that folks working for the social good are as entrepreneurial as their counter-parts in business,” Wells said.

About 2,500 innovators selected as Ashoka fellows have worked to effect change on issues including education, health care and the en-vironment in 70 countries.

“The focus is on changing a sys-tem,” Wells said. “We are looking for ideas that will have a major social impact.”

Ashoka looks for innovators

with ideas that can be spread and reproduced elsewhere, she said. In contrast to the business world, Ashoka does not promote owner-ship of ideas, Wells said. Rather, the merit of an innovator’s idea is often measured in terms of its ability to be replicated.

Wells said that when she joined Ashoka, the goal of the organization was to “build a profession of social entrepreneurship,” but now it has ex-panded significantly as many people make careers out of it. The field is receiving more publicity and gaining momentum, and President Obama

Simmons, reed honor Veterans Day on campusBy moniqUe Vernon

Staff Writer

Strains of bagpipe music lingered in the air as students, faculty and Providence community members gathered on the Main Green Wednesday to honor the soldiers who have served in armed duty. But unlike previous Veterans Day ceremonies at Brown, for the first time in 20 years a University president and a political official participated in the annual commemoration.

President Ruth Simmons intro-duced Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, a veteran himself, who spoke about the need to remember soldiers past and present.

The annual ceremony, sponsored by the Office of Campus Life, the Of-fice of the Dean of the College and the Brown University Student Veterans Society , began at 12:30 p.m., with a procession from the flagpole of the Main Green to Soldiers Arch on Lin-coln Field.

Guided by miniature American flags lining the walk, patrons followed the uniformed men and women of the Patriot Battalion Honor Guard of Provi-dence College to the green in front of

Soldiers Arch. The official ceremony began with

a prayer by Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson.

Chaney Harrison ’11, president of the Student Veterans Society and a former Army paratrooper, then gave the opening speech. He described Brown’s extensive history with the armed forces beginning with its first class in 1764.

The introduction was followed by a reading of letters written by soldiers in World War I who had attended Brown. Four student veterans, Christopher Baker ’09 GS, Martin Bell ’11, John Hermansen ’11 and David Salsone ’13, read the soldiers’ letters to the other attendees.

One soldier’s letter from 1918 de-scribed his encounter with other Brown students during the war. “Old Brown is not asleep,” the soldier wrote.

Simmons then made her first ap-pearance at the Veteran’s Day ceremo-ny in her time as University president. She said the attendees were gathered “to pay tribute to the courageous men and women who served our nation.”

tricks and non-fiction truths with writer Shenk ’88By linDor qUnaJ

Contributing Writer

Data smog: the impenetrable mass of information available online.

Added to the Oxford English Dic-tionary in 2004, the term was coined by writer David Shenk ’88 — the second of this year’s four speakers in the Great Brown Nonfiction Writers Lecture Series. Shenk, who spoke to a mostly full Smith-Buonanno 106 Wednesday night, is an award-winning author of five non-fiction “novels.”

The talk, titled “Making the

Truth Truthful: Turning Science into Story Telling,” focused on three challenges Shenk faced during his career as a best-selling science writ-er and how he learned to overcome those difficulties.

Shenk, a former editor of The Herald’s weekly magazine Good Clean Fun, began by describing his time at Brown, when he first came in contact “with very curious, intellec-tual minds” and made connections that would shape his path as a writer. Among them was the late Professor of English Roger Henkle, a mentor who made him realize how “incred-

ibly lazy” he was as a writer.Shenk said attracting audiences

who “don’t want to read books about science” is a challenge. With books ranging in topic from chess to the molecular changes in the brain due to Alzheimer’s, Shenk acknowledged that the vast majority of the general population would not pick up a sci-ence book.

“I hope to one day write about something inherently exciting — like naked people, astronauts or even naked astronauts,” Shenk said. Meanwhile, Shenk’s solution is to “trick” people into reading his

books.Though aware that some people

would argue it’s necessary for a writer to demand more of a reader, Shenk said that his “first job as a science writer is to come up with devices to get people to continue reading ...And that comes down to telling stories.”

Once he’s able to maintain the reader’s attention, Shenk said the next problem he confronts is that “most good science is impossibly complex.” After doing his own exten-

City schoolsre-evaluatefacilitiesBy aniSh gonchigar

Staff Writer

Providence Public Schools recently finished the first round of community meetings to update their Facilities Master Plan, drawing on comments from parents and community mem-bers to craft a set of recommenda-tions to improve the school system’s facilities.

According to Chief Operating Offi-cer Carleton Jones, the school system hired the Virginia-based consulting and architectural firm Fanning Howey to update a full facility condition as-sessment last done in 2006. Fanning Howey looked at building conditions and utilization, among other factors, Jones said.

In addition, Fanning Howey fa-cilitated a series of open community meetings “to assess where the schools are in terms of meeting the desires of the community,” Jones said.

After a first round of community meetings in June, a second round consisted of 12 meetings in October. The third round, which Jones said he expects to begin in late November, will have six meetings. The previous meetings averaged 25 to 30 attendees, Jones said.

Fanning Howey is expected to present recommendations to the school board by late December or early January, he said.

Members of Brown’s Urban Edu-cation Policy program and the service program City Year also attended to provide community support. Jones said meetings would be broken up into

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / HeraldStudents, faculty and local residents gathered on the Main Green to honor current and former soldiers on Veterans Day. continued on page 2

Zung Nguyen Vu / HeraldDiana Wells ’88, president of the global social entrepreneurship organiza-tion Ashoka, talked about her work and experiences Wednesday.

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sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, PresidentMichael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, TreasurerAlexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members 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 herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

THURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009THE bROWN DAILY HERALDPAGE 2

CampuS newS “We need pipsqueak writers like me.”— David Shenk ’88, Great brown Nonfiction Writers Lecture Series speaker

Carcieri vetoes domestic partner billBy george miller

Metro editor

Following last week’s special session at the General Assembly, Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 issued a number of vetoes this week, canceling bills that would have allowed domestic partners to plan each other’s funerals and pro-vide for special elections to fill Senate vacancies.

The bill to allow domestic partners to claim the bodies of their loved ones required that the partners be in an “exclusive, intimate and committed relationship,” evidenced by require-ments such as living together and financial interdependence.

Carcieri also vetoed bills that would have mandated special elections to fill Senate vacancies and stripped the governor of his ability to appoint an in-terim senator. Under current law, the governor’s appointee serves until the next general election or the following general election if the vacancy occurs within 70 days of Election Day.

Carcieri wrote in a veto message that special elections close to a gen-eral election would cost the state money and result in low turnout and confusion. The state would also be without representation in the Senate during the wait for a special election, he wrote, noting that Massachusetts recently changed its law to allow its

governor to appoint an interim re-placement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

A bill to create “compassion cen-ters” to dispense medical marijuana also met with the governor’s veto. While medical marijuana is legal in Rhode Island, patients currently need to grow their own or buy their medicine on the street. Carcieri had originally vetoed the bill legalizing medical marijuana but was overridden by the state legislature.

“The General Assembly should be passing stronger drug laws, not

passing laws that condone the growth, manufacture and sale of a drug that is deemed illegal by the federal govern-ment,” Carcieri wrote in an explana-tion of his veto.

Writing that “well-intentioned leg-islation (often) has unintended conse-quences,” Carcieri also took his veto pen to a bill requiring lenders to notify borrowers at least 75 days before a foreclosure.

The bill “represents a piecemeal approach to a complicated problem and makes Rhode Island a less attrac-tive lending environment,” he wrote in his veto message.

Carcieri also vetoed a bill — as he did in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — which would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote. The gov-ernor wrote in his veto message that people under 18 can already register to vote if they will be old enough by the next election, and he called add-ing thousands of names of ineligible voters to voter rolls “counter-intuitive and counter-productive.”

While not she did not give a formal speech herself, Simmons introduced Reed, who has a long history with the military. He served as an Army Ranger, paratrooper, Infantry Platoon Leader, Company Commander and Battalion Staff Officer.

Reed said it was important to honor the veterans for their service to their country. Veterans Day is a day to “to recollect the service of thousands, to recall and remember the contributions of many” and “to recall and thank their families,” he said.

Cooper-Nelson closed the ceremo-ny with another prayer.

“We wish to convey with our words a voice of honor,” she said. “May we in setting these memorials, urge forward a peaceful world.”

After the prayer, the ceremony closed with the presentation of rem-nants of the reconstructed Soldiers’ Arch to Simmons and Reed, who then proceeded to lay wreaths on the war memorial as the bagpipes played “Amazing Grace.”

Those who attended the service said the University’s observance of the holiday was tasteful.

“I thought that it was necessary and wonderful that Brown honored the veterans,” said Clay Wertheimer ’10, the president of the Undergraduate Council of Students.

Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, said the ceremony “was very moving and nicely done.”

Klawunn said the reading of the letters by student veterans “made it very meaningful and really shows the commitment of students.”

“I’m thankful that we have a vet-eran’s society,” Salsone said. “It’s nice to be able to talk about the history that Brown shares with the military.”

“It’s encouraging to see that the University respects our presence here,” he added. It is “good to see support from the outside.”

Ceremony honors vets on Green

smaller groups during the second half, during which members of both programs would facilitate discussion and ask prepared questions.

Miriam Joelson ’11, a member of the Urban Education Policy program and one of the student facilitators, got involved through a departmental e-mail sent by Kenneth Wong, de-partment of education chair. Joelson said she was disappointed by the relatively low turnout at the meet-ings, but that those who did attend addressed a number of issues.

“The criticisms raised seemed helpful to the planning process,” Joelson wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “They addressed the dif-ficulty of communication brought

forth by the language barrier (many parents speak only Spanish), as well as the lack of adequate arts, science and gym facilities. They also demon-strated concern for the safety of their children, as one school building does not open before morning classes start, leaving children standing out-side for extended periods of time.”

William Buchanan GS, who acted as a note-taker and facilitator at sev-eral meetings, was more critical of the meetings’ methodology.

Buchanan criticized the meeting organizers for not asking participants negative questions and not allowing for negative answers to survey ques-tions. He also expressed concern that an architectural firm was hired to conduct social science research at the meetings.

Schools assess facilities plancontinued from page 1

sive research to understand com-plicated concepts, he often finds it necessary to construct metaphors to make the ideas more accessible to a general audience. But meta-phors can be misleading, and Shenk said picking an appropriate one is essential to correctly communicat-ing complex ideas.

Despite the inaccessibility of some scientific work, Shenk said many scientists believe they un-derstand the work they are doing best and are unreceptive to “out-siders” coming in to report on their findings. But he said it was incredibly valuable for people not directly involved in a certain field

to look at the questions experts are studying.

“There is an advantage to not being steeped in detail,” he said. “There are things you can see at 10,000 feet that you certainly couldn’t see when you’re on the ground.”

Although he said it has noth-ing to do with being smart or not, scientists “can have the best pos-sible grasp of data and still not un-derstand what it means (because) it’s hard to stand so far back when you’re so close to it.”

And it is precisely that fact which makes the role of a nonfiction writer important. Or, in Shenk’s words, “that’s why we need pipsqueak writ-ers like me.”

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Shenk ’88 weaves life story

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CampuS newSTHURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009 THE bROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 3

“If the U.S. Senate can pass something with a simple majority vote, then UCS should also be able to.” — ben Farber ’11, UCS Campus Life Chair

uCS proposal calls for change to voting policy

By SUzannah WeiSS

Senior Staf f Writer

A revision before the Under-graduate Council of Students that would allow a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds majority, to pass resolutions and approve student group categorizations will go to a general body vote next week.

UCS Campus Life Chair Ben Farber ’12, who proposed the change at Wednesday’s meeting, said the two-thirds policy “makes no sense,” especially considering that all other Ivy League student governments use the simple ma-jority to pass resolutions.

The code change would re-serve the two-thirds voting pro-cedure for “actions that are less customary,” such as amending the UCS Constitution or re-moving a member, Farber said, adding that other schools keep the two-thirds vote for similar cases.

Though Farber said he is “hopeful that it will pass,” the proposal faced some dissent at the meeting.

UCS Vice President Diane Mokoro ’11 said “resolutions are the most important things that we have.”

“They come around when something is super-duper im-portant, and something that’s super-duper important shouldn’t be passed by a five-and-three vote,” Mokoro added.

“It might be helpful in terms of ef ficiency, but it also might diminish the importance of when we pass something,” said UCS Student Activities Chair Brady Wyrtzen ’11.

Another concern for members was whether UCS’s open mem-bership policy made the voting body less qualified to represent the undergraduate population than other schools’ student governments. Farber said he is investigating other Ivy League student governments to see how

they select members. Last year, when Farber first

brought up the proposal, it was rejected by “a very close vote,” he said, adding, “it’s something that I feel passionately about.”

Approving resolutions and student group categorizations by a simple majority “will make us a more legitimate representa-tion of the student body in that it will enable us in controversial situations to take a stand and to make a statement,” he said.

“If the U.S. Senate can pass something with a simple majority vote, then UCS should also be able to,” Farber added.

During the meeting, the Un-dergraduate Finance Board also presented a revision updating the Appeals Board positions and pro-cedures, which was approved.

“We were just going through the code and realized that this in-formation was really out of date,” said UFB-UCS Liaison Salsabil Ahmed ’11.

The Appeals Board — con-sisting of representatives from various student groups — is a review committee to which stu-dents dissatisfied with UFB de-cisions can turn. The Appeals Board hasn’t been active for about two years, so UFB had to replace seats previously reserved for members of groups that are now defunct in order to “have a full-functioning appeals board,” said Wyrtzen, who is also a UFB representative.

The seats that had been oc-cupied by the former Student Activities Board and Student Union will go to members of the University Resources Committee and the Brown University Activi-ties Council.

UFB Chair Jose Vasconez ’10, who explained the resolution to UCS, told The Herald that now “the appeals process is going to actually serve the interests of the student body.”

In addition, the amendment allows students not involved in Appeals Board decisions to sit in on trials.

“We just didn’t see any point in closing them off,” Vasconez said. “It’s not like anything we do is secret.”

has promised to start a national so-cial entrepreneurship agency.

Charlie Harding ’09.5, a member of the executive board of the Brown Social Innovation Initiative, medi-ated the conversation with Wells. He asked questions about social entrepreneurship and the actions Ashoka is taking to continue and expand it.

Wells emphasized Ashoka’s youth venture, which provides funding and mentoring for children between the ages of about 12 to 15 who have

ideas they want to implement at their school or in their community. Ashoka wants to “make sure more young people have access to be able to effect change,” Wells said. She also noted that Ashoka is working with students on college campuses to encourage social entrepreneur-ship.

Wells is not the only Brown alum involved in Ashoka, and she said she thinks the selection process for Ashoka fellows is very similar to the Brown admissions process.

Just as Brown looks for free-thinking, socially conscious students,

Ashoka looks for innovators “whose ideas are born out of cross-disciplin-ary intersections,” Wells said.

Harding said social entrepreneur-ship awareness on campus is largely attributable to a Group Independent Study Project he participated in that aimed to promote and increase awareness about the subject.

“We wanted to raise the profile of social entrepreneurship on cam-pus by bringing in an expert,” said event coordinator Dana Teppert ’10, a member of the Social Innovation Initiative executive board and a Her-ald staff member.

alum promotes change through businesscontinued from page 1

Council to vote on revision allowing a simple majority to pass resolutions

SportsthursdayTHURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009 | Page 4

The brown Daily Herald

Ivies struggle in ECACs opening weekendBy Dan alexanDer

Senior Staff Writer

When the men’s hockey team took the ice for its first league game of the season Friday, the Bears faced an opponent with far more game experi-ence this season.

In what was the Bears’ second game of the year, they took on Union, which had been playing for over a month. The teams tied, 3-3. The next night, Brown faced Rensselaer, which had already played nine games. Brown lost, 3-1.

Tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ’10 said the Ivy League’s rule that prevents Ivy teams in the ECAC from playing until three weeks after the rest of the league gives the non-Ivies a slight edge in the opening weekend.

“There’s definitely a little bit of an advantage there,” he said. “They might have on us is just maybe some better chemistry with certain lines, or their special teams might be a little sharper.”

Last weekend, the Ivy League teams went just 3-7-2 while the non-Ivies were 7-3-2. However, the top five teams in the ECAC Preaseason Coaches’ Poll were all Ivy League clubs.

RPI Head Coach Seth Appert also said the Ivy League teams may be at a disadvantage in the opening weekend.

“Certainly, from a little bit of a game experience perspective, I think that gives us an advantage,” Appert said.

But Volpatti said Brown wasn’t using it as an excuse.

“Overall, I don’t think it’s a huge, huge deal,” he said. “I think it’s an excuse that some teams make.”

Appert added that the game ex-perience advantage is balanced out because the Ivy teams come into the weekend with lots of early-season energy and very few injuries.

The non-Ivies opened their league schedules last weekend having played, on average, 7.2 games already. The Ivy League teams had played, on average, only 2.5 games.

History suggests that the trend has lasted for several seasons. In the past five years, Ivy League schools have gone 20-31-9 on opening week-end, while the rest of the ECAC’s teams have gone 28-17-15.

Brown 3, Union 3 (ot)Brown’s assistant captain Jeremy

Russell ’11 scored just 32 seconds into the Bears’ (0-2-1, 0-1-1 ECAC Hockey) league opener at Union (3-3-3, 0-0-2). Brown took a 3-1 lead less than three minutes into the second period, and it looked like the Bears might run away with the game. But Union had other plans.

“We had a lot of resiliency last

night,” said Union Head Coach Nate Leaman. “Our guys stuck to our game plan very well and showed a lot of mental toughness in coming back.”

Union had come back to make it a 3-2 game with less than seven minutes left, when defenseman Mike Schreiber one-timed a shot through traffic. The puck deflected off of the near post and into the back of the net, tying the score 3-3.

“The lane closed after I shot it, so I couldn’t tell if it went in,” Shreiber said. “But I saw the red light go on.”

The goal was Schreiber’s sec-ond of the night. His first narrowed Brown’s lead to 3-2 just 4:21 into the second period.

After Russell’s goal to open the game, the Bears scored their next two goals while shorthanded.

With Union on a power play less than a minute into the second period, Volpatti intercepted a pass in the neu-tral zone, charged in on Union goalie Corey Milan alone and netted his first goal of the regular season for a 2-0 Bears lead.

Just 3:23 later, Harry Zolnierczyk ’11 netted a short-handed goal.

“Both of those (short-handed goals) were breakdowns for us,” Leaman said. “Both of those were real poor turnovers in vulnerable ar-

Field hockey season ends with no Ivy winsBy anDreW Braca

SportS editor

The field hockey team lost its final game of the season last Saturday, when it fell 6-2 in an away match against Yale.

Leslie Springmeyer ’12 and Abi-gail Taft ’12 scored for Bruno, which finished the season with a 5-12 re-cord but failed to win an Ivy League game.

Springmeyer said that the loss was a tough way to end the season, but the Bears regained some pride by scoring the last two goals of the game.

“I was pretty proud of us to keep fighting throughout the whole game,” she said.

Brown had ended the previous two seasons with victories over Yale. In 2007, the Bears pulled out a stunning 3-0 victory in a torrential rainstorm for their only win of the season. Last year, Springmeyer scored three goals in a 4-1 triumph that gave Bruno its lone Ivy League win.

But those Bulldog teams both went 2-5 in Ivy play. This year’s squad, which finished 12-5 overall and 6-1 against fellow Ivies, was a different animal.

Yale got on the board at 12:31 and cruised into halftime with a 2-0 lead and a 16-3 advantage in shots. After 25 minutes of second half action, the Bulldogs held a 6-0 lead.

“We had a good lead-up to the game — we were all pumped for it, but I don’t really know” what hap-pened, Springmeyer said. Despite “a couple of defensive breakdowns, our attack couldn’t really get gener-ated and the ball wasn’t bouncing our way,” she said.

Springmeyer put the Bears on the board with 9:01 left in the game. Fol-lowing a penalty corner, she took a pass from Katie Hyland ’11.

“My first shot hit the crossbar, which kind of made me mad,” Spring-meyer said. “So I just really concen-trated on my second shot and was able to put it away. I think that gave our attack a little bit of motivation that it needed. And then Abigail had a great goal shortly after.”

Ninety-nine seconds later, Taft beat Yale goalie Charlotte Goins and put the ball in the back of the cage to cut the deficit to 6-2.

“It definitely felt great,” Spring-meyer said. “It says something about our team — in the final minutes of the game we were able to pull off those two goals. It kind of showed we weren’t going to roll over and let them score on us that much and not fight back.”

The Bears improved to take six second-half shots. Springmeyer led Brown with three shots, while Hyland and Whitney Knowlton ’10 each took two. Caroline Washburn ’12 tallied 10 saves.

Saturday marked the end of the road for the team’s five seniors, Knowlton, Madison Miketa ’10, and tri-captains Jackie Connard ’10, Nora Malgieri ’10 and Michaela Seigo ’10. The rest of the team will return and look to improve.

“I definitely think we’re going to work hard in the offseason,” Spring-meyer said. “I think our performance in the past two seasons is going to motivate our current players. We’ll have new people coming in, and hopefully keep the same dynamic that we had this year of playing for each other, and just keep moving up.”

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By katie WooD

aSSiStant SportS editor

The men’s soccer team (9-2-5, 4-2-0 Ivy) needed a win at Yale (5-8-3, 2-4-0) on Saturday to keep its Ivy League

title and postseason hopes alive. Down a goal

in the opening five minutes, Brown had to claw its way back into the game with a goal by T.J. Popolizio ’12 — the first goal of his career — be-fore Thomas McNamera ’13 scored the game winner in the 81st minute, keeping the Bears in the hunt with a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs.

Coming off a loss to Penn last weekend, the Bears came out with a renewed sense of energy and enthusi-asm, said co-captain David Walls ’11. Yale’s Scott Armbrust tried to deflate the Bears as they surrendered a goal at the 4:12 mark on several miscues by the entire defensive unit. Arm-brust took the ball on an awkward bounce off Dylan Remick’s ’13 chest and sent the ball past goalkeeper Paul Grandstrand ’11 from six yards out. But the Bears kept fighting for better scoring opportunities.

“It was a good game that we needed to have,” Popolizio said. “It was a different feel than the game against Penn, when we could never get started on offense. Once we went down a goal, the team was unfazed. We had the feeling that we had at the beginning of the year that we could come back and win.”

Taylor Gorman ’12 and Walls began a pivotal scoring drive in the 22nd minute when Walls placed a ball right to Popolizio, who nailed a diving header into the goal, tying the game at 1-1.

Popolizio entered the game with only a few minutes under his belt leading up to the first start of his collegiate career, but his teammates knew he had the ability to score and, when called upon, could give the team valuable minutes in crucial game situations.

“Every time he plays, you’re go-ing to get 100 percent effort,” Walls said. “His attitude is fantastic and he’s a real hard worker. We have to be good from the first to the 26th man. With guys stepping up right and left, it shows how much depth and strength we have as a whole unit.”

Play between the Bears and the Bulldogs remained close, and the game turned into a defensive battle as a mere five shots on goal were recorded between the two clubs throughout the game. The Bears were attacking well but were one step too late in executing some of their chances.

“After the game, we saw the stats and were surprised that we only had three shots on goal,” Grandstrand said. “We’ve been working on get-ting the ball to the top of the box all year and trying to create close-range shots from there, but we were just one step too slow. That hurt us be-cause we couldn’t get off as many quality shots.”

With the score tied in the final 10 minutes of play, the Bears attacked the Bulldogs’ defense for the win.

Brown sent the ball into Yale ter-ritory and Poplizio found himself at the top of the box. He outran his defender and slid into the ball for a touch to McNamera, who sent the ball to the back of the net from eight yards out. McNamera tallied his fourth goal of the season, tied for second on the team, and Popolizio recorded his first college assist on the night.

“We’ve been working real hard in practice — it’s good to see our efforts pay off ,” Popolizio said. “We’ve been a little low the past few weeks and struggled against Penn in our last game. It’s great that we’re hitting our stride heading into the big game this weekend.”

Brown held the lead and claimed its fourth Ivy League win of the sea-son with the 2-1 win over Yale. The Bears are currently tied for second with their next opponent, Dartmouth (10-5-1, 4-2-0), whom they face this upcoming Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Stevenson Field for a battle

that will end in a possible Ivy League title — if Harvard loses to Penn on Saturday — and a probable postsea-son bid for the winner.

“Both teams are realistically playing for the same thing: either a chance of an Ivy title or a postseason berth,” Grandstrand said. “We’re ex-pecting Dartmouth’s best game, and they’re expecting ours. That’s what happens in a playoff atmosphere.”

The game on Sunday marks the last home regular season game for Nick Elenz-Martin ’10, Jarrod Schlenker ’10, T.J. Thompson ’10 and co-captain Thomas Thunell ’10, who have devoted long hours of hard work and led a young squad of 19 underclassmen.

“They’ve brought a huge commit-ment level to the program and have put as much into Brown soccer as anybody,” Walls said. “Each one of the four has played a huge part in the recent history of Brown soccer. We want to make their last regular season home game memorable.”

m. soccer tops Yale in playoff run

THURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009THE bROWN DAILY HERALDPAGE 5

SportSthurSDaY “We’re expecting Dartmouth’s best game, and they’re expecting ours.” — Paul Grandstrand ’11

eas. But you’ve got to credit Brown. … Volpatti’s got a lot of speed, and their penalty killers have a lot of speed.”

rPi 3, Brown 1With 6:09 left in the first period on

Saturday, the Bears took their second penalty of the game. In the next 2:12, they took three more, giving RPI a four-minute 5-on-3 attacker advantage on its home ice.

The Engineers took advantage of the opportunity and netted their first goal of the game.

RPI’s Brandon Pirri received a pass in the low slot and sent a wrist shot inside of the left post and behind goalie Mike Clemente ’12.

“More than anything (the number of early Brown penalties) was probably a product of Brown just playing so hard and probably having maybe a little bit too much energy,” Appert said.

Volpatti said the blame for Brown’s early penalties was split between the officials, RPI and Brown.

“They were diving a little bit, but we’ve still got to be smart,” Volpatti said. “We knew right away that the game was going to be called like that, so we’ve just got to play more disci-

plined.”RPI got another two-attacker ad-

vantage 2:03 into the second period. The Bears killed the 5-on-3, but four seconds after Brown’s Sean McMon-agle ’10 skated out of the penalty box, RPI’s Paul Kerrins scored, extending RPI’s lead to 2-0.

Brown got a 5-on-3 advantage of its own just less than five minutes into the middle frame. One second before the two-attacker advantage would have ended, tri-captain Devin Timberlake ’10 netted the Bears’ first power play goal of the season, bringing Brown back to within one goal.

But 2-1 was as close as the Bears would get.

Russell almost tied the game late in the final frame with a one-timer, but RPI goalie Allen York made the save. Bobby Farnham ’12 put one off of the post seconds later.

The game remained 2-1 until RPI’s Chase Polacek scored an insurance goal with less than two minutes re-maining.

“We got a big save from Allen York in the third period and a nice goal by Chase Polacek to kind of finish it off,” Appert said. “But certainly it could have went either way up until that point.”

m. hockey falls to rpI engineers after penalties

continued from page 4

Yankees bring new York togetherLike Times Square on New Year’s Eve, millions of people flocked to Lower Manhattan to celebrate the New York Yankees’ 27th World Se-

ries title. A tra-dition in New York since the

Giants won the 1954 World Series, this was the 178th ticker tape parade held on Broadway — the Yankees’ ninth. The last time the Yankees had a parade in honor of their World Se-ries was nine years ago after beating the Mets in the Subway Series.

In tough economic times, the parade seemed to put everyone in a good mood. Metro-North added two extra cars to transport fans to a cold, brisk and clear November day. The scene: a myriad of march-ing bands, double-decker buses and confetti flying all around. From cops on duty and street vendors to kids and businessmen, the atmosphere could not have been any more posi-tive. Even those who decided to re-port to their offices still took part in the festivities, throwing files and documents out of their office build-ings, including at the normally staid Goldman Sachs and even the Bronx Supreme Court.

The parade started in Battery Park at 11 a.m., made its way north along the Canyon of Heroes and end-ed at Chambers Street and Broadway at 1 p.m. In order to get a view, to actually get a decent photo, many fans showed up five to six hours early. For those who did not get a good view, there was a screen set up in City Hall Park. This screen not only projected the whole two hours of the parade, but also the speeches

given in City Hall immediately fol-lowing. Here, the recently re-elected mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg presented the Yankees with the keys to the city.

There were many celebrities and Yankee greats present at the parade: Kate Hudson cheering on her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez’s team; Jay-Z singing “Empire State of Mind” on the Yankees float and Spike Lee taking pictures with his panoramic camera, disguising himself in the midst of ordinary cameramen. Many Yankee heroes were also in atten-dance, including Yogi Berra (a 10-time World Series winner) and Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson.

Signs depicted Phillies pitcher Pe-dro Martinez’s head superimposed on a baby’s body or pled with various Yankees free agents — including Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada and Johnny Damon — to come back next season. Others paid tribute to Bobby Murcer, a beloved former player and broadcaster for the Yan-kees who died from brain cancer in July 2008.

Of course, there were a bunch of “Jeter, will you marry me?” signs, as well — there always are.

For Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte, this was their fifth World Series parade in a little over a decade. It didn’t take long for the others, such as CC Sa-bathia and Mark Teixeira, who were signed just this past offseason, to win a World Series. It was also A-Rod’s first world series title — what a way to redeem himself from the steroid allegations and his non-clutch per-formances in past playoffs.

matty DoyleDoyle’s Rules

BrownYale

21

editorial & LettersPage 6 | THURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009

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

The opened Curriculum

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Count us among the staunchest supporters of Brown’s Open Curriculum. We love that we can reg-ister for whatever we want, while our friends at other universities get stuck in required writing classes. We love that we don’t have to worry about fulfilling complicated graduation requirements. We love the idea that, if we so choose, we can go through four years of college without ever taking a math or science course.

That said, we also appreciate the importance of tak-ing classes in a variety of disciplines. At its core, Brown is a liberal arts university, and we are here to broaden our perspectives so that we may emerge out of the Van Winkle Gates as educated members of society. We are here to taste and to dabble, so that we may engage in meaningful conversation with other academics and so that we may apply concepts from other fields to our own work.

So it concerns us that a good chunk of students graduate without fully exploring Brown’s departments. In the self-study report presented to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges as part of the Uni-versity’s re-accreditation process, Brown noted that over 6 percent of students don’t take a single science course during their time at the University. That doesn’t sound so bad. But an additional 11 percent of students abandon the sciences after only one course, meaning that nearly one-fifth of Brown students leave without decent exposure to the sciences.

The numbers are better for the social sciences and humanities. In 2007, only about 2 percent of Brown students graduated with one or fewer courses in the humanities, and only about 8 percent graduated with one or fewer courses in the social sciences.

The University’s current efforts to encourage ex-ploration are lacking, especially when it comes to the sciences. In the humanities and social sciences, Brown helps students navigate course offerings by highlighting “Liberal Learning” courses and “Diversity Perspectives” courses. But the University has no system for encour-aging other students to try out biology, neuroscience, physics or chemistry.

A student’s right to choose is a hallmark of the Brown education, and we would never support course requirements or other mandates that would take away this autonomy. Still, we’d like to see the University be a little more aggressive in encouraging students to branch out.

One way to do that is with incentives. The University could establish senior fellowships and prizes available only to applicants who meet certain course breadth requirements. The University could also organize profes-sor dinners, panels and interdisciplinary lectures for the renaissance men and women who take classes across the University. These initiatives would give students reasons to take courses outside of their departments, while still allowing them to craft their own paths of study.

Brown students should be able to plan their own cur-riculum, and if that means taking zero science courses, so be it. But the University has an obligation to cultivate intelligent graduates who are literate in the sciences as well as in the humanities. There are plenty of ways Brown can do that without closing the door on the Open Curriculum.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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correction

An article in Wednesday’s paper ( “Simmons, campus welcome Achebe,” Nov. 11) referred to John Wideman as the Harmon Family Professor of Africana studies. In fact, he is a professor of Africana studies and English. Barrymore Bogues is the Harmon Family Professor of Africana studies.

THURSDAY, NOVEMbER 12, 2009 | PAGE 7

opinionsThe brown Daily Herald

When we were little, our mommies and daddies (or other analogous figures) all taught us how to cross the street: left, right, then left again. However, it seems that most students on campus forgot the rest of the lesson, which is that if you see a car in your trinary looking procedure, you need to stop walking. As I walk up and down Brown Street in my travels on campus, I see more and more glaring offenses against this simple rule, and it’s a wonder that more Brunonians haven’t been swept off their feet by a passing bumper.

I’ve stood on many a corner and watched as Providence residents grow more and more agitated as they watch student after student dart out in front of their cars, seizing the split-second reaction time it takes for a driver to move his or her foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator. These students then mosey along the crosswalk, oblivious to the fact they are in the middle of a road-way, an infrastructure not devoted to them, but to automobiles. Based on this sample of Brown’s interaction with the community, it’s no wonder they want us to pay extra money to go to school here.

There are some who watch this self-inter-estedness take place and stand on the corner to allow a car or two to pass. Amazingly, the

other students around them usually just jos-tle these considerate sorts as they leap onto the road to cross. After a while, the people who had originally stopped see that the car is now stuck waiting and take the opportu-nity to cross.

Frustrated beyond belief, at the next op-portunity the driver guns his engine and speeds through the crosswalk, garnering glares and scoffs from students in the area who aren’t oblivious to others around them.

But pedestrians aren’t the only culprits

in this seeming amnesia regarding sidewalk protocol: I’m looking at you, bike riders. It is neither safe nor courteous to zoom around people, performing the pedestrian slalom on your way to class, jacket flapping behind you like a superhero’s cape. Unless you actually are a superhero, and are off to prevent Lex Luthor from building the new Swim Center out of Kryptonite, then slow down. I’ve also seen some walking their bikes down Brown Street, talking to friends who are doing the

same. If you both have bikes, you should both ride them and stop clogging the side-walk.

Still more aggravating are the cyclists who come up the wrong way on the sidewalk as they perform their weaving. This results in the inevitable game of chicken, in which the rider comes straight at a pedestrian, dar-ing him to move or get used to tire tracks on his face.

Even the very name of that concrete strip next to the road should be a cue that bikes

are not welcome: it’s a sidewalk, not a “sid-eride” or “sidecycle.” Legally, bicycles are supposed to ride in the street, subject to the same traffic laws as automobiles. They are to remain off the sidewalks, which, accord-ing to state law, are there for pedestrians. So, bike riders, take your wheels and your sla-loming to the streets and pick on someone your own size.

Now I realize that as Brown students, we’re restricted by class schedules, and we

all have appointments to make. But honest-ly, what’s the rush? Nothing negative ever came from a leisurely-yet-strangely-quicker-than-molasses stroll across campus to get to class. One is able to take in the wonders of Providence, from the frantic squirrels jump-ing out of garbage cans to the man peddling delicious, delicious kettle corn outside the bookstore.

Brown gives us 10 minutes to get from one class to the next, and if on my short stubby legs I can make it from the Pembroke seal to Faunce Arch in about five minutes, then there’s no reason that a normal-sized person can’t match my pace.

Be courteous. Don’t jump in front of cars — there are other people living in this city with places to be and their schedules may just take them through the intersection of Brown and Waterman during the unfortu-nate period between ten-of and the hour. If you like to ride your bike, don’t knock over fellow students; it’s simply bad form. We don’t have to be the douchiest people on the sidewalks just because GQ says we are.

So take your time and enjoy the scenery. If what you’re rushing to is an exam or that paper you haven’t started despite it being due tomorrow, then what’s the big hurry anyway?

mike Johnson ’11 thinks it’s okay to jaywalk for kettle corn.

Shameful walking

Over at Alpert Medical School last week, administrators showed their unapologetic disregard for student interests when they sprung a surprise on unsuspecting students in the Program in Liberal and Medical Stud-ies — a decision that we can expect to have precedential repercussions even for us com-mon folk unbound to Providence after the end of senior year.

Last Wednesday, Associate Dean of Medi-cine Julianne Ip sent an e-mail announcing to current PLME undergraduates that Alp-ert was limiting the freedom of qualified students who wanted to “apply out” to other medical schools. Under the new policy, stu-dents who apply out will forfeit their guar-anteed place at the Med School as soon as they choose to file applications. Whether or not they are admitted elsewhere, they will be stripped of the primary privilege afforded to PLME students. Overnight, the administra-tion made it exceedingly unlikely that PLME students will ever again dare to consider leaving Brown for medical school.

When thinking about this effect in the context of the intent of the program, the pol-icy change is understandable. By effectively prohibiting students from applying to oth-er medical schools, the Alpert administra-

tion not only shackles its brightest students to Brown’s medical school, but it removes the only remaining incentive for PLME stu-dents to complete the traditional pre-med curriculum.

The decision encourages these students to pursue the liberal education that PLME enables by freeing them from the stringent requirements of the medical school admis-sions process. No longer do PLME students

have reason to take a second semester of or-ganic chemistry or worry about MCAT prep-aration. They may indulge their non-medical academic interests without concern for the temptation to apply out.

In effect, the policy change can be read as a way to ensure that PLME students aren’t wasting their privilege by taking up spots when they could just as well have been tradi-tional pre-med students. By this argument, a PLME student in a position to apply to other medical schools at the start of senior year probably missed the point of PLME in the first place.

Good educational intentions, though, are not the problem with the administration’s

decision. Instead, the administration marred what would have been a smart policy by de-ciding to implement it retroactively as far back as the current junior class, which will graduate med school in 2015. They changed the academic rules in the middle of the game.

It would have been one thing to change the policy only for future students, who could evaluate the program with the benefit

of full disclosure and the freedom to decide whether or not to enroll. But instead, the administration chose to levy its new policy on the current students who are effectively trapped, powerless to do anything if they de-cide that they don’t like the redefined nature of their academic program.

By changing the rules for current stu-dents, the University fundamentally violated the informal agreement it established with students when it advertised the PLME pro-gram. “It is disrespectful to the students to change the terms under which we matricu-lated,” said one PLME sophomore.

For the current juniors, the first class subject to the new PLME policy, there is

an added economic consequence to the ad-ministration’s decision. Juniors interested in applying out to other medical schools like-ly have already expended their own money on MCAT preparation and have already de-signed their undergraduate academic pro-gram to satisfy pre-med requirements. For students who deem that the benefits of ap-plying out are not worth sacrificing a guar-anteed space at the Med School, the sacri-fices they have made will have been in vain under the administration’s policy. “Their ex-tra work will have gone to waste,” said the sophomore.

The PLME decision sets a dangerous precedent for these administrative bait-and-switches. The University has apparently deemed it acceptable to make retroactive changes to its academic programs and im-pose new conditions upon students who nev-er voluntarily accepted them. Though in this instance the PLME students are the unfor-tunate targets, that newly established prec-edent is the reason the rest of us have cause for concern.

“The fact that they can simply make an executive decision about something like this sets a precedent for them to make other changes to the basic components of PLME,” the same sophomore noted. “It’s scary what else they could do.”

Simon liebling ’12 is from new Jersey. He can be reached at

simon.liebling@gmail.com.

wtF, pLme?

The administration changed the academic rules in the middle of the game.

It is neither safe nor courteous to zoom around people, performing the pedestrian slalom on your

way to class, jacket flapping behind you like a superhero’s cape.

SIMON LIEbLINGopinions coluMnist

bY MIKE JOHNSONopinion coluMnist

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