Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 9 | Monday, February 8, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Gate to remain closed

until further notice
By Alicia Chen
Senior Staff Writer
A “steam leak under the floor in the
servery area” was the cause of the
Gate’s closure, which started Feb. 5
and will continue indefinitely, Senior
Associate Dean of Residential and
Dining Services Richard Bova con-
firmed Friday. Due to this problem,
the Gate does not have any heat and
will be closed until the problem is
fixed, he said.
Bova estimated that the repairs
will take 10 days to complete, but
warned that the repair was “an ex-
tensive project” that could reveal
unforeseen problems. The concrete
floor will have to be ripped out in or-
der to access the steam pipe below,
he added.
If the repairs take longer than
first estimated, Dining Services “will
make adjustments with other facili-
ties,” like extending dining hours,
Bova said. In the meantime, Gate
workers are being redistributed to
other units, he added.
The more than 100 Gate workers
will have priority over openings and
substitution requests at other dining
areas, said Gate Unit Manager Kara
Segal ’10.Though “most workers
have chosen not to work rather than
keep working,” Segal said, many
already work at other Brown dining
facilities. Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
“We appreciate students’ patience President Ruth Simmons greets New York Times columnist Frank Rich, who discussed theater Saturday night
for their beloved Gate as we work as with legendary composer Stephen Sondheim (not pictured).
quickly as possible,” Bova said.

Sondheim and Rich chat on stage

Festival presents original By Kristina Fazzalaro rience was “overwhelming.” timate air of eavesdropping on a

works-in-progress
By Sarah Mancone
Senior Staff Writer
Blood and potato slide down the wall,
a mother cries over her baby and the
father looks triumphantly down at the
vegetable’s fragments.
This scene is the final, climactic
scene from the play “TOT! An Onto-
ARTS & CULTURE
logical Slugfest,” written by Ian Mc-
Donald GS and directed by Christo-
pher Windom GS, MFA students in
the Department of Theatre Arts and
Performance Studies.
The play, performed Sunday in
the McCormack Family Theater at
70 Brown St., is one of eight plays be-
ing shown as part of Brown’s Writing
is Live Festival.
The festival consists of plays written
by eight graduate students — seven
from the playwriting program and one
from the acting program, said Chris
Tyler ’10, the festival’s associate pro-
ducer.
This showcase, which started Feb.
5 and will continue next weekend,
gives graduate students a chance to
“work on whatever they want,” Tyler
said, “and develop what they’re work-
ing on.”
This weekend, the program dis-
played showings of four works-in-prog-
continued on page 3
Staf f Writer
Theater fans trekked through the
cold to a crowded Salomon 101
Saturday evening to hear Stephen
Sondheim discuss his life and cre-
ative process with New York Times
columnist Frank Rich.
The pair has had these conver-
sations for the past several years
at various universities. They met
over thirty years ago when Rich
was still an undergraduate at Har-
vard, after an article he wrote for
the Har vard Crimson on Sond-
heim’s “Follies” during its pre-
Broadway run in Boston caught
the attention of the composer and
lyricist. Sondheim invited Rich out
for drinks and the two had their
first conversation.
Rich told The Herald the expe-
“He gave me encouragement
at a young age,” Rich said. “You
never expect something like that
as a college student.”
Since their first meeting, Rich
has ser ved as the chief drama
critic for the Times and now
writes one of its most popular op-
ed columns, while Sondheim has
continued to write award-winning
musicals such as “Into the Woods”
and “Sweeney Todd.”
Sondheim and Rich were re-
united about ten years ago when
Rich was asked to interview Sond-
heim for the New York Times
Magazine in honor of the artist’s
70th birthday. Since then, the two
have become friends, Rich told
The Herald.
Saturday’s event, hosted by the
Creative Arts Council, had the in-
friend’s conversation. Salomon
101 was transformed into a min-
iature living room, complete with
wingback chairs and a Persian car-
pet spread across the stage.
Clearly comfor table, Sond-
heim casually related stories of
his greatest flops and most amus-
ing memories. But, as Rich was
quick to point out to the audience,
even if many of Sondheim’s works
were not immediately success-
ful, “they have made the classical
repertoire.”
Sondheim told the audience
that he per formed “Sweeney
Todd” for 13 potential producers
but received no financial sup-
port.
“Shock takes a while to recover
continued on page 2

M. hockey ties Dartmouth

after loss to Harvard
By Dan Alexander
Sports Editor
With the men’s hockey team trailing
Dartmouth, 4-2, and less than seven
minutes left in regulation, it looked
like Brown was going to go 0-2 on
the weekend. But the Bears scored
three goals in the next five minutes
SPORTS
before Dartmouth got another goal
with just 28 seconds left, evening the
score at 5-5. The game ended in a tie,
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
making the Bears’ weekend record
Tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ‘10 clashes with a Dartmouth player during Saturday’s game. The Bears went on to tie 0-1-1, after their 5-2 loss to Harvard
Dartmouth, 5-5, in overtime. on Friday.
inside
Harvard 5, Brown 2
Blood spilled onto the ice, the
officials ejected three players and
the penalty box got 24 visits. It sure
looked like a rivalry game when Har-
vard came to town on Friday night.
“Those are games you definitely
circle before the season on your cal-
endar,” Harvard captain Alex Biega
said of his team’s match-ups against
Yale and Brown this past weekend.
Friday’s game was the only time
Harvard had beaten Brown in the last
six times the teams have played.
Defenseman Jeff Buvinow ’12
continued on page 5

News.........1 Arts, 2 Sports, 5 Opinions, 7 The blog today

Arts........2-3
Sports......4-5 winning tale Broken record high rank Make a day of…
Editorial.....6 Alum wins nonfiction Despite losses, men’s William Tomasko ’13 Wickenden Street!
Opinion......7 prize for Darwin children’s basketball makes it to the challenges the need for BlogDailyHerald’s guide
Today..........8 book record books college ranking at Brown to the ins and outs.

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island herald@browndailyherald.com

Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
Get in our sheets!
Join The Herald! Come to one
of our spring info sessions:
Feb. 10 and 15 at 8:00 p.m.
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Business info session
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Frank Rich (right) interviews Stephen Sondheim on his illustrious theater career Saturday night in Salomon 101.
Bloggers, reporters, photographers,
sales, finance, copy editors, designers,
Two longtime friends talk theater
continued from page 1
cartoonists, columnists, artists —
from,” Sondheim said. “Any work
of art … has to find its level,” he
come one, come all! added.
If Sondheim had listened to the
critics, some of today’s most be-
loved musicals would not have ever
been made, Rich told The Herald.
For more information, e-mail Rich recalled his first time seeing
“A Funny Thing Happened on the
herald@browndailyherald.com Way to the Forum,” saying there
were 15 people in a 1,800 person
theater because the critics had
given it such horrible reviews.
“He’s an example of somebody
who sticks to his guns even in the
sudoku
Alum wins nonfiction book award
by Corina Chase
Contributing Writer
Deborah Heiligman ’80, a prize-
winning children’s author, re-
ceived the 2010 YALSA Excellence
in Nonfiction Award, which hon-
ors one young adult nonfiction
book each year. Heiligman’s book,
“Charles and Emma: The Dar wins’
Leap of Faith,” was picked from
a list of five finalists.
Heiligman’s book follows the
stor y of Charles Dar win and his
wife, Emma, and focuses on how
Dar win’s marriage af fected his
approach to his work. Heiligman
Daily Herald
said she wondered how the two
the Brown
managed to maintain a “close and
loving relationship” in the face of
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 rising barriers between them. Spe-
George Miller, President Katie Koh, Treasurer cifically, the two remained devoted
Claire Kiely, Vice President Chaz Kelsh, Secretary to each other as Charles prepared
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv- to challenge the church in front of
ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday his deeply religious wife.
through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Though Heiligman had the
Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily
Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community.
idea for “Charles and Emma”
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI for a long time, she researched
02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 and wrote the book in about a
Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. year and a half — allowing it to
World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.
Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.
be published in 2009, the year of
Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. the 200th anniversar y of Dar win’s
birth and the 150th anniversar y of
Monday, February 8, 2010 | Page 2
face of enormous criticism,” Rich
said.
Sondheim said he never lost his
passion for music and urged audi-
ence members to “write for love
and for no other reason.”
Sondheim said that it was pro-
ducer Hal Prince’s determination
that pushed production of “A Funny
Thing” forward despite the nega-
tive reviews. It was also Prince’s
encouragement that helped Sond-
heim write the musical’s memo-
rable opening number, “Comedy
Tonight,” he said.
“Yeah, that was (written) over
a weekend,” Sondheim said. “You
the publication of “On the Origin
of Species.”
“Charles and Emma” is also a
Michael L. Printz Honor book and
a National Book Award finalist.
Heiligman said she did not set
out to be an award-winning au-
thor. She graduated from Brown
with a degree in religious stud-
ies not knowing exactly what she
wanted to do. Writing was not
something she studied in depth
at Brown, though the essays
she wrote for religious studies
courses developed her interest
and skill in nonfiction, she said.
Her favorite class was a required
introductor y course for religious
studies concentrators, taught by
Professor Emeritus of Religious
Studies John Reeder, which she
said opened up her world “in a
huge way.”
After graduating from Brown,
Heiligman went on to work for
the independent Jewish magazine
Moment. From there, she got a
job working for Scholastic, where
she spent most of her days writing
magazine articles for children and
young adults. She truly learned to
write for children while working
at Scholastic, Heiligman said. She
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
could have read the audience the
phone book after those eight min-
utes and they would have loved
it.”
Sondheim underscored the
importance of taking risks as an
artist.
“Big failures are dignified. Little
failures are shameful,” he said.
Sondheim discussed the people
who have inspired him to push his
own boundaries, including Tim
Burton and Leonard Bernstein.
“Lenny taught me to be a little
less square. I’m pretty square by
nature,” Sondheim said. “He was
never afraid to fall off a ladder.”
eventually left that job to become
a freelance writer.
Though Heiligman said she
always wanted to be a writer, she
initially did not know where to
begin.
“I didn’t think real people could
be authors,” she said. Yet, after a
day of reading children’s books to
her first son, she woke up from a
nap with “words in (her) head”
— words that then became her
first book. She went on to write
several other children’s books,
including the 10 books in her
“Holidays Around the World” se-
ries, before writing “Charles and
Emma.”
At the moment, Heiligman has
a new nonfiction picture book, ti-
tled “The Boy Who Loved Math,”
and a new young adult novel in
the works.
Though Heiligman said she
“happened into writing for chil-
dren,” she quickly fell in love
with it.
Heiligman said she felt she
could make more of a difference
by writing books for children than
by writing for adults. “Books mat-
ter to kids in a way they don’t mat-
ter to adults,” she said.
Page 3
A Rts & C ulture
Students experiment on thesis productions
continued from page 1
ress. These plays are not complete in
the traditional sense, but give play-
wrights an opportunity to “see what
happens,” view their work on stage
and gauge the audience’s reactions,
Tyler said. It also allows the writers,
audiences, actors, crew and faculty to
experience “performance as a kind of
dialogue,” he added.
The showcase, formerly called
the New Plays Festival, was renamed
“Writing is Live” to emphasize that writ-
ing is a “dynamic entity” that continues
to change and is “always evolving,”
Tyler said. Erik Ehn, the new head
of the playwriting program, changed
the name of the festival in order to
put a greater focus on “writing as an
organism itself,” Tyler added.
Ehn’s “philosophy of playwriting is
open to experimentation and risk,” said
Tyler. “The sky’s sort of the limit.”
This process of “constant revising
and rewriting,” he said, is “meant to
be wild and unhinged.”
“TOT! An Ontological Slugfest”
certainly had its “wild and unhinged”
moments.
In it, a mother looks down and sees
her little baby girl, and a father looks
and sees nothing but a potato. The play
follows the mother, played by Amanda
Weir, and the father, played by Robert
Haflinger, as their different perceptions
of their child tear the family apart.
The script leads the audience to
side with the father when the blanket
is pulled aside and in the mother’s
arms only a potato is seen. The goal
was to have the audience committed
to the idea that it was a potato, said
McDonald, to give the audience only
one perception.
The ending throws all preconceived
notions aside, though, when the father
throws the potato against the wall, and
on the wall is not only potato, but also
blood.
The play was meant to end with “a
question mark,” McDonald said. Its
goal was to have “the audience think-
ing one thing” until the end and then
changing it, he added.
Inspiration for the play came from
a friend’s relationship that ended be-
A diamond to you for reading.
DiamondsAndCoal.com
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, February 8, 2010
“The sky’s sort of the limit.”
— Erik Ehn, head of the playwriting program
crooners for haiti
cause of fundamentally different views
on life, as well McDonald’s strong in-
terest in moral relativism and the idea
of two alternate realities existing at
once, he said.
Overall, the play was an intellec-
tually challenging experience for the
audience. Combining comedy, drama,
action and vegetable cruelty would
be a challenge for any writer, but Mc-
Donald was able to put it all together
seamlessly.
The plays to be shown this Thurs-
day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at
the Pell Chafee Performance Center
at 87 Empire St. are workshop the-
sis productions, “full productions in
the more conventional sense,” Tyler
said. The thesis productions are more
complete and refined and fulfill the
more traditional idea of the medium,
he said.
Tickets are free and available on a
first-come, first-served basis.
Despite the second weekend’s
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
more traditional atmosphere, “there’s Lee Saper ’12, the Brown Derbies and 10 other a cappella groups
no way to expect what you’re going to performed Friday to a packed Salomon to raise money for Partners
see,” Tyler said. in Health in Haiti.
SportsMonday
The Brown Daily Herald
W. HOCKEY
Friday, Feb. 5
Harvard 4
Brown 1
Saturday, Feb. 6
Dartmouth 4
ScoreS Brown 2
WRESTLING
After promising start, weekend disappoints Bears
By Han Cui
Assistant Sports Editor
The wrestling team hosted four dual
meets last weekend at the Pizzitola
Center. After winning the first dual
meet against Boston University, 28-
12, the Bears dropped the second
to Drexel, 27-9. The next day, they
faced off against Penn and Princeton
and lost both duals, 6-35 and 15-21,
respectively, which puts their record
at 0-2 in the Ivy League.
“It was a disappointing week-
end for us,” said Head Coach Dave
Amato.
Brown 28, BU 12
The weekend started out on a
high note for the Bears in their first
dual against Boston University. After
taking the first two weight classes
by decisions, the Bears led 6-0. The
Terriers stormed back in the next
three matches, but Ziad Kharbush ’12
turned the momentum once again in
favor of Brown with his 10-2 victory.
The rest of the dual went the Bears’
way, including a win by fall with five
seconds left in regulation time in the
heavyweight bout by Tyler Cowman
’13, which sealed the Bears’ first
home victory 28-12.
W. BASKETBALL
Brown stays even in
conference games
By Zack Bahr
Contributing Writer
This weekend’s contests for the
women’s basketball team looked
oddly similar to last weekend’s. Co-
lumbia, which is 13-7, and Cornell,
which has yet to win an Ivy League
game, resembled last weekend’s
league-leading Princeton and 1-18
Penn. But team records weren’t
the only similarities between the
two weekends, as Brown went 1-1
for the second week in a row.
Columbia 65, Brown 60
Friday night’s game in the Piz-
zitola Center was a thriller, with 11
lead changes and seven ties. For
much of the game, it looked as
though the Bears would pull off the
upset against the Lions.
“We are tr ying to ruin other
team’s seasons and make a run for
the championship,” said co-captain
Natalie Bonds ’10.
During the first half, Brown had
a nine-point lead before Columbia
gained a one-point advantage head-
ing into the locker room.
W. WATER POLO
Brown 14
Siena 4
Brown 12
Villanova 4
The wrestlers hosted four dual meets in a busy weekend, winning one meet and losing three. The team’s Ivy
League record now sits at 0-2.
Drexel 27, Brown 9
The Bears did not put on the same
performance against Drexel. After
losing the first three matches, the
Dragons established a comfortable
13-0 lead and never looked back as
they took the dual, 27-9.
Penn 35, Brown 6
The next day, Brown kicked off
The Bears only led twice in the
second half and shot just 16 per-
cent from three-point range. Lindsay
Nickel ’13 and Christina Johnson ’10
led the Bears with a combined 32
points and 11 rebounds.
Bruno took it down to the wire,
trailing by one with just a minute
left in the game.
However, four free-throws by
the Big Red sealed the deal for
Cornell.
“We should have came out 2-0
this weekend, but you can’t cry over
spilled milk,” Bonds said. “I think
this weekend gave the Ivy League
a wake-up call about Brown. We can
compete with the best.”
Cornell 54, Brown 61
With a bitter taste in their mouths,
the Bears got a chance at redemp-
tion at Saturday’s home matchup
against Cornell. Nine players on
the Bears’ roster played double-
digit minutes. Hannah Passafuime
’12 was the story of the night. She
played all but two minutes and put
up 22 points, sinking nine of 11 from
the free-throw line and 60 percent
M. TENNIS
Brown 5
Colgate 0
Brown 4
Lehigh 1
its Ivy League season with a morning
dual against Penn, followed by an
afternoon dual against Princeton.
From the start of the first meet, the
Quakers dominated the Bears. They
won the first seven matches and ex-
tended their lead to 32-0.
Bran Crudden ’10 finally broke
the losing streak for the Bears at 184
lbs with a 6-1 victory. Following Crud-
den, another senior, Branden Stearns
Hannah Passafuime ’12 and the Bears lost to Columbia despite a nine-point lead in the first half of the game.
The guard had 10 points and five rebounds.
from beyond the arc.
With Cornell up one at the half,
the Bears attacked in the second
half and outscored their opponent,
38-30, with smart shots and hard
defense. The Bears forced the Big
Red into 19 turnovers — an effort
led by Bonds, who had 12 rebounds
Monday, February 8, 2010 | Page 4
W. TENNIS
Brown 7
URI 0
Brown 5
PC 0
Jonathan Bateman/ Herald
’10, took down his opponent, 7-4.
“Stearns had a really good week-
end, going 4-0,” Amato said. “Crud-
den too, going 3-1.”
Penn Head Coach Rob Eiter said
his team started out very strong,
but he wished it could have finished
well, too.
“It’s a tough sport,” he said. The
match at “197 was a key bout, they
had a very good kid, a senior, and we
and five steals.
Bruno held a 10-point lead, its
largest of the night, with 11 seconds
left, before a Cornell three made the
final score a seven-point victory. The
Bears ended the night shooting 33
percent from the floor, had just 12
turnovers and out-rebounded Cor-
W. Swimming
& Diving
Cornell 160
Brown 135
M. Swimming
& Diving
Cornell 166
Brown 134
had a freshman. But I’m pleased with
most of our guys. We tried to pick
up the pace, be aggressive, look for
the pin and wrestle hard for seven
minutes.”
Princeton 21, Brown 15
The final dual of the weekend
against Princeton “was a heart-
breaker,” Amato said.
The Tigers led, 12-3, halfway
into the dual. The Bears won their
next match by fall, and were one win
away from a comeback. Kharbush
nearly had that win, and was leading
his match, 5-1, when his opponent
pinned him 4:49 into the match. With
the win, the Tigers gained six team
points and shattered the Bears’ hope
of a team victory.
“They did a great job,” said Princ-
eton Head Coach Chris Ayres of his
wrestlers. “We had some things go
our way. Brown wrestled great, too.
It was just a darn good dual.”
“It wasn’t a lack of effort,” Amato
said of his team. “We didn’t wrestle
smart. We missed a few close calls
from the ref. Br yan Tracy (’10)
and T.J. Popolizio (’12) were both
wrestling with injuries. I hope the
guys can move forward from this
weekend.”
Olivia Means / Herald
nell, 45-37. The win made Brown
even in conference games, with a
3-3 record.
The ladies travel to Hanover,
N.H., on Friday to take on Dart-
mouth at 7 p.m. and then to Har-
vard for a 6 p.m. tipoff the following
evening.
Page 5
S ports M onday
M. BASKETBALL
Team drops two in Ivies
By Tony Bakshi
Spor ts Staf f Writer
Matt Muller y ’10 made the Brown
basketball record books Saturday
night, but the Big Red ultimately
spoiled the party. As Muller y be-
came the 23rd player in Bears’ his-
tor y to score 1,000 career points,
No. 25 Cornell (20-3, 6-0 Ivy) pulled
away from a feisty Brown (7-16, 1-5
Ivy) squad late in the second half
for a 74-60 victor y.
On Friday night, Bruno fell to
the Columbia Lions in an away
game at Levien Gymnasium, 65-
54.
Cornell 74, Brown 60
The Bears entered Cornell’s
Newman Arena on a four-game los-
ing streak after opening their Ivy
campaign with an away victor y at
Yale. But Brown showed no signs
of a lack of confidence while storm-
ing out of the gate against Cor-
nell, a team that almost pulled off
a monumental upset on the home
court of the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks
earlier this season.
But it was the Bears playing the
role of underdog on Saturday. A
three-point play by Peter Sullivan
’11 with 16:03 remaining in the
M. HOCKEY
Back-to-back goals tie Dartmouth
continued from page 1
said the defeat was especially hard
for Brown’s sophomores because
they had never lost to Harvard be-
fore.
Goalie Michael Clemente ’12 was
the biggest reason the Bears had
been 3-0-0 in their last three Harvard
games heading into the weekend,
according to both teams’ coaches. In
those three games, Clemente had let
in just one goal on 129 shots.
“Certainly coming into the game,
we were having some nightmares
of his performances past,” Har-
vard Head Coach Ted Donato said
of Clemente. “We got to him a little
early tonight, and we were able to
get some deflections on some plays
that he really didn’t have much of a
chance on.”
The Crimson scored two goals in
the first period and added another
just 2:33 into the second. With his
team trailing 3-1, Head Coach Bren-
dan Whittet ’94 pulled Clemente in
favor of Anthony Borelli ’13.
Borelli didn’t let in another goal
until the third period, but the Bears
couldn’t come any closer than one
goal away. They eventually fell
by three after Harvard scored an
first half gave Brown a 12-9 lead
and Cornell its first deficit since
its game against South Dakota al-
most a month ago.
With 12:58 remaining, Muller y
reached his milestone, notching his
1,000th point on a lay-up to give his
team an 18-16 lead. Brown extend-
ed that advantage to eight points,
24-16, halfway through the first half
on a lay-up by Tucker Halpern ’13,
who scored 14 points in a strong
performance.
But the Big Red showed their
team poise in closing out the first
half. Instead of getting rattled by
the tenacious Bears, Cornell rallied
to grab a 39-36 lead going into half-
time, helped by center Jeff Foote’s
11 first-half points.
Bruno hung tough in the sec-
ond half. A three-pointer by Mul-
ler y — en route to a game-high 21
points — pulled the Bears back to
a 39-39 tie, and a driving score by
Matt Sullivan ’13 gave the Bears a
one-point cushion, 45-44, just un-
der four minutes into the second
half.
But that would be the last time
the Bears held the lead, as Cornell
began to pull away. Brown got no
closer than two points for the re-
mainder of the game, and the Big
empty-net goal with 18 seconds re-
maining.
Brown 5, Dartmouth 5 (OT)
Despite their two-goal deficit, the
Bears felt confident heading into the
third period against Dartmouth on
Saturday afternoon, according to
Tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ’10.
“We were calm, but you could
just sense that we had confidence
— it’s just a feeling,” Volpatti said.
“You knew that we were going to
come back.”
It was 13:41 into the third period
before the comeback began, but Vol-
patti — who had two goals and two
assists in the game — scored on
a power play, cutting Dartmouth’s
lead to 4-3.
“Volpatti was great,” Whittet
said. “He’s the type of kid that can
make a living playing hockey — and
I don’t mean in some lower minors
— I mean in the National Hockey
League. He’s just such a determined
kid, and he plays so hard.”
As the announcer called out
Volpatti’s goal on the loudspeakers,
Chris Zaires ’13 scored another one
— just 20 seconds after Volpatti’s —
evening the score at 4-4 with 5:59
remaining.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Monday, February 8, 2010
“He’s the type of kid who can make a living playing hockey.”
— Coach Brendan Whittet ’94, on Aaron Volpatti ’10
Red grabbed their first double-digit
lead with 3:51 remaining, 69-58.
In the end, the box score
showed a seemingly comfortable
14-point victor y for the Big Red.
But on a night with nine tied scores
and eight lead changes, the game
tape told a different stor y.
Columbia 65, Brown 54
The Bears looked to be in prime
position to notch their second in-
conference victory against Colum-
bia (8-12, 2-4 Ivy) as they jumped
out to an 11-0 lead after just two
minutes of play. Bruno started the
game with three consecutive field
goals from beyond the arc, two
by Peter Sullivan ’11 and one by
Mullery. A lay-up by Mullery com-
pleted the Bears’ scoring run.
Brown continued their hot
shooting throughout the first twen-
ty minutes, hitting 57 percent of Jonathan Bateman / Herald
their field goals. They jogged into Although the Bears lost two games this weekend, center Matt Mullery ’10
reached a milestone, scoring 1,000 career points.
the locker room up 36-27.
The second half was a differ-
ent stor y, as the Bears lost their 20 percent from the field, 5-20, in scored 11 of his 17 points in the
shooting touch. After Muller y the second half. second half, including a lay-up with
extended the lead to ten points, Guard Noruwa Agho and for- 4:48 left to give the Lions their first
43-33, three minutes into the half, ward Asenso Ampim led the Lions’ lead of the game, 50-49. The Lions
the Bears converted only two more comeback efforts. Agho scored a did not relinquish that lead in the
field goals during the remainder of game-high 18 points to go along final minutes, giving the Bears an-
the game. Overall, they shot just with his 10 rebounds. Ampim other conference loss.
As time ticked away, the crowd
of 2,382 — the largest home crowd
of the season — got increasingly
rowdy. With three minutes left, the
raucous student section — largely
made up of Brown football players —
decided the game was too exciting
for them to wear shirts.
Buvinow sent fans, shirt-wear-
ing and shirtless alike, into hyster-
ics when he scored the go-ahead
goal for Brown with 1:35 left in the
game.
“I was ecstatic, but I knew we still
had a job to do with a minute and a
half left,” Buvinow said.
Dartmouth pulled its goalie in
favor of an extra attacker with 45
seconds remaining. The strategy
worked, and Adam Estoclet scored
his second of the night with just 28
seconds on the clock to even the
score, 5-5. No one scored in over-
time and the game ended as a tie.
Whittet, who played for Dart-
mouth Head Coach Bob Gaudet at
Brown before becoming his assistant
at Brown and Dartmouth — where
Whittet was last season — said the
tie was a healthy outcome.
Where to eat lunch.
“It was good to tie because it was
fitting,” he said. “And everyone goes
It’s a problem.
home fairly happy with a point.”
A problem no longer.
Ratty vs. V-Dub
every day at
blogdailyherald.com
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Monday, February 8, 2010

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e d i to r i a l

Making us sick
Last Friday, we presented one of our many grievances could be required to sell their plans in the individual
against the U.S. Senate. By stalling on an important market to any person, irrespective of university
student loan reform bill already passed by the House affiliation. If individuals less healthy than average
of Representatives, the Senate is standing in the college students are introduced into the risk pool,
way of major steps to reduce the extraordinary students’ costs will rise.
cost of higher education in America. This alone Additionally, student health insurance plans may
would be enough to make us doubt that the Senate no longer be able to calculate premiums based on the
cares genuinely about the interests of America’s practice of “group rating,” which has historically al-
students. But to our great dismay, the Senate seems lowed for affordable plans. The group rating process
to be making a habit out of unfriendliness to higher accounts for the fact that the pool of insured college
education. Indeed, a little-known technicality in the students will, on average, tend to be healthier than
Senate’s health care reform bill threatens the abil- other segments of the population. Either of these
ity of colleges and universities to provide low-cost regulatory adjustments would increase costs for
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d health insurance plans to students. students and could force campus health services
Editor-in-Chief Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors Low-cost health insurance plans are crucial to providers and administrators to rethink a system
Managing Editor
George Miller Chaz Kelsh Sophia Li Ellen Cushing students who must purchase health insurance on top that seems to be working well already.
Seth Motel
Emmy Liss of the already heavy burden of tuition. In a recent Fortunately, the health care reform bill passed
Joanna Wohlmuth
Business
memo to congressional leadership, the American by the House of Representatives does not contain
editorial General Managers Office Manager Council on Higher Education noted that 3 million this misclassification. Given new political circum-
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor Shawn Reilly
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor
Claire Kiely students nationwide currently purchase health in- stances, Congress will have another opportunity in
Katie Koh
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor surance through their schools. The Herald reported the coming weeks to revisit health care reform and
Directors
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Kelly Wess Sales in 2007 that 3,200 Brown students participate in the tweak pending legislation. We hope that legislators
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor
Matthew Burrows Finance
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor University’s health insurance program. will fix this aspect of the Senate’s bill and protect
Margaret Watson Client Relations
Sydney Ember News Editor
Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations Unfortunately, H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection the interests of American students.
Nicole Friedman News Editor
Dan Alexander Sports Editor Managers
and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in If you’re among the thousands — yes, literally
Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Arjun Vaidya Local Sales December, may undermine the way colleges and thousands — of Brown students who might be af-
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Marco deLeon National Sales universities offer health insurance to students. In the fected by this potential change, call your Senators
Graphics & Photos Aditi Bhatia University Sales
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Jared Davis University Sales bill, existing health insurance plans are classified as and ask them do something about it. More generally,
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales individual or group plans and regulated accordingly. find out what your senators have done recently to
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Alexander Carrere Special Projects
Asst. Photo Editor
The federal government and states currently treat help students and universities. With midterm elec-
Max Monn Kathy Bui Staff
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor student health insurance plans as group plans. tions upcoming, we have an opportunity to send a
Opinions
production Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor However, the Senate’s bill allows student health message that we don’t appreciate how the Senate
Kelly Mallahan Copy Desk Chief Alyssa Ratledge Opinions Editor insurance plans to be defined as individual rather has treated us lately.
Jordan Mainzer Asst. Copy Desk Chief
Marlee Bruning Design Editor than group plans, and in turn may subject these plans
Editorial Page Board
Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor to several new and unnecessary regulations. For Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member instance, universities offering insurance to students Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
Neal Poole Web Editor William Martin Board member
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Marshall Katheder Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Topaz Board member

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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
Tyler Rosenbaum
Opinions Columnist
Late last month, Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 gave
his final State of the State address. For me —
and I venture to suppose for the majority of
The Herald’s readers as well — the governor’s
imminent departure from Smith Hill is a rare
ray of sunlight in what will undoubtedly oth-
erwise be a cloudy political year.
As is expected during such events, the
governor defended his past accomplishments
and advanced an agenda for the coming year.
Giving credit where credit is due, I should note
that the governor has done and advocated for
some laudable things.
In other words, his whole administration
was thankfully not characterized by the cruelty
and political tone-deafness of, for example, his
since-overridden veto of the bill authorizing
individuals in same-sex couples to dispose of
their deceased partners’ remains.
For instance, the governor’s efforts to pre-
serve the state’s environment are certainly
nothing to dismiss. In addition to appointing
members of the state’s Coastal Resources
Management Council who actually seem com-
mitted to protecting the state’s beaches and
waterways, the governor set aside 12,000 acres
of farms and forests — nearly two percent
of Rhode Island’s land area — for preserva-
tion.
Carcieri also has been working to con-
solidate Rhode Island’s police, fire and school
William Tomasko
Opinions Columnist
CollegeConfidential.com is a pretty frighten-
ing place.
The site features a message board in
which posters discuss issues such as find-
ing and choosing a college, preparing for the
SAT and ACT and improving one’s applica-
tion and essays. Nervous high school stu-
dents — and many of their parents — can
find a sympathetic digital community and re-
ceive the advice and affirmation they crave
during a stressful process.
However, the forums also reflect unpleas-
ant, unsettling realities of college admis-
sions: its acutely competitive nature and the
desperation it incites among applicants.
For example, one popular board with
nearly 400,000 posts is called “What Are
My Chances?” As its title suggests, students
post their GPAs, standardized test scores,
extracurricular activities and other informa-
tion they consider pertinent, and ask other
College Confidential members to tell them
what their chances of getting into particular
schools might be.
Also, last month, a “Senior Advisor” on
the site named Sally Rubenstone created a
discussion topic asking College Confiden-
tial members for stories about pursuing an
extracurricular activity only because they
thought “it would impress admission com-
mittees.” Students responded that they had
joined groups such as the Model United Na-
tions, honors societies and community ser-
State of the state
districts. Each town and city (all 39 of them)
is responsible on its own for providing these
services. In most states, these are provided
on a county level, and as Carcieri remarked,
Rhode Island is smaller than many counties.
(My own, King County in Washington, has
almost twice Rhode Island’s population and
land area.) It hardly makes sense to perpetuate
the unnecessary duplication and waste that
accompanies such diseconomies of scale.
Perhaps most notably, the governor
brought Rhode Island into the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a compact between
Rhode Island’s taxes and expenditures are too
high, but the time to rectify the situation is not
during a full blown economic recession.
northeastern states creating a regional cap-
and-trade program to reduce emissions, de-
spite former Massachusetts Governor Mitt
Romney’s decision to withdraw his state from
that agreement.
Additionally, we should commend Car-
cieri’s investment in the state’s institutions of
higher education. It is difficult to overestimate
the importance of education, both to Rhode
Island’s citizens and to its economy. One can
only hope that the state’s impending budget-
ary axing does not significantly undermine
this investment.
However conservative Carcieri’s base in-
Rankings schmankings
vice programs only for that purpose.
One poster, andre10, was particularly
honest about his academic motives: “I did
the IB program at my school PURELY for
the hopes of it boosting my admission chanc-
es. I will consider it to be a failure if I get into
less than 3 of my top 5 choices.”
Clearly, it is not ideal for students to be
joining clubs and taking on demanding work-
loads simply to impress admissions officers.
It’s counterproductive for students to be so
paranoid about their “chances” that they rely
on generally uniformed input from strangers
Some people applying to college may feel so
pressured because they are following their dream
schools’ lead — colleges themselves can seem
obsessed with accumulating prestige and edging
out competition.
on the Internet.
I’m optimistic that most high school stu-
dents have far healthier attitudes about col-
lege admissions than some of the posters on
College Confidential. Still, the extreme anxi-
ety of the minority is unsettling.
Some people applying to college may feel
so pressured because they are following
their dream schools’ lead — colleges them-
selves can seem obsessed with accumulating
prestige and edging out competition. A key
example of this preening behavior is the U.S.
News and World Report college rankings.
Every year, U.S. News publishes ordered
lists of the “best” national universities and
stincts, though, results like these are the least
you would expect of a governor whose party
is outnumbered nine-to-one in the General As-
sembly. Even the most determined opposition
on the part of Rhode Island Republicans to a
particular proposal could be easily ignored by
Democrats in the General Assembly, who need
only muster around two-thirds of the members
of their caucus to override a veto.
But despite these positive actions, the rest
of the governor’s State of the State address
only served to reinforce the impression that
he is particularly out of touch with the state
and its citizens.
As any politician these days should, the
governor focused his address on the state’s
economic woes. But instead of articulating
how the state’s government could help its
citizens weather this economic catastrophe,
Carcieri insisted that the proper course would
be for the state to drastically cut expenditures
and even to cut taxes.
Now, as I’ve said before, I believe that
as a general rule Rhode Island’s taxes and
expenditures are too high. But the time to
rectify the situation is not during a full blown
economic recession, when the government’s
liberal arts colleges in America. For 2010,
Harvard and Princeton tied for the number
one spot, and Brown was in 16th place, mak-
ing Brunonians the lowest-ranked members
of the Ivy League.
U.S. News assigns schools scores out of
100 based on 15 indicators, including selec-
tivity, per-student spending, the rate of alum-
ni giving and “peer assessment.” They calcu-
late “peer assessment” by surveying college
presidents, deans of admission and provosts
on how those people perceive rival institu-
tions.
If College Confidential’s message boards
demonstrate how crazed college applicants
can be, colleges’ pursuits of high U.S. News
rankings also make it clear that these institu-
tions are not above ambition for ambition’s
sake. Colleges have grown adept at manip-
ulating their rankings through maneuvers
such as encouraging their alumni to give
smaller donations at a higher rate, inviting
applications from those they do not plan to
admit to boost their selectivity and giving
rankings rivals low “peer assessments.”
Some schools, including Reed College,
have rebelled against participating in the
U.S. News rankings. If Brown wants to al-
Monday, February 8, 2010 | Page 7
countercyclical economic stimulus is needed
to turn things around. Rather, it is after things
have recovered and the private sector can
step in to fill the hole left by a scaled-back
state government.
Indeed, Carcieri’s professed solicitude for
the well-being of the average middle-class
Rhode Islander fell particularly flat when he
crowed about cutting 2,000 jobs from the state
payroll over the course of his administration.
Perhaps it did not occur to him, but that makes
him personally responsible for a respectable
portion of the state’s around 70,000 unem-
ployed.
Carcieri’s solution to the state’s financial
predicament involves making more than $100
million in cuts to state and municipal govern-
ments, which will surely result in thousands
more layoffs, and in cutting corporate taxes
to attract businesses. But the jobs that lower
taxes would theoretically create would un-
doubtedly be more than offset by the jobs
that smaller government would by definition
entail.
Ultimately, the drafting and enactment of
the state’s budget are up to the often-maligned
General Assembly, whose members — unlike
lame-duck Carcieri — are frequently and di-
rectly accountable to the citizens whose lives
their decisions impact. For this, we should
be grateful.
Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 is an international
relations and public policy concentrator
from Seattle. He can be reached at
tyler@brown.edu
leviate the sense that colleges are overly
concerned with prestige, the administration
should promptly follow these schools’ lead.
Boycotting the rankings would call na-
tional attention to their flaws, including how
U.S. News’ methodology focuses heavily on
evaluating incoming students, rather than
measuring how effectively a college edu-
cates them.
Boycotting the rankings would attract
the right kind of attention to Brown. Rath-
er than appeal to the type of applicant in-
terested only in Brown’s high rank in U.S.
News’ “first tier” of national universities, the
move could make us appeal to the type of
students who would appreciate what makes
us unique, such as our open curriculum and
its celebration of intellectualism. The admin-
istration should feel confident that Brown’s
strong record could speak for itself without
relying on a ranking.
Boycotting the rankings would make a
valuable statement about what matters in
finding and choosing a college. It would dem-
onstrate that a school’s qualities and charac-
ter, which are necessarily subjective and not
quantifiable, are what individual applicants
need to evaluate on their own terms.
And, maybe, officially abandoning the
rankings game can encourage stressed high
school students to worry less about the col-
lege process. By abstaining from a system in
which one college must go down for anoth-
er to go up, Brown can emulate a healthier,
less-competitive perspective on higher edu-
cation.
William Tomasko ’13 is an undecided
concentrator from Washington, DC. He
can be reached at william_tomasko@
brown.edu.
 Today
The Brown Daily Herald
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
1
c a l e n da r
Today, February 8
all day — MF Hussain Early Master-
pieces Exhibit, Pembroke Hall
5:00 p.m. — Veritas Forum: “Forgive-
ness and Faith in a World of Rejection
and Rights,” Salomon 101
menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Gnocchi alla Sorrentina,
Veggie Patties, Spicy Fries, Pesto Pizza
Dinner — Brown Rice Garden Cas-
serole, Grilled Cheese, Vegan Moroc-
can Beans, Roast Pork Loin Calypso
crossword
2
to day to m o r r o w
Alum wins nonfiction book prize
Wrestling faced disappointing weekend
4 35 / 18
Monday, February 8, 2010
37 / 22
Page 8
comics
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
tomorrow, february 9
12:00 p.m. — “Queering the Fam-
ily: Some Reflections on Making a
‘Gayby,’” LGBTQ Resource Center
5:00 p.m. — “The Money Rhetoric in
America: A Brazilian Perspective,”
McKinney Conference Room
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Shaved Steak, Artichoke &
Red Pepper Frittata, Italian Marinated
Chicken, Rice Krispie Treats
Dinner — Chicken Milanese, But-
ternut Apple Bake, Spicy Cuban Stir
Fry, Ambrosia Cake
Excelsior | Kevin Grubb
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
Bonus Hippomaniac | Mat Becker