Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 104 | Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Bruno’s big night: wins for Chafee ’75, Cicilline ’83
Independent GOP takes U.S. House, Taveras to city hall Mayor heads
wins tight
3-way race
By Brigitta Greene and
Claire Peracchio
Metro Editor and Senior Staff Writer
Independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14
defeated Republican John Robitaille,
Democrat Frank Caprio and Moderate
Ken Block to become Rhode Island’s
first independent governor. He will
succeed term-limited Republican Gov.
Donald Carcieri ’65.
“You’ve given me your vote, and
I give you my word,” Chafee told
supporters gathered at the Warwick
Sheraton. “I will always listen to you. I
will always be honest with you. And I
will always do what is right for Rhode
Island.”
Chafee, whose proposed 1-per-
continued on page 7
Endowment Simmons addresses faculty on departure of provost
posts gains
comparable
to peers’
By Chip Lebovitz
Contributing Writer
Brown’s endowment grew 6.9 percent
last year — with a 10.2 percent net gain
— chiefly due to rebounding markets.
Currently valued at $2.18 billion, the
endowment grew by a total of nearly
$180 million over the last fiscal year,
which ended in June. Although the
endowment actually cultivated a 10.2
percent total return, the University
spent $135 million on operational costs,
according to Executive Vice President
for Finance and Administration Beppie
Huidekoper.
Brown finished near the middle of
the pack in terms of net increase com-
pared to other Ivy League schools.
Though the University’s net gain of
10.2 percent was trounced by Colum-
bia’s 17 percent return and Prince-
ton’s 14.7 percent return, according
to Bloomberg news reports, Brown
outgained Yale and Dartmouth. Har-
vard, which has the nation’s largest
endowment, grew by 11 percent.
The difference in institutions’ en-
dowment success this past year was
chiefly due to their asset allocation and
continued on page 3
inside
News.....1–4
Election...5–7
Sports.....8–9
Editorial....10
Opinion.....11
Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
to nation’s
capital
By alexandra ulmer and
Brigitta Greene
Staff Writer and Metro Editor
January will see Mayor David Cicil-
line ’83 sworn in as Rhode Island’s
first openly gay congressman. De-
spite a late surge in the polls, Repub-
lican John Loughlin was unable to
trump the Democrat in yesterday’s
midterm election for the first district
congressional seat.
Cicilline garnered 50.6 percent
Katie Green / Herald Jesse Morgan / Herald of votes to Loughlin’s 44.6 percent
Just two years ago, students marched to the steps of the state capitol, celebrating Barack in the race to replace retiring Rep.
Obama’s presidential victory with fireworks, champagne and trumpets. But the midterm elections Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
found Brown’s campus quiet last night. “I ran for Congress because, like
Republicans regained the U.S. House of Representatives after four years of Democratic control. so many of you, I believe Washing-
The GOP gained over 58 seats in the House — more than the party took in the 1994 midterm ton is really broken,” he said to
elections. While Republicans also made gains in the Senate, the Democrats were able to hold on
to their majority in the upper chamber. More election coverage, page 5. continued on page 6
By Ashley Aydin
Senior Staff Writer
ments more than others and that
the University must fight these
terms of respecting rights, but she
explained that the University must
ing in the next weeks. “We should
search nationally but be open to
President Ruth Simmons discussed
the departure of Provost David
attacks. “Failure to challenge this
behavior” can result in similar in-
cidents, Simmons said.
continue to fight against incidents
of discrimination.
Simmons also discussed
internal candidates,” she said. She
mentioned she also wants to “en-
courage thoughts and comments”
Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 and recent
cases of bullying concerning sexual
She said it will take enormous
effort and involvement to tackle
Kertzer’s decision to step down
at the end of the academic year.
about the search.
Simmons briefly spoke about
identity that resulted in suicides problems that “threaten civil The “provost position is a chal- the budget and said that the Uni-
at college campuses nationwide rights.” lenging one,” she said, adding that versity does not anticipate addi-
during Tuesday’s faculty meeting. “We should set examples,” she the position is vital “for the future tional budget cuts. She explained
Simmons explained that bul- said. Simmons said the Univer- of the University.” There will be
lying happens in some environ- sity is a “privileged community” in a search for a new provost start- continued on page 2
Men’s water polo beats MIT in senior night game
By Garret Johnson
Sports Staff Writer
In a thrilling 10-9 senior night vic-
tor y, the men’s water polo team
(16-10) topped the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (11-8) last
Thursday at Wheaton College.
The Bears quickly grabbed a
4-0 advantage, but the Engineers
came roaring back, taking the lead
at the end of the third quarter. In
the fourth, Bruno was able to re-
take the lead and hold on for a nar-
row victory.
“We came up strong,” said Head
Coach Felix Mercado. “But just
like every other game, we got into
a dogfight.”
With momentum from the se-
nior night win, Bruno went on to Emily Gilbert / Herald
Freshman Walker Shockley recorded nine saves in water polo’s recent loss to Princeton. His performance has
continued on page 8 been “amazing,” said head coach Felix Mercado.
Happy 100th Overtime loss Beyond faith
Hay showcases W. soccer falls to Chelsea Waite ’11
history of Portugal’s Penn after holding appreciates the
nationhood lead late in game Chaplain’s Office
campus news, 3 SPORTS, 9 Opinions, 11
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Wednesday, November 3, 2010

C ampus N EWS “The momentum after her death is really what has inspired
us to make it a reality.” — VyVy Trinh ’11, BIRC member

Tam Tran Scholarship to aid Faculty to continue discussing tenure

undocumented students
By Meia Geddes
Contributing Writer
The kick-off event for the Tam
Tran Scholarship for Undocu-
mented Youth, a dinner held on
Oct. 22 by Brown Immigrants’
Rights Coalition, raised $2,756.45,
including online donations, said
Juan Martinez-Hill ’12, a BIRC
member.
Over 70 people — including
friends of Tran, professors, par-
ents and community members
— attended the dinner, which also
featured student performances, a
screening of one of Tran’s docu-
mentaries and speeches from
undocumented students.
The scholarship was estab-
lished in honor of Tam Tran GS,
who was killed in an automobile
accident last spring. Tran was a
member of the advisory commit-
tee of the Cesar Chavez Scholar-
ship Fund, an organization for
Latino youth in Rhode Island,
which will manage the Tam Tran
Scholarship. An advisory commit-
tee comprising representatives
of the Cesar Chavez Scholarship
Fund, BIRC and the Coalition of
Advocates for Student Opportuni-
ties will begin meeting in early
November.
The advisory committee hopes
to raise $10,000 this year to estab-
lish an endowment, wrote Mar-
ta Martinez, chair of the Cesar
Chavez Scholarship Fund and co-
founder of the Coalition of Advo-
cates for Student Opportunities,
in an e-mail to The Herald. The
scholarship will be awarded an-
nually to one undocumented high
school senior planning to attend
a four-year college, regardless
of racial background, said VyVy
Trinh ’11, a member of BIRC.
BIRC has “yet to solidify”
detailed criteria for choosing a
student, but students who have
shown leadership and been in-
volved in their communities
would be likely candidates, Trinh
said.
Trinh said students who re-
ceived the scholarship would
“bring important perspectives
to schools” because of their per-
sonal experiences and that it was
important to put these students
in positions of power where hope-
fully they could give back to the
larger community.
As an undocumented Vietnam-
ese student, Tran took longer to
complete her education than she
would have on the traditional
route because she had to work
to support herself, Trinh said.
While at Brown, Tran was an
active advocate for the rights of
immigrants and undocumented
students. “The momentum after
her death is really what has in-
spired us to make it a reality,”
Trinh said.
While BIRC is still accepting
donations online, it is also think-
ing about fundraising for next
semester, Trinh said.
Trinh said BIRC hopes for
some major organizational or
corporate backing “to make this
sustainable.” The group also
hopes that local businesses, ac-
tivist organizations, parents and
alums will donate, Martinez-Hill
and Trinh said.
continued from page 1
that one of the concerns is the
financial aid budget, adding that
many families were affected by the
difficult economic times and there
is now more need for financial aid.
Kertzer discussed the new tool
for concentrations called Focal
Point. He said there has been much
effort to create “tools to enrich the
faculty-student advising relation-
ship.” He also mentioned a few pro-
posals that must be examined by
faculty soon, including a proposal
for the Program in Public Health
to become four different depart-
ments and to evolve into a school
of public health. He also mentioned
a proposal to change the name of
U. third in producing Fulbright scholars
By Hannah Abelow
Contributing Writer
For the second year in a row, Brown
placed third among research insti-
tutions in the number of students
who received Fulbright Awards,
according to a list released Oct.
24 by the Institute of International
Education.
For this year’s awards, 96 Brown
students applied and 24 students
— 25 percent — received awards.
The Herald reported in 2009 that
106 students applied for the schol-
arships and 29 received awards.
Northwestern University and the
Want to get in on the action?
the Department of American Civi-
lization, and the Literary Arts Pro-
gram’s request to change its status
from a program to a department.
Kertzer also introduced a pre-
sentation on the United States Na-
tional Research Council Review
of Research-Doctorate Programs,
which is important to graduate stu-
dents who are looking at Brown,
he said. He said that though the
council generates “a certain amount
of controversy in some parts” be-
cause there are frequent mistakes
and inaccurate statistics about the
University, the council does provide
some useful information.
Professor of Education Cynthia
Garcia Coll, chair of the Faculty
Executive Committee, said the
University of Chicago came out on
top of the 2009 list, and Brown pro-
duced more Fulbright students than
Yale and the University of Michi-
gan, which placed second and first
this year, respectively.
According to Linda Dunleavy,
associate dean of the College for
fellowships and pre-law, 82 of
Brown’s applicants this year ap-
plied as undergraduates, while the
remaining 14 applied as graduate
students. Out of the 82 who ap-
plied as undergraduates, most
were members of the class of 2010,
though a few graduated in 2009 and
2008. Out of the 24 who received
committee will spend next month
working on the motion concerning
tenure passed at last month’s fac-
ulty meeting. There are “a couple
of different proposals” on how to
divide the motion up, Garcia Coll
said. She said that dealings with the
motions will last until April.
Garcia Coll said the faculty com-
mittee held a meeting with the Med-
ical Faculty Executive Committee,
adding that the faculty committee
is trying to work on how to foster
the collaboration between Brown,
Alpert Medical School and hospitals
where faculty work. The hospital-
based faculty have no access to the
Brown network, and there are a
“bunch of problems with e-mail,”
she said.
awards, 22 were undergraduate
applicants.
The “Fulbright program has re-
ally taken off at Brown in the last
five years,” Dunleavy said. She said
she is eager for even more students
to “know about it and at least think
about applying,” though she hopes
that students realize that “it really
is a lot of work to write a successful
Fulbright application.”
This year, most students from
Brown received Fulbright awards
for research projects, though a
few received awards for teaching
continued on page 4

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Wednesday, November 3, 2010
C ampus N EWS
Exhibit explores Portuguese politics Endowment performs well,
By Kristina Fazzalaro
Senior Staff Writer
Tucked away in a small corner of
the John Hay Library — always a
treasure trove of information — is
the Department of Portuguese and
Brazilian Studies’ literary exhibit:
“Portugal, 1910: The Advent of the
Republic.”
The exhibit, which includes
books, postcards and caricatures,
celebrates the 100th anniversary
of the Portuguese Republic.
“Portugal, 1910” offers visitors
the opportunity to explore the rich
political histor y of a nation in a
condensed, but revealing, man-
ner. The Bopp Seminar Room in
which the exhibit is housed is a
tiny offshoot of the Hay’s impres-
sive third floor gallery, home to the
6,000 toy soldiers of the Anne K.S.
Military Collection. The seminar
room provides a cozy home for
the literature of Portugal’s finest
writers, including Antero de Quen-
tal, Guerra Junquieros and Ana de
Castro Osorio.
The exhibit provides a useful
historical backdrop of the time
period which contextualizes the
literature section of the show.
The exhibition focuses on the
period between the regicide of
King D. Carlos and of Prince Heir
D. Luis Filipe in February 1908
and the establishment of the Por-
tuguese Republic October 1910,
providing viewers with a unique
opportunity to see a slice of Por-
tuguese histor y from a literar y
perspective.
Curator Sandra Sousa, a visit-
ing fellow from Portugal, said that
while she was in Portugal this sum-
mer with fellow curator Maria Ana
Travassos Valdez, visiting assistant
professor of Portuguese and Brazil-
ian studies and history, she found
‘Portugal, 1910: The Advent of the Republic’ chronicles the birth of
Portugal a century after it became a nation.
a wealth of material to include in
the show.
Valdez and Sousa attended ex-
hibits hosted by the Commission
for the 100 Years of the Republic,
Sousa said, where they were loaned
several documents and postcards
for the display in the Hay.
The curators then explored the
John D. Rockefeller Librar y for
resources and materials to put on
display, Sousa said. In particular,
she said that the Rock hosts a good
collection of Portuguese newspa-
pers, which were on display over a
projector at the opening reception
of the exhibit.
Sousa said they also found sev-
eral items online and pulled cer-
tain pieces from their own private
collections. With such a wealth of
material — Sousa said her office
was full of books on the topic —
a great deal of editing had to be
done to fit the entire collection in
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“You really want to look at the strategy over a period of years.”
— Beppie Huidekoper, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration
Katie Green / Herald
the four display cases the seminar
room has to offer.
The end result is an interesting
collection of pieces from a time
period not well known to those
outside of the subject area. Even
Sousa had to do a great deal of
research before embarking on
organizing the collection, she said.
Valdez, as a historian, contrib-
uted greatly in filling in the his-
continued on page 4
but returns miss U. goals
continued from page 1
investment strategies, Huidekoper
said. The University does not focus on
year-to-year comparisons with other
Ivy League endowments, Huidekoper
said.
“You really want to look at the strat-
egy over a period of years,” she said.
Huidekoper credited the stabiliz-
ing market for Brown’s endowment
gains, saying the endowment’s invest-
ments increased in all areas of market
sectors across the board.
Though Huidekoper cautioned
reading too much into the gains until
an audited financial statement, the
University’s summarization of the eco-
nomic narrative of the past fiscal year,
is released in December, she said that
the University was not surprised by
the endowment’s gains.
“They all performed about where
we would expect,” Huidekoper said,
adding that real assets “didn’t do very
well.”
“Nothing did badly, but they all
performed relative to what their nor-
mal market value did,” she said.
The University’s investments are
spread among five major categories:
equities, fixed income, hedged strat-
egies, private equity and real assets.
Public equities, or investments in
publicly traded companies, featured
the largest gains, while real assets,
Page 3
investments in physical and tangible
goods like gold and housing, made
the smallest increases. As of June 30,
2009, 15 percent of Brown’s assets
were invested in public equities and
11.5 percent were devoted to real as-
sets, according to the Annual Report
2008-09.
Private equities performed better
then expected, Hudiekoper said.
In regard to real assets, Huideko-
per said though the University was
disappointed about its nominal gains,
Brown tries to gauge its investment
success “relative to what the market
did.”
“It’s sort of like if your house …
didn’t decline as much as everyone
else, you did well, so you kind of have
to look at this in the context of how
other classes did,” Huidekoper said.
According to Brown’s financial
statements, the endowment “con-
sists of approximately 2,500 individual
funds.”
The five- and 10-year returns for
the endowment are currently at 4.6
and 6.9 percent.
These numbers are woefully low,
Huidekoper said. The University
shoots for 10 percent annual growth.
The endowment is overseen by
the Investment Committee, which
is chaired by Corporation Trustee
Larry Cohen ’78 P’08 P’11 P’13 P’13,
Huidekoper said.
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Fulbright scholarships take
22 Brown undergrads abroad
continued from page 2
projects.
According to a booklet pub-
lished by the Office of the Dean
of the College, recent Brown alums
are undertaking projects that range
from researching “Owner-Operator
Trucking in Chengdu” to “Reconcil-
ing Global Wildlife Conser vation
Efforts to Local Cultural Context
in Cameroon.” Other projects in-
clude researching “The Role of
NGOs in the Implementation of
the Mudawana” in Morocco and
“Teaching English in a University
or Binational Center” in Venezuela.
Linda Zang ’10 was awarded a
Fulbright Research Grant to study
in Germany. About her research,
Zang said, “I’m interested in lo-
cal legislators with an immigrant
background and the political di-
mensions of national identity in
contemporary Germany.”
“This scholarship gives you a
chance to push yourself out of your
comfort zone and do something on
your own,” Zang said. “Fulbrighters
have a great deal of intellectual and
creative freedom with the projects
— and that’s something that Brown
students value.”
Both Dunleavy and Zang empha-
sized the benefits that Fulbright
awards offer Brown students. Zang
said that as an undergraduate, she
had often wished for more time
to pursue research in topics that
interested her, but did not have
the chance.
“The Fulbright is, above all,
the gift of time,” Zang said. “If you
have an idea for a project, or there
is something that you’ve always
wanted to study, then the Fulbright
is your chance to bring that project
into being.”
“It’s really a world-is-your-oyster
kind of program,” Dunleavy said.
In order to apply for a Fulbright
award, students must undergo a
campus review. Each year, a cam-
pus committee from the Univer-
sity inter views the Brown student
applicants before they move onto
review by the national committee.
“At Brown, we use that as an oppor-
tunity to comply with the Fulbright
regulations, but we also see that
as an opportunity to support our
students and offer feedback on the
parts of the application that could
be improved,” Dunleavy said.
Recently, the on-campus portion
of the review process for Fulbright
applicants has been completed and
this year’s applications for Ful-
bright awards have been sent off
to the national committee.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“It’s really a world-is-your-oyster kind of program.”
— Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the College, on the Fulbright scholarship
Panel hosts discussion on ‘Asian identity’
By Jeffrey Handler
Contributing Writer
On Tuesday night, as a part of
Asian and Asian-American His-
tory Month, eight students came
together in Solomon 001 before
an audience of about 40 to offer
different perspectives of the so-
called Asian experience.
“The term is just used because
of the coincidence of geography. I
am Asian because India is in the
continent of Asia,” said Raj Kothari
’11. “I don’t think it’s a bad term to
use, but I want to note that it is too
big a region” to make generaliza-
tions beyond geography.
“There is no Asian identity,”
Kothari said.
Melissa Dzenis ’12, who is half
Filipino and half Latvian, said she
didn’t agree with Kothari because
she feels there is some tie between
Asians that is not simply coinci-
dental.
Panel member Kaijian Gao ’13,
who doubled as the moderator,
Portuguese exhibit gets community support
continued from page 3
torical context while Sousa focused
largely on researching the litera-
ture of the time period. Patricia
Figueroa, curator of the Iberian
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
began by inviting the other panel-
ists to discuss how they personally
identify. Students discussed how
their identities have impacted how
they have been treated in the U.S.,
as well as what they think being
Asian means to the broader world.
Most expressed some uncer-
tainty when faced with this ques-
tion.
“It’s a very messy identity,” said
See Vang ’13, who was born in Cal-
ifornia and is Hmong-American, a
race that she noted is not relatively
very well known in the U.S.
Amanda Kim ’12, who was born
in New York City and has also lived
in Korea and in Tokyo, says she is
still trying to figure out her own
identity. “I guess that I would say
I’m Korean-American,” adding
that she has always had trouble
identifying her “home.”
“I don’t like to categorize my-
self,” she said.
“I guess I identify as being a
Chinese-American, with more
emphasis on the Chinese part,”
and Latin American Collections
at Brown, also assisted in curating
the exhibit.
The opening reception, held
Oct. 5, exactly 100 years after the
formation of the Republic, was at-
tended by members of the Brown
community, as well as Portuguese
newspapers and community mem-
bers from the Providence area,
Sousa said. It is important to the
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said Max Song ’14, adding that
with such an identity it is easy to
get lost between the two sides of
the Pacific.
“I was the Asian kid” in high
school, said Kenji Morimoto ’11,
who is fourth-generation Japanese-
American, as he had attended a
high school in Chicago that was
one percent Asian. It was not until
Morimoto came to Brown that he
stopped feeling this way, he said.
“I’ve been to Japan about seven
times,” Morimoto said. “I look it,
I know much of the culture and
mannerisms, but in the end, I’m
not.”
“People definitely do see Asians
as intelligent,” Kothari said, which
led to discussion of the “model
minority myth,” which concluded
the panel discussion.
“Those racist notions make
themselves true because we are
born into them,” said VyVy Trinh
’11. “I have never been told that I
couldn’t achieve something due to
my race, or gender or sexuality.”
curators that not only the Brown
community but also the large Por-
tuguese population in Providence
get to experience the exhibition,
she added.
The quaint collection of ma-
terials provides visitors with the
chance to get an interesting history
lesson in just one short trip to the
Hay, illuminating a time of change
and conflict in Portugal.
Election 2010
The Brown Daily Herald
“A year ago today, who would have imagined that any of this was even possible,” said Angel Taveras to a
cheering crowd at his victory celebration yesterday.
Angel Taveras to be first Latino mayor
By Jake Comer
Contributing Writer
“Gracias a todos,” Angel Taveras,
who will be Providence’s first Latino
mayor, greeted his supporters last
night. “This is a historic victory for
our team.”
Speaking at the Rhode Island
Democratic party’s election-night
event on the 17th floor of the Provi-
dence Biltmore, he praised the party
for permitting the son of a Domini-
can immigrant family to triumph in
the race.
But Taveras struck a more som-
ber tone discussing the problems
looming over Rhode Island’s capital
city, which faces budget shortfalls,
high unemployment and a struggling
school system. “As goes Providence,
so goes Rhode Island,” he said. “To-
gether, we can make our great city
of Providence even greater.”
Among his supporters, optimism
about his ability to rally the city’s
diverse population and overcome
challenges prevailed.
“I’m very proud --- we as Latinos
are organizing ourselves to be com-
petent in the political process,” said
Marilyn Sanchez, a fellow Domin-
ican-American who grew up near
Taveras.
“He was always quiet and disci-
plined,” added Sanchez, who cam-
paigned for Taveras in the primary.
“If you have a vision, you can be
anything you want.”
Later, Taveras’ victor y party
at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel was
marked by an atmosphere of ex-
citement.
Speaking to a crowd of hundreds
at the concert hall, he thanked his
supporters and volunteers in both
English and Spanish and especially
acknowledged the support of his
mother, who is currently visiting her
native Dominican Republic. At the
end of his speech, Taveras spoke
to her on a cell phone as he leaned
down from the stage to shake hands
with members of the audience.
“A year ago today, who would
have imagined that any of this was
even possible, that this son of im-
migrants from the Dominican Re-
public would become the mayor of
Providence?” Taveras said.
“Thanks to your unwavering
support, dedication and talent, we
assembled the greatest volunteer
organization this city has ever seen,”
he added.
Those in attendance called him
“an inspiration,” “a role model” and
“a champion of the people.”
“I’m just so glad to be able to see
history in the making,” said long-
time supporter Jim Vincent. “Angel
Taveras is going to be the first mayor
of color in Providence history.”
Vincent said that much of Tav-
eras’ appeal derives from his being
a Providence native and from his
Mayor of Providence
As expected, Taveras beat Jonathon Scott by a broad majority yesterday,
garnering over 80 percent of the vote.
Jesse Morgan / Herald
life story, characterized by success
in the face of imposing challenges
— “from Head Start to Harvard,” as
Vincent put it.
Taveras, an attorney and former
housing court judge, was raised by
his single mother in south Provi-
dence and went on to attend Harvard
as an undergraduate. He earned his
law degree at Georgetown Univer-
sity.
“It’s the American dream,” said
supporter Tony Vasquez, a Domini-
can-American. But he went on to add
that Taveras will face more tough
challenges as mayor.
“It’s going to be hard for Angel.
He’s in the spotlight. He’s Domini-
can!” Vasquez said.
In an interview with The Herald,
continued on page 6
Julian Ouellet / Herald
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Page 5
State GOP misses out on
party’s nationwide surge
By Ben Schreckinger
Metro Editor
Despite big GOP gains nation-
wide, Rhode Island Republicans
will be shut out of all five state-
wide offices and all four U.S. con-
gressional seats for the first time
since 1972.
Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, an
independent, will replace Repub-
lican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 in
Januar y.
Democrats swept all other
statewide elections.
In Rhode Island’s two U.S.
congressional districts, Mayor
David Cicilline ’83 beat Repub-
lican John Loughlin in the race
to replace retiring Rep. Patrick
Kennedy, and incumbent Jim
Langevin defended his seat with
59.9 percent of the vote. Neither
of Rhode Island’s senators, Jack
Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse,
were up for reelection.
In the other four statewide rac-
es, Democrats Elizabeth Roberts
’78, Ralph Mollis, Peter Kilmartin
and Gina Raimondo were elected
lieutenant governor, secretary of
state, attorney general and trea-
surer, respectively.
Roberts, the incumbent, beat
Robert Healey of the Cool Moose
Party by 15 percent after the Re-
publican candidate dropped out
and endorsed her challenger.
Healey had promised not to take
a salar y and work to abolish the
office, which he considers a waste
of taxpayers’ money.
Terrence George ’13, presi-
dent of the Brown Republicans,
said he was “happy” with the elec-
tions results across the countr y,
which he called a “repudiation of
the Obama agenda.”
But “Rhode Island is the
most solidly Democratic state
in the union. That’s a fact,” said
George, a Herald opinions col-
umnist. “That’s not something
we expect to change with one
election cycle.”
In Providence, the results
were much the same.
In the mayoral race, Democrat
Angel Taveras cruised to victory
over independent candidate Jon
Scott with more than 80 percent
of the vote. The Republican Party
did not field a candidate.
Over on the East Side of
Providence, Democrats swept
the three General Assembly seats
representing College Hill. Voters
sent Rhoda Perr y P’91 back to
the State Senate for her eighth
term representing the third dis-
trict. Perr y, who ran unopposed
in 2008, beat Republican Mor-
ris Markovitz and independent
candidate Miriam Ross to retain
her seat.
Edith Ajello, a nine-term in-
cumbent, beat Republican Dan
Harrop in the third district Rhode
Island House race by a margin of
three to one.
Chris Blazejewski carried the
race to fill the District 2 House
seat vacated by Democrat David
Segal with nearly 75 percent of
the vote, beating independent
candidate Richard Rhodi.
Democrat Seth Yurdin, who
represents College Hill on the
City Council, ran unopposed for
re-election.
Page 6
E lection 2010
Cicilline to be Rhode Island’s first openly gay congressman
continued from page 1
applause last night at the victory
celebration, held at the Providence
Biltmore Hotel downtown. Audience
cheers mixed with U2’s “Beautiful
Day,” blaring triumphantly from the
speakers.
Cicilline’s campaign centered on
providing jobs to Rhode Islanders,
which he said will remain his prime
focus in the Capitol.
Candidates traded allegations
throughout the race amidst declin-
ing confidence in Democratic leader-
ship nationwide. Cicilline boasted a
fundraising advantage, a nod from
Obama during his visit last week
and high visibility as a top Rhode
Representative in U.S.
Congress - District 1
Though David Cicilline ’83 carried a lead early in the race, competition
heated up in the days prior to the election.
Island politician. But Loughlin made
significant gains in polls during the
last weeks of the campaign, run-
ning neck-and-neck with Cicilline
and threatening to take the lead in
the historically blue district.
“We all talked about how we get
Rhode Island back on track,” Cicil-
line told The Herald after his victory
speech. “I’m doing all I can.”
Referencing expected Republican
Party gains in the House, he said he
would favor cooperation over parti-
san politics. “This is going to be an
important time for us to work to-
gether,” he added. “Americans want
us to find common ground.”
Cicilline’s charismatic personality
will allow him to overcome a polar-
Julien Ouellet/ Herald
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
For more in-depth election coverage, check out
ized Congress, according to Kat-
erina Wright ’11, president of Brown
Democrats. “We are ecstatic about
Cicilline,” she said. “He’s certainly
going to face some difficulties ... but
he’s going to bring people together.”
He supports large-scale infra-
structure investments as well as a
$2 billion loan program to aid Rhode
Island manufacturers.
Loughlin, endorsed by Sen.
John McCain, ran under a platform
of “less spending, lower taxes and
smaller government.” He supported
repealing the health care reform law
and has criticized Social Security.
His message appealed to voters in
a state bearing the weight of budget
deficits and continuing fiscal woes.
He focused on thanking his sup-
porters and other national political
figures — including Sen. Scott
Brown, R-Mass., and Rep. Peter
King, R-N.Y. — in his concession
speech to a crowd of nearly 60
people at the Providence Marriott
Hotel. He did not mention Cicilline
in his remarks.
“We may have lost tonight, but
I hope that the energy and enthu-
siasm that you showed during my
campaign can be continued to be
nurtured. Our state and nation fac-
es great challenges and will only
move forward with the continued
dedication and service of the good
people in this room,” Loughlin said
to cheers from his supporters, many
of which urged him to run in 2012.
Supporters — some dissatis-
fied with Cicilline’s performance
as mayor — expressed frustration
with the loss.
“Rhode Islanders need to start
voting for the person not the party,”
said Thomas Glenn, who attended
the event.
Cicilline “has not balanced the
budget and not done anything pro-
ductive,” said Kendra Furman, a
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
browndailyherald.com/election-2010
“We did our best,” said Democrat Frank Caprio in his concession speech
last night. He faced a tough loss to independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14.
registered independent.
But at the Democratic celebra-
tion, Cicilline had one particularly
staunch supporter — his mentee,
Alex Morse ’11. Since 2008, Morse
has been mentored by Cicilline
through the Point Foundation, a non-
profit that pairs LGBTQ youth with
an adult in a similar field of study.
The two have coffee at Starbucks
and chat on the phone when Cicil-
line is busy campaigning, according
to Morse.
“We’re both LGBTQ and I also
want to be mayor of my hometown,”
said Morse. “This is a really special
moment, he’s breaking a lot of na-
tional barriers.”
— With additional reporting by
Chip Lebovitz
Jesse Morgan / Herald
Taveras to
focus on
education
in office
continued from page 5
Taveras said his first projects as
mayor will be fiscal ones. “First
thing we’ve got to do is get a bud-
get. ... We also have to address
the tax increase that was recently
passed by the city council,” he
said.
For those in attendance, im-
proving Providence’s education
system and bringing more jobs to
the city were top priorities.
Vasquez said that though he
has a job with the city, the num-
ber of jobs in Providence is a
major issue among voters. But
“as long as he improves educa-
tion and brings honesty, that’s
enough for me,” he said.
In the interview, Taveras said
that if the public education sys-
tem can succeed for students in
Harlem, it should be able to suc-
ceed in Providence as well.
“We want to make Providence
a children’s zone,” he said.
“With respect to jobs, we’re
going to focus on retaining the
jobs that we have, and recruit-
ing jobs and businesses from all
over the state and all over the
region, and reforming the way
we do business here in the state
and in the city,” Taveras told The
Herald.
Rachel Peterson ’13 volun-
teered for Taveras’ campaign
this summer. She said she was
attracted to his environmental
policies as well as his personality.
“I’m really happy to be having
him as a mayor,” she said.
–With additional reporting
by Alexandra Ulmer
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
E lection 2010
Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 pulled out a win after a tough four-candidate race.
Chafee ’75 P’14 edges Robitaille, Caprio
continued from page 1
cent sales tax increase garnered
national attention, branded himself
as the candidate who could supply
the tough medicine to fix the state’s
budget woes and ailing public educa-
tion system.
A competitive showing by Rob-
itaille provided election night sus-
pense, as he and Chafee traded the
top spot in early returns.
Robitaille, who had lagged in third
for much of the campaign, surged into
second place after Caprio said Presi-
dent Barack Obama could “shove
it” last week. Obama declined to en-
dorse the Democrat in deference to
his friend Chafee.
Chafee’s victory brings him back
to public office after his 2006 Senate
defeat to Democrat Sheldon White-
house, amid a national anti-Republican
backlash.
“Ultimately, what this election
was about was honesty,” said Chafee,
the now-unaffiliated former mayor of
Warwick.
Chafee told The Herald in October
he plans to focus on the “A, B, C’s”
of Rhode Island — the state’s assets,
budget and corruption. This entails
improving public transportation in
the state, investing in infrastructure,
improving budget transparency and
revitalizing the Jewelry District — the
future site of Brown’s Alpert Medical
School — he said.
The state’s troubled public educa-
tion system, which was thrust into the
national spotlight during a standoff
with Central Falls teachers last spring,
will also be an important issue for the
new governor, he said.
“I’m a public school teacher, and I
think he’s the best one to support edu-
cation in the state,” said Cynthia Braca
P’10, a North Providence elementary
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Kathryn Green / Herald
school teacher and member of the
Rhode Island Federation of Teachers.
Chafee was endorsed by both of the
state’s top teachers unions.
The Chafee family has a long his-
tory in Rhode Island politics. Lincoln’s
father, John Chafee, held the Gover-
nor’s office from 1963 to 1969, and
continued on to the U.S. senate in
1976. And his great-great-grandfather,
Henry Lippitt, was governor from
1875 to 1877.
Caprio, whose family business
is also Rhode Island politics, was
relatively upbeat in his concession
speech.
“Tonight is a great night for
Rhode Island,” he said, surrounded
by his family at a ballroom of the
Providence Biltmore Hotel. “I wish
I could have been part of it, but we
did our best.”
Many of the Democratic support-
ers assembled at the hotel said they
Rhode Island Governor
Despite finishing fourth, Ken Block received enough support to allow his
Moderate Party to continue to receive official recognition from the state.
had voted exclusively for Democrats
­— save in the gubernatorial race.
“Caprio’s disrespect for the office of
the president turned me off,” said Jeff
Davis, a 34 year-old urban planner
who voted for Chafee.
William McPhillips, 70, a retired
truck driver, said the candidate’s com-
ment was instrumental in his loss. “He
shot himself in the foot,” according to
McPhillips, who said he cast his vote
for Caprio.
Robitaille, endorsed by the Tea
Party, ran on a platform of lower taxes
and lower spending.
He took 33.6 percent of the vote,
compared to Chafee’s 36.1 percent
Page 7
Julien Ouellet / Herald
and Caprio’s 23 percent. Block won
more than the requisite 5 percent
needed for the state to recognize his
Moderate party in the next election
cycle.
At the Brown Republican election
night gathering in MacMillan 117,
students wearing Robitaille stickers
were disappointed with his defeat.
But group members were still
“feeling great,” thanks to the GOP
gains in the House, Terrence George
’13, the Brown Republicans president,
said.
— With additional reporting by
Ana Alvarez and Alexandra Ulmer
SportsWednesday
The Brown Daily Herald
Men’s water polo looks
ahead to big tourneys
continued from page 1
beat Harvard (10-15) on Saturday
in the first round of the Ivy League
Championships, held at Princeton.
Their streak ended when No. 18
Princeton (15-8) outlasted Brown
7-6 in overtime to capture the Ivy
crown.
Mercado said his team gave
Princeton “two or three opportu-
nities that they capitalized on.”
Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 netted
five goals in the loss, and said his
team played “really well” despite
the game’s outcome.
“We believe in ourselves and
we know we can do it in the next
couple of tournaments,” Stefanovic
said.
The next test for the Bears
comes this weekend at the North-
ern Division Championships, held
at MIT. Mercado’s squad will face
Iona College (5-17) in the first
round of the tournament. Though
Brown is heavily favored, the match
is critical because the winner quali-
fies for the Eastern Championship
tournament, which begins Nov. 19
at Bucknell University.
Mercado emphasized that his
squad will need to play good de-
fense if they are to move deeper
into tournament play.
“Shooting is fixable,” Mercado
said. “We can’t take an off-day on
defense.”
The play of Brown’s two goal-
ies, Max Lubin ’12 and Walker
Shockley ’14, will be crucial going
forward. Shockley has seen more
and more playing time as the sea-
son has progressed. He netted nine
saves in the loss against Princeton.
Mercado described the freshman’s
recent performance as “amazing.”
“Right now we have two good
goalies and Walker is getting the
minutes,” Mercado said. “And he’s
taking full advantage of it.”
Stefanovic agreed with his
coach, saying that Shockley is “a
ver y talented player” despite his
“limited experience.”
Should the Bears defeat Iona,
they will likely face East Coast pow-
erhouse No. 13 St. Francis College
(17-3), to whom they’ve lost twice
this season. Stefanovic dismissed
the previous losses, and is confi-
dent in his team.
“We have great momentum
coming out of the tournament,”
Stefanovic said. “We will be ready
for Northerns, without a question.”
Women’s squad finish third in weekend race
By James Blum
Spor ts Staff Writer
Last Friday was a bittersweet day
for cross country as the women’s
squad captured third place at the
Ivy League Cross Countr y Hep-
tagonal Championships in Van
Cortlandt Park, while the men
finished last. Both the men and
women of Princeton brought home
the Ivy League title.
Margaret Connelly ’14, who
finished the 5-kilometer course
in 17 minutes, 29 seconds, led
the women. Her efforts placed
her fifth overall and earned her
the honor of being on the First
Team All-Ivy.
The next two finishers for
Brown were Lauren Pischel ’11
and Elaine Kucker tz ’13 with
times of 17:49 and 17:52, respec-
tively. Finishing 10th and 12th,
they were both named to the Sec-
ond Team.
“I would say we exceeded
external expectations that other
teams had set for us,” Pischel said.
“We performed well and fought
really hard for what we wanted.”
Pischel added that the women
had been recently ranked behind
most of the schools that they beat.
Heidi Caldwell ’14, who had
been a top finisher for Brown in
the past, slipped to fifth-place on
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Page 8
the team. Caldwell said, “It was
a ver y off day. I left the starting
line and already felt bad, but the
team did really well, so that was
exciting.”
Women’s Head Coach Jill
Miller said, “It was a good day,
not an amazing day, so there are
a couple of areas we could work
on. Overall, I was really happy, but
it can be a springboard.”
Dan Lowry ’12 and Matt Duffy
’12, who finished the 8-kilometer
course in 25:20 and 25:24, respec-
tively, led the men. The squad’s
poor performance was reflected
in the points with Brown accruing
188 points compared to seventh
place’s 149 and the winner’s 33.
Despite their finish, Lowr y
wrote in an e-mail to The Her-
ald, “I think we all know we are
capable of a lot better. We are
ready to move on from Heps and
come back to surprise people at
Regionals.”
Men’s Head Coach Tim Spring-
field said, “I know we’re a better
team than we showed on Friday.
We didn’t perform to the level I
know we’re capable.”
The men’s team will have an-
other opportunity to prove itself
when Br uno competes at the
NCAA Northeast Regional Cham-
pionship on Nov. 13 in Madison,
Conn.
“I’m expecting the team to be
really excited to just get back out
there and execute a little bit bet-
ter,” Springfield said. “I’m going
Check out Herald sports online
browndailyherald.com/sports
to tr y to get us better prepared.”
The regional meet is the sec-
ond of three important postseason
competitions, with the Heptagonal
Championships as the first and
the NCAA National Champion-
ships as the finale on Nov. 22 in
Terre Haute, Ind. There are sev-
eral paths that can be taken to
qualify for nationals.
The top two teams at each of
the nine regional championships
automatically qualify and 13 ad-
ditional at-large teams will be se-
lected by a committee based on
a points system.
Additionally, individuals can
qualify separately from a non-
qualifying team if they are the
first four finishers from a region.
Again, two additional at-large
runners will be selected by com-
mittee.
The selection system leaves
open the possibility for both of
Brown’s teams to advance or for
runners to individually qualify. For
example, though the men did not
qualify as a team last year, Chris-
tian Escareno ’11 did compete at
nationals by finishing 10th in the
region.
For now, the teams are simply
focused on running at the ability
level they know themselves to be
capable of, according to Miller
and Springfield.
“We can’t take anything for
granted,” Miller said. “We real-
ize we have a lot more potential
than we showed this weekend.”
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
S ports W ednesday
W. soccer almost upsets first-place Penn, loses in overtime
By Madeleine Wenstrup
Sports Staff Writer
A goal by the University of Pennsyl-
vania in overtime smashed hopes of
an upset win by the women’s soccer
team. The Bears were ahead 2-1
until a late goal by Penn sent the
teams into overtime. The Quakers
(9-6-1, 4-1-1 Ivy League) took only
two minutes in the extra time to
score a goal for a sudden victory.
Despite the loss, Bruno (7-5-4, 1-3-
2) ended Penn’s four-game shutout
streak and challenged the number
one-ranked Ivy League squad.
“The players gave ever ything
they had, that’s what made it
exciting,” said Head Coach Phil
Pincince. “Everyone made a con-
tribution to the effort.”
The Quakers went on the board
first in the 22nd minute. Penn’s
high-scoring for ward, Marin Mc-
Dermott, was situated at the back
post and headed in a cross to give
Penn the lead.
With 11 minutes remaining in
the first half, Brown evened the
score with a header from Diana
Orht ’13, her second of the season.
Orht’s score marked the first goal
allowed by Penn in their last five
games.
Early in the second half, both
teams had dangerous attempts.
Mary Lesbirel ’12 had goalkeeper
Caroline Williams beat two minutes
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 9
into the second half, but Williams
managed to redirect Lesbirel’s at-
tempt, sending it wide. Thirteen
minutes later, the Quakers got the
ball in the net, but were called off-
side after the play.
The teams went back and forth,
and the Bears held a slight 11-10
shot advantage. Brown took five
corner kicks, while the Quakers
took none.
“It was a well-played game,”
Pincince said. “Both teams capi-
talized on their offensive plays, and
we had three great opportunities.”
A captain-led play finally brought
the Bears out of the tie with 20
minutes remaining. A free kick
by Charlotte Rizzi ’11 set up Gina
Walker ’11 for a beautiful header
that went high over Williams’ head.
For almost 10 minutes the Bears
led against the top team in the Ivy
League. But the lead was short-
lived as McDermott took another
header to tie up the game.
In a sudden-death over time,
the Quakers were not interested
in playing for long. Two minutes
in, an assist by McDermott set up
for ward Ursula Lopez-Palm for a
one-on-one play with MC Barrett
’14. Lopez-Palm took a final touch
to push it past Barrett and end the
game, 3-2.
The Bears end their season at Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photo
Stevenson Field, taking on Yale in Despite close shots on goal in the second half, Mary Lesbirel ’12 was unable to beat one past the Penn
goalkeeper.
a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday.
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
I’ll take the chaplains’ office for five hundred
BY Chelsea Waite
Opinions Columnist
When I tell people I work in the chaplains’ of-
fice, their responses mostly tend to be, “What
is the chaplains’ office anyway?” It’s unfortu-
nate that not many Brown students know what
the chaplains’ office does or how they can use
it.
The office is much more than a multi-faith
team of chaplains advising campus religious
organizations. The Guide to Brown 2010, a
packet for first-year students, says the work of
the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life
“involves caring for all members of the Brown
family, encouraging the University’s multicul-
tural richness, contributing to the intellectual
enterprise on campus and advocating for mat-
ters of conscience in all facets of the Universi-
ty’s life and beyond.” I like this description, but
it’s too vague to communicate all the essential
services the office provides.
Let’s begin with “caring for all members
of the Brown family,” the aspect of the office
that I experience most often. Freshman year, I
found myself pulled into the OCRL because of
the Chaplains’ gifts for personal attention, sup-
port and recognition of students’ struggles,
from breakups to family illnesses to lack of fi-
nancial aid. I have seen the office lend money
to a student who has not been able to afford
food in two weeks. I have seen them help a
student rearrange midterms around a little-
known religious holiday. I have seen them
counsel a family over a situation that caused
a student to leave school after freshman year.
Halloween and Lady Gaga: a ‘meaty’ combination
BY LUcia Seda
Opinions Columnist
It was that time of the year, when Brown
students took a break from the usual stress
of their classes to think about their outfits
for the upcoming “holiday” season. No,
it was still not the season to be jolly, but
rather the much-anticipated “All Hallows’
Eve.” In between the talk about midterms
and the ever-increasing pile of unfinished
readings to be done, ideas for Halloween
costumes took over the normal, ever yday
conversations of Brown students. Even
Facebook became an open forum where
people asked their fellow 500-plus friends
for advice on whom they should dress up
as or how to put their inventive ideas ro
work — the answer to most of which is a
flood of links to ehow.com.
Two years ago, an invasion of Sarah
Palins — or a considerable percentage of
Brown females dressed in professional at-
tire — took over the line outside the tent
for the “Wriston Rising” Halloween party.
But this year, the Halloween inspiration
was elsewhere: in the new self-proclaimed
queen of the media, Lady Gaga.
Perhaps it was because Halloween be-
came an impromptu festivity for me here at
Brown — one that required little thinking
and not an exhaustive number of hours of
preparation — that I wasn’t ranking highly
on the creativity scale when it came to pick-
ing a costume. Nevertheless, the thought
of dressing up as Lady Gaga sparked my
What other department handles these crises
and meltdowns, the ones that often trouble us
the most as students but tend to fall through
the institutional cracks?
To many, it might seem strange to recom-
mend the OCRL for personal matters unre-
lated to religion. Yet the chaplains’ office, as
the Guide to Brown dutifully states but fails to
elaborate, serves as support for our whole be-
ings — mind, body and spirit. Is the death of a
friend not a crisis of the entire being? Does the
inability to buy food not simultaneously affect
mind, body and spirit?
I found myself pulled into the OCRL because
of the Chaplains’ gifts for personal attention,
support, and recognition of students’ struggles.
I’m not saying the chaplains’ office can
substitute equally well for health services or
psych services, but it has an essential comple-
mentary function. Matters of the spirit do not
have to pertain to the religious, but rather are
issues that we face beyond the physical (a bro-
ken foot) or the mental (a particularly difficult
problem set).
Beyond the role the chaplains’ office plays
in caring for Brown students, it also encour-
ages “multicultural richness” and contrib-
utes to the “intellectual enterprise.” Religious
identities are an essential if sometimes unrec-
ognized part of diversity at Brown. In an Ad-
interest. After all, it did not seem incred-
ibly hard to mix and match random gar-
ments and pair them up with a platinum
blonde wig to get the Gaga style going on.
I kept imagining all the possible combina-
tions of costumes that could pass the test
for Lady Gaga — anything from the bubble
dress that she wore on the cover of Roll-
ing Stone to black, metallic and asymmet-
ric ensembles thrown together — until a
distinctive image took hold of my mind: a
snapshot of Lady Gaga in her now iconic
yet infamous raw meat dress.
By paying homage to Lady Gaga’s meat dress
in this sort of grotesque act of mimesis, we are
putting at risk our own capacity to judge what
is admirable in an artist and what is downright
reprehensible.
On Sept. 12, an outraged American pub-
lic watched as Lady Gaga took the stage
at the 27th Annual MTV Video Music
Awards to receive the “Video of the Year”
award wearing pieces of raw meat strewn
together as a “dress.” Despite the myriad
of indignant responses from PETA and
other organisms of the media, the most
sought-after Halloween costume is — you
guessed it — Gaga’s meat dress. Although
butchers have cautioned against wearing
meat for trick-or-treating purposes — giv-
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Page 11
mission Office pamphlet titled “Diversity: Per-
spectives from the Community of Color,” one
student cites her involvement with the Catho-
lic community as bringing her ethnic heritage
into her life. As such it seems obvious, to me
at least, that the OCRL should be listed as a
resource for students interested in diversity on
campus.
Yet the “useful websites” section of the
pamphlet lists offices from the Third World
Center to the Office of Residential Life — but
not the OCRL. If the University truly thinks of
the OCRL as supporting multiculturalism and
religious identity as an element of diversity, it
should begin engaging it as such.
Furthermore, the chaplains have exten-
sive academic expertise and knowledge, and
the office contributes greatly to intellectual
discourse at Brown. OCRL initiatives recent-
ly brought to campus Ada María Isasi-Díaz,
world-renowned theologian and ethicist, and
Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth
Core and advisor to President Obama. Thurs-
day Night Supper, a weekly dinner and dis-
cussion open to all students, invites speakers
to talk about issues from hospice care to the
practice of nonviolence.
ing reasons as diverse as the questionable
state of hygiene of raw meat to the prac-
tical difficulty of sewing pieces of meat
together — the meat dress is already too
much in vogue.
Quite recently, the Old Homestead
Steakhouse in New York’s meat-packing
district presented its own take on Franc
Fernandez’s (the now notorious mind be-
hind the meat design) dress: a Gaga-in-
spired version of the meat dress worth
$100,000 (and available for purchase). For
those whose can’t take that fast-cash out of
their accounts, there are certainly other al-
ternatives: the DIY method of buying indi-
vidual cuts of meat (roughly a $250 invest-
ment) from local butchers or the knock-off
approach of fr ying strips of bacon and as-
sembling them, as a New Jersey woman
suggested on The Huffington Post.
The bottom line is this: Sadly, there was
little to be done to prevent Gaga aficiona-
dos from donning the “walking charcute-
rie” look this Halloween.
At a ver y basic level, I don’t see why
Yet my sense is that at Brown we have work
to do to give to religion the same attention to
detail and nuance that we give other issues like
race, gender or politics. We analyze religion as
a monolithic phenomenon somehow removed
from us. The history of religion, its diversity
and the lived experience of it are not concepts
to be glossed over or simplified. The chaplains,
not to mention members of the Department of
Religious Studies, can help provide more sub-
tlety to these questions.
Finally, and perhaps most vaguely, the of-
fice “advocates for matters of conscience” at
Brown and beyond. I am not claiming that
ethical living must stem from religious roots.
Even so, the chaplains’ office is a place that
not only encourages, but engages and exem-
plifies, integrity and social responsibility. Janet
Cooper Nelson, the chaplain of the University,
appeared at the Brown vigil held for the recent
highly publicized suicides of five gay students.
As the face of the religious community at this
University, she encouraged those gathered to
act from kindness.
Last week while I was at work, she won-
dered aloud if Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers
freshman, had anyone to help him work
through his reaction to his roommate’s humili-
ating video ploy. As students, we need people
to remind us that we are “precious,” Nelson
said. Part of the mission of the chaplains’ of-
fice is to provide that reminder.
Chelsea Waite ’11 works on Tuesday and
Thursday afternoons, and will be happy
to talk your ear off about the OCRL.
it should be too much of an issue when
people tend to over-esteem their favorite
Hollywood stars and their “bold” fashion
choices — it’s natural and, for the most
part, harmless. Yet, I believe that the Lady
Gaga Meat Dress/Fashion Statement/
whatever you want to call it has transcend-
ed the register of mere admiration. True,
her dress might be the absolute sensation
now — the most-talked about garment and
originator of the eponymous Halloween
costume — but the consequences of fall-
ing into this trap are much more serious.
By paying homage to Lady Gaga’s meat
dress in this sort of grotesque act of mime-
sis, we are putting at risk our own capacity
to judge what is admirable in an artist and
what is downright reprehensible. And just
because Lady Gaga happens to be a “fame
monster” at the present moment does not
mean that we should glorify and further
imitate ever y single one of her actions.
Her extravagance and postmodern
glamour are an undeniable staple of our
pop culture, but they can also blind our
critical eye and lure us into buying these
deluded definitions of coolness. So for Hal-
loween, I’d stick to the witch costume, no
matter how trite and uninventive it might
seem. It’s classic, easy-to-do, Gaga-free
and will forever remain in style.
Lucia Seda ’12 is a comparative litera-
ture concentrator from San Juan, Puer-
to Rico. She can contacted at
lucia_seda@brown.edu.
 Today 2 Tran scholarship hosts dinner to day to m o r r o w

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t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s

5 2 5
c a l e n da r comics
Today November 3 ToMORROW November 4
Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz
5 p.m. 4 P.M.
“Wealth, Health, and Democracy “The Brazilian Elections:
in East Asia and Latin America,” Implications for the Future of Brazil
Watson Institute and Latin America,” Watson Institute
7 p.m. 7 p.m
SPG: Sex, Power, Good? List 110 Ocean Night by emPower, List 120

menu
SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
LUNCH Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Beef Tacos, Vegetarian Tacos, Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich,
Vegetarian Mori Soba Noodles, Tomato Quiche, Italian Marinated
Whole Kernel Corn Chicken, Chocolate Krinkle Cookies
DINNER
Castle Hill Inn Pork Spare Ribs, Rotisserie Style Chicken, Sweet and
Vegan Ratatouille, Beets in Orange Sour Tofu, Mediterranean Shrimp
Sauce, Fudge Bars Stir Fry, Squash Rolls

crossword

The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin

Classic Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez