WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 95Daily HeraldTHE BROWN

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To intervene?Speakers disagreed over the United States’ continued role in the Middle Eastin

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COMMENTARY, 7 COMMENTARY, 7

Nuclear optionsSundlee ’16 argues human rights should be considered in negotiations with Iran

Foul payFeldman ’15 says paying college athletes would curb competition

By MAGGIE LIVINGSTONESENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though applicants for the class of 2018 have faced difficulties related to the Common Application’s new website, the Admission Office will not extend its Nov. 1 early decision deadline, wrote Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 in an email to The Herald.

The Admission Office has re-ceived numerous phone calls and emails over the past few weeks with complaints about the Common App, Miller wrote. He added that though the office will not formally postpone the early decision deadline, admission

officers are “dealing with inquiries on a case-by-case basis” and will con-sider applicants’ individual requests for more time.

The Common App launched a new website in August — the first time the site has been revamped in six years — and has since plagued users with a variety of problems, the New York Times reported Oct. 12. Such problems include delayed document-uploading times, supplemental for-matting glitches, website crashes and repeated payment prompts.

In addition to changes in content this year — including the removal of the “topic of your choice” essay option

and a shorter activity question — the Common App’s digital format differs from past years. The site’s boxes for submitting responses often reformat users’ pasted answers in a way that erases the responses’ previous struc-ture, multiple users said.

The University began using the Common App in 2008 and is among close to 500 member universities, ac-cording to the Common App website.

Two Ivy League institutions, Co-lumbia and Dartmouth, have extend-ed their early decision deadlines to Nov. 8. Barnard College, Northwest-ern University, Tufts University and the University of Chicago have also pushed their early decision or early action deadlines back a week, accord-ing to these institutions’ admission

websites.Given the high number of techni-

cal difficulties faced by Common App users this year, the site does not have enough web developers and producers to address the problems, said Michele Hernandez, a college consultant and former assistant director of admis-sions at Dartmouth. Students who work on their applications with Her-nandez are often unable to preview or change their uploaded essays, Her-nandez said.

Though Hernandez has contacted Common App staffers about these problems, she has received limited responses, she added.

“The problems with (the Com-mon App) definitely will affect the early round,” Hernandez said, adding

that the site may be fixed in time for regular decision deadlines.

Hernandez expressed frustration with the Common App’s transition process to its new website.

“I can’t believe they didn’t test-drive it,” she said.

Long uploading times and on-line page freezes have posed prob-lems for high school students like Zack Shakked, an early decision ap-plicant to Brown who attends Colts Neck High School in Colts Neck, N.J. Shakked said he dealt with formatting errors when he tried to paste supple-mentary responses to the Common App site and that his web browser often flagged the site for being a digi-tally insecure page.

Early decision applicants face Common App site glitchesThe U. has not changed its early decision deadline, despite the tech problems applicants have faced

By EMMAJEAN HOLLEYSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Easy to miss among the bevy of eateries on Weybosset Street, UMelt

might be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Specializing in gour-met grilled cheeses, from classic to quirky, UMelt boasts a casual atmo-sphere and a pleasant staff.

UMelt, whose original location in Kingston made it popular with students from the University of the Rhode Island, opened its Providence location at the beginning of last summer in hopes of replicating its success with students from Johnson & Wales University and Brown.

Walking in, customers might mistake their surroundings for a modern take on a quaint Norman Rockwell painting. The brightly col-ored walls and diner-style seating create a retro yet still contemporary vibe, complemented by indie pop and last decade’s alternative rock hits playing in the background.

The sandwiches, which cost be-tween $4 and $8, appeal to a broad spectrum of palates and culinary comfort levels. Menu items range from the reliable simplicity of “The

Classic,” made with just American cheese and bread, to inspired in-novations such as the combination of cheddar, bacon and BBQ potato chips in “The Chipster.”

For the health-conscious, “The Veggie” delivers a nutritious pow-erhouse with Havarti, hummus and fresh vegetables on multigrain bread, in addition to a variety of gourmet salads, all of which cost less than $8. For customers over 21, UMelt also carries wine and locally brewed beer.

Choosing from such a diverse menu can be daunting. But sharing with friends is easy at UMelt, where the sandwiches are cut in half before being served. While many options include meat, the staff ’s flexibility in altering or omitting ingredients

UMelt redefines grilled cheeseThe gourmet sandwiches, made with fresh and local ingredients, offer an affordable comfort food

By KATE NUSSENBAUMSCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Years before the voice of Siri echoed in the pockets of millions of iPhone

users, it sounded across Brown’s

campus in classics courses and Chat-tertocks concerts.

The voice, known for its polite advice and darkly sarcastic humor, belongs to Susan Bennett ’71, who earlier this month announced her

role in working with Apple.Siri, the voice-activated iPhone

assistant, was launched in 2010 as a downloadable application, according to an article in the Huffington Post. When Apple launched the iPhone 4S in fall 2011, the company marketed the full integration of Siri into the phone as one of its most noteworthy new features.

But until this month, the voice behind Siri remained a mystery.

Bennett revealed to CNN that she was the voice of the Apple product af-ter being encouraged to do so by her husband and son, she said. She added that people had started to speculate a different woman had voiced Siri, after

Alum revealed as voice of iPhone’s SiriSusan Bennett ’71 sang a cappella at Brown and witnessed its transition to co-ed education

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

The specialty sandwich shop on Weybosset Street, which also offers salads and local beers, recently opened up its second location in Providence. Its late-night hours and free WiFi make it an ideal study spot.

» See UMELT, page 2

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Susan Bennett ‘71 said she was overwhelmed by the public’s response when she revealed herself as the voice of Siri earlier this month.

» See APP, page 3

» See SIRI, page 3

FEATURE

arts & culture2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

5 P.M.

Movie Screening: The Lady

Sayles Hall, Room 205

5:30 P.M.

Joseph Litvak Lecture

Dept. of English, Room 315

4 P.M.

What Money Can’t Buy

MacMillan Hall, Room 117

7 P.M.

Free Cider with Safewalk

Sciences Library

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH

DINNER

Butternut Squash Cannelloni, Herb Crusted Salmon, Organic Red Rice with Papaya and Pineapple

Shepherd’s Pie, Black Bean Sweet Potato Ragout, Cous Cous, Chocolate Hot Fudge Cake

Hot Roast Beef on French Bread, Artichoke Pepper Calzone, Pumpkin Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Autumn Bisque, Split Pea with Ham, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobella, Pumpkin Cookies

TODAY OCTOBER 23 TOMORROW OCTOBER 24

c r o s s w o r d

s u d o k u

m e n u

c a l e n d a r

upon request makes the menu mal-leable and vegetarian-friendly.

“The Tomato and Basil” grilled cheese is the distant, more glamor-ous cousin of the pizza at the Sharpe Refectory with the same name. The tomato is noticeably fresher than its College Hill counterpart, and the mozzarella cheese has a creamy consistency, a constrast to the Ratty’s rubbery cheese. The full-bodied fla-vor of the homemade pesto mingles perfectly with the delicate yet savory balsamic glaze.

For those with torn allegiances between mac and cheese from the Ivy Room and grilled cheese from Josiah’s, “The White Trash” is an ideal solution, stuffing mac and cheese, cheddar and BBQ pulled pork be-tween two thick slices of sourdough. Though slightly messy to eat, the sandwich is less dysfunctional than might be expected — possibly because the cheddar allowed the noodles to stick together, preventing too many

casualties. And while UMelt’s mac and cheese is not as decadent as the Ivy Room’s, the strong cheesy flavor provides the same satiation without the bloating and remorse.

The staff is friendly and down-to-earth, chatting and joking with customers and audibly marveling at particularly appetizing orders. Em-ployees are clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the sources of their ingredients, which are fresh

and local whenever possible — for example, the pesto in “The Tomato and Basil” was made entirely with ingredients from the Providence area last summer. Basil has since gone out of season, but UMelt’s pesto continues to be one of the housemade products prepared in small batches to ensure freshness and quality. Even UMelt’s jalapenos are pickled in house.

As a tasty and affordable after-thought, consider indulging in “The Dessert,” which oozes warm Nutella from honey-roasted banana slices with each sumptuous bite. Though the raisin bread’s light sweetness complements Nutella’s viscosity, those who do not want to be overwhelmed by raisins might consider requesting a different kind of bread. Lightly dusted with confectionary sugar, the dish is ideal for sharing or as the ultimate comfort food.

UMelt, just a 10-minute walk down College Hill, proves break-ing out of the campus bubble can be hearteningly comfortable. It offers a vibrant, fresh and more socially conscious solution to cravings for roughly the same cost as a meal credit. In the chilly fall weather, its grilled cheeses make you feel so warm you melt.

» UMELT, from page 1

S. MAIN

THAYER

DYER

PINE

WATERMAN

POWER

UMelt129 Weybosset St.

GEORGE

MEMORIAL

WEY

BOSS

ET

KENNEDY PLAZA

BROWN CAMPUS

ARELY DIAZ / HERALD

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

“The Tomato and Basil,” one of several vegetarian options on UMelt’s menu, transforms the traditional combination of tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto into a grilled cheese sandwich on a crispy baguette.

feature 3THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

“I want to study computer sci-ence, and the website is just so ter-ribly made,” Shakked said. “They have disgustingly ugly animations. The whole website makes me want to throw up.”

This year marks the first time that the Common App required teachers writing letters of recom-mendation for applicants to digi-tally submit their letters through Naviance, a website designed for high school counselors to streamline college admission forms. Naviance has crashed multiple times, many high school guidance counselors said.

College counselors at the Pin-gry School in Bernards, N.J., have offered to transcribe recommenda-tion letters for the school’s teachers because so many have had technical problems with Naviance, said Tim

Lear, the school’s director of college counseling.

“Teachers are all doing this as kind of an extra — they have their own jobs to do, papers to grade, etc.,” Lear said. “Every hurdle we erect in front of teachers is unfortunate.”

Richard Jiang, an early decision applicant to the class of 2018 from Brooklyn, N.Y., said his teachers are receiving the brunt of Naviance’s technical issues. He added that when he searched for Brown and began working on supplemental questions, the website’s formatting confused him so much that he did not know if he had completed certain sections.

Though Miller acknowledged that applicants and their recom-menders have faced significant problems navigating the revamped Common App website, he wrote that the Admission Office anticipated the site’s updates would cause technical issues.

» APP, from page 1

that woman appeared in a video on the website the Verge explaining the history of smartphone voices.

“It took me a long time to decide to reveal my identity, so to speak,” Bennett said. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with public scrutiny and no-toriety.”

A voice on campusOriginally from a small town in

upstate New York, Bennett said at-tending Brown presented a “culture shock.”

“It was a bit of a traumatic time,” she said, adding that though she had received an excellent high school edu-cation, she was not used to being sur-rounded by “so many brilliant and wealthy people.”

Bennett attended the University in the midst of major administra-tive changes: When she arrived on campus in 1967, she was enrolled at the all-female Pembroke College, but by the time she graduated in 1971, Pembroke had merged with Brown. At Pembroke, Bennett recalled, she was summoned by a bell to formal meals in the dorms at which she was required to wear skirts and sit in an assigned seat.

“It went from that kind of con-servatism to co-ed dorms,” she said.

At Brown, Bennett met her first husband — Curt Bennett ’70 — who later became the first American NHL player to score more than 30 goals, she said.

Bennett concentrated in classics, originally intending to become a teacher.

She also found opportunities to develop her voice, acting in Sock and Buskin plays and leading the Chat-tertocks a capella group.

“That was a very important part of my life at Brown,” Bennett said of her time in the Chattertocks. “It was re-ally fun to sing harmony with people.”

Finding Siri’s voiceBennett said she became Siri

somewhat serendipitously, calling her career as a voice actress a “complete and utter accident.”

“I’ve always been interested in words and language,” Bennett said, recalling her pursuit of Latin as a Brown student. “But I was mainly a singer.”

After graduating, Bennett moved to Atlanta, where she found work singing jingles.

One day, the voice actor for a com-mercial she was recording failed to show up. The owner of the studio told Bennett to read the actor’s part because she did not have an accent.

And with that, Bennett’s voice career was born.

“I took some voice coaching les-sons and just started to work,” she said.

When Apple decided to use a hu-man voice in its products, an Apple employee found recordings of Ben-nett’s voice on an agent’s website “and just happened to choose it,” Bennett said.

Recording historyBennett made the initial Siri re-

cordings throughout July 2005. She worked four hours a day, five days a week, reading thousands of nonsensi-cal sentences constructed by linguists and audiologists, she said.

They created sentences that

incorporated countless combinations of vowels, consonants and syllables, “so that they would have in their banks of information just about any combination, any sound that could possibly happen,” she said.

After she recorded all of the sen-tences, the linguists and audiologists broke them apart, extracting certain sounds and reconfiguring them to make any phrase they needed.

Bennett returned to the studio to record updates in 2011 and 2012.

“It was a challenge in a way be-cause most of the text-to-speech work is quite tedious,” Bennett said. “You are reading a huge list, and you have to keep the same intonation and same pacing. … Everything had to be read very, very clearly.”

Siri is unique because she sounds human, Bennett added, which in 2005 was a major technological feat.

‘Siri classic’

Siri doesn’t just sound human — she’s programmed to respond with “a little bit of attitude,” Bennett said, recalling one of her husband’s interac-tions with the robot.

“When he first got the phone, he didn’t realize that he had it on the setting that enabled Siri to speak ev-ery time he picked up the phone,” Bennett said.

When it asked him, “How may I help you,” he responded, “Well you

could just go away!” Bennett said.Siri snapped back, “What did I do

to deserve that?”With the introduction of iOS7,

Apple may have begun to phase out Bennett’s voice, she said. She recently purchased a 5S after losing her phone on the way to an interview in New York and said sometimes the voice sounds like her, but sometimes it sounds like someone else.

“In case they’re phasing me out, I call myself Siri classic,” she said.

Overwhelming responseBennett’s trip to her interview in

New York was just one of many jaunts she has made since her reveal, which she described as “overwhelming.”

“I had no idea that people were so interested in this,” Bennett said. She returned home to 500 personal emails after her first interview with CNN, she said.

“I didn’t realize people had such a close relationship with her,” Ben-nett said.

That interest extended to Brown’s campus, where multiple students have called Bennett’s job “cool.”

“I didn’t realize it was an actual person. It sounded more like an au-tomated voice,” said Vittoriano di Vaio ’14.

“I wonder how she feels about how you can choose a man’s voice now,” said Victoria Leonard ’15.

» SIRI, from page 1

university news 5THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

Class Notes | Philip Trammell

Eric & Eliot | Willa Tracy

c o m i c s

process, she said all these mediums are interconnected and achieve the same brand of “inner peace.” Reiki is quickly expanding and is even used in hospitals and the military, Bourne said.

Some audience members re-ceived the presentation with skep-ticism.

During Bourne’s demonstration on audience member Norah Brad-bury, Bourne attempted to guess where Bradbury’s tension and in-juries were.

The first two guesses proved false, and only when Bourne guessed that Bradbury was right-handed was the Reiki practitioner correct.

After the event, Bradbury said “it didn’t work for (her),” but added that she noticed a complete shift in Bourne’s countenance during the process as her breathing became much deeper.

“I was a bit nervous,” Bradbury said.

“I don’t know, I might give it a try,” said Michele Wise, senior ben-efits special programs coordinator,

who is in charge of the string of alternative medicine workshops at Brown.

She said much of modern medi-cine combines traditional and non-traditional methods, and their effec-tiveness depends on the individual.

“Not everyone has to accept it or have it,” Bourne said, adding that the process does not work on non-believers.

Bourne said her clients react dif-ferently to the treatment. Some cry during the process, and one laughed the entire time simply from the hap-py energy Reiki provided, she said.

» HEALING, from page 8

By DREW WILLIAMSCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Questions about the merits of inter-vention took center stage in a debate on United States foreign policy in the Middle East in a half-full List Art Center 120 Tuesday night.

The debate, entitled “America’s Role in the Middle East,” was spon-sored by the Brown chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society, a non-profit group that organizes lectures on political topics. Middle East Stud-ies Librarian Ian Straughn moderated the debate.

The U.S. government’s “desire to be a hegemon in the Middle East has not produced good results for the United States,” said Stephen Kinzer, visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies and a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times. Kinzer expressed his sup-port for a reduced U.S. presence in the region, arguing that the nation’s current involvement has harmed the people of the Middle East.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the right-leaning American Enter-prise Institute and a former official at the U.S. Department of Defense, disagreed with Kinzer, highlighting what he said were the benefits of con-tinued U.S. engagement in the Middle East. Rubin said a “power vacuum” would emerge if the United States withdrew its political influence from the region.

The speakers disagreed over whether U.S. foreign policy efforts in the Middle East has yielded benefits for local populations.

Kinzer said the United States’ involvement in the region has been motivated by its own political and economic interests, rather than by a genuine commitment to the interests of communities in the Middle East.

“I believe that the new order of the Middle East, whatever it is, should be based on the desires of the Middle East,” Kinzer said. “This order may not be open to American interven-tion. I think this is a fair price to pay.”

But Rubin argued that the United States has acted as a necessary stabi-lizer in the region, adding that the nation has addressed human rights concerns that he believes other major powers, such as Russia and China, might overlook.

Kinzer rebutted by saying a politi-cal shift would occur when the United States left the region, so the federal government should wind down its presence in the Middle East now rather than in the future. American citizens may not be committed to a long-lasting role in the Middle East, he added.

Both speakers criticized the pro-cess of U.S. developmental aid distri-bution in the Middle East.

U.S. aid to Middle Eastern

countries in the form of financial as-sistance and economic development projects can often be detrimental, Kinzer said.

Rubin agreed — “Civilian aid is oftentimes undemocratic,” he said. “You are taking away the role of that government.”

Rubin cited cases where U.S. aid financed the building of roads in Afghanistan that local residents did not want.

Afghani military forces’ seizure of property from local landowners increased substantially following the U.S. road development projects, he said, adding these roads facilitated more land seizures.

Though Kinzer and Rubin agreed that some aid policies have been flawed, they had differing opinions on the effectiveness of the federal government’s efforts to transform the region into a collection of de-mocracies.

Political restructuring efforts by U.S. policymakers have hurt develop-ing states in the Middle East, Kinzer said.

“I believe we actually made Af-ghanistan less democratic by imple-menting parliamentary procedures,” he said.

The creation of a parliament has allowed warlords and drug dealers to exert a stronger influence on Afghan-istan’s political process by winning seats in the legislature and supplant-ing local community leaders’ power, Kinzer said.

The United States must continue its political engagement in the region partly to combat terrorism, Rubin said. Terrorist threats in the Middle East stem from ideological agendas that will not subside if the United States withdraws from the area, he added.

Kinzer said he believed local grievances against the United States’ political involvement in the Middle East drive terrorist groups.

Both speakers voiced concern over the emergence of corruption in gov-ernments set up by the United States in the Middle East, but Rubin said he believed U.S. political involvement can help reduce that corruption.

“We are going to make mistakes,” Rubin said. “There is no magic for-mula in the region.”

But Kinzer expressed doubt about the United States’ ability to reduce the region’s political instability.

“The can-do attitude is quintes-sentially American,” Kinzer said. “But there are some challenges that even the can-do attitude can’t resolve.”

Some attendees said they ap-proved of the speakers’ willingness to look beyond political ideology in discussing solutions to problems in the Middle East.

Matt Breuer ’14 said he was sur-prised by how Kinzer and Rubin were able to facilitate an open-minded dis-cussion of complex challenges facing the region. He said Kinzer and Rubin transcended the divisive nature of the American political process in their presentations on foreign policy.

Speakers clash on nation’s role in Middle EastThe panelists offered differing views on the effectiveness of political intervention in the region

ASHLEY SO / HERALD

Reiki, a Japanese healing technique, was the focus of the Wellness at Brown series’ second program. Bourne said use of the method is expanding, adding that it is currently employed by hospitals and the military.

www.browndailyherald.com

commentary6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

As mentioned this week in the New York Times, two states — Florida and Texas — have begun experimenting with low-cost undergraduate degree programs, programs supported by their respective governors, Rick Scott and Rick Perry. Over a dozen institutions are now offering baccalaureate degrees that cost under $10,000 a year — a far cry from the $40,000 and upwards many currently pay for four-year degrees.

Opponents of such measures have suggested that reducing cost so drastically may come at the expense of other important aspects of higher education, such as quality of teaching or student-teacher interaction. To some extent, these critics have a point: While such measures are something of an initial step towards reducing the price of college, reformers should look beyond such narrow, simplistic policies.

Though we appreciate the incentive behind the so-called $10,000 degree, we too are concerned about the effect such changes could have on higher education. Both Scott and Perry highly encouraged their states’ universities and community colleges to begin offering these degrees in the hope that this would spur more cost-effective methods of higher educa-tion.We are glad governors are not ignoring the plight students face in these hard economic times. But by instituting such a simplistic monetary benchmark for these programs, Florida and Texas have merely encour-aged their respective states’ schools to offer skeletal bachelors degrees that might not even be worth the asking price.

States should instead seek to incentivize actual innovation in the education market rather than merely rewarding colleges for slashing their programs. It is clear technology and online classes will have some sort of place as we examine higher education. It seems backwards, then, not to enact policies that encourage effective and inexpensive integration of online resources. The price of schooling past high school is already threatening to outpace its value. We fear thoughtless cost-cutting could even further devalue a degree.

The path forward lies in using electronic resources to perform tasks and even teach material that they can do faster and more efficiently than a person — without sacrificing quality. People have a comparative advantage in tasks that require flexibility and interpersonal interaction and should thus focus on performing these tasks. One example of how this might potentially be implemented lies in structuring college courses by presenting all or some of the material online, giving professors and teaching assistants more time for individualized and personal attention in office hours.

The reforms in Texas and Florida wrongly focus merely on reducing costs. Instead, leaders should look to develop more efficient ways of deliv-ering education. If education becomes streamlined in this manner, price will fall naturally without fear of a decrease in quality that these policies risk encouraging. This will lead to less inequality in higher education and greater access to educational materials for all.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Daniel Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Higher ed reforms should emphasize innovation

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ANGELIA WANG

E D I T O R I A L

Q U O T E O F T H E D A Y

“The whole website makes me want to throw up.” — Zack Shakked, early decision applicant to the class of 2018

See APP, page 1.

Last week, representatives from the United Nations Security Council and Iran engaged in talks about Iran’s nuclear pro-gram in Geneva. In exchange for loosening economic sanc-tions, Iranian President Has-san Rouhani claims to be will-ing to employ greater transpar-ency in Iran’s nuclear develop-ment. These negotiations and the phone call between Rouhani and President Obama have cre-ated a surge of optimism regard-ing future relations between Iran and the West. Many American leaders and strategists are eager to give the regime a chance to change its ways. But, sadly, Rou-hani is no Mikhail Gorbachev.

This administration’s pro-gressiveness is most likely a fa-cade. Despite any notions of liberalism he harbors, the pres-ident answers first and fore-most to Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei and would not be in power if Khamenei did not approve. All recent intelligence on Khamenei indicates that he is staunchly an-ti-American and leery of estab-lishing any relationship with the West. Mostafa Pourmohamma-di, Rouhani’s pick for minister of justice, was part of a council that

orchestrated the mass torture and executions of Iranian po-litical dissidents in 1988, during his tenure as deputy intelligence minister. Pourmohammadi was an integral part of the Special Affairs Council, the shadowy organization in charge of target-ing political dissidents for assas-sination and torture. In short, Rouhani is charging a butch-er with the justice of the na-tion, which indi-cates his admin-istration is the same old oppres-sive Revolution-ary Guard with a new, friendlier mask.

With the tacit approval of Aya-tollah Khame-nei, President Rouhani is ex-tending a hand to the West only because Iran is withering. West-ern sanctions have succeeded in crippling the Iranian economy, and public support for a nuclear program is waning due to the falling stan-dards of living. A majority of the population lives under the pov-erty line. The communication with the international commu-nity is only to reduce sanctions and preserve the regime for an-other season.

To avoid external threats, Iran will likely continue cultivating nuclear weapons, regardless of any accords reached in Geneva. North Korea exemplifies how to please the domestic and interna-tional community just enough to maintain power while still de-veloping nuclear weapons.

Iran won’t stop pursuing this technology because it provides the ultimate tool for resisting

challengers from abroad and en-sures that the re-gime can keep their people iso-lated from out-side ideologies. Many groups within the Irani-an leadership — particularly the R e v o l u t i o n a r y Guard, who con-trol imports — stand to benefit from this contin-ued isolationism and will hinder

attempts to globalize Iran.Repairing relations with the

Iranian people, opening Iran up to the global community and preventing further human rights abuses are all essential to ensuring security for all parties. Rather than devoting all ener-gies to haggling over nuclear policy with recalcitrant elites, the international community

needs to invest in empowering Iranians. The current treatment of Iran’s citizenry is unaccept-able. Iran has the most execu-tions per capita in the world, which are often for offenses as minor as drug use. Prisoners are denied due process, and execu-tions are public. In addition, the Iranian parliament is currently crafting legislation that would make it legal for men to marry 13-year-olds. All of these violate nternational standards of hu-man rights. Rather than engag-ing Iran singularly on the nu-clear issue, the negotiating par-ties should take a multipronged approach that includes human rights in its negotiations. I agree with Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Rela-tions, who argues human rights violations in Iran need to be part of the sanction negotiations to avoid making the impression that nations can pick which in-ternational norms they violate.

This approach could help open Iran to the rest of the world. Contrary to popular belief, pro-West sentiment abounds throughout Iran. In a blog post published by the Huffington Post, Stephen Kinzer, visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, who has traveled to and written extensively on Iran, called this feeling “a priceless strategic as-set to the U.S.” He went on to say that pro-American sentiments

among the Iranian people come from admiration of American achievements: democracy, per-sonal liberty and rule of law. Ira-nians want engagement with the global community in order to at-tain these attributes in their own country.

To harness these sentiments, the international communi-ty needs to move human rights into every conversation with Iranian diplomats. This Iranian administration is not made up of the reformers we would wish for. The global community must pressure Iran into ending hu-man rights abuses and giving the Iranian people access to global communication. This way, we may be able to strengthen rela-tions with the people of Iran and perhaps sway future leaders.

Any assistance must not be viewed as another form of for-eign imperialism — and this is, admittedly, a very fine line to tread.

But the stakes are too high for inaction. The global community must approach Iran’s interest in negotiating with tact, caution and the lessons of North Korea fresh in mind, with an eye to-ward empowering the Iranian citizenry.

Robyn Sundlee ’16 is trying really hard not to be an

imperialist.

At the start of this year’s college football season, reigning Heis-man Trophy winner and Texas A&M University quarterback Johnny Manziel was suspended amidst reports that he was paid to sign autographs for the first half of his team’s opening game.

Some would argue these re-ports suggest that rather than rendering one of college foot-ball’s biggest stars ineligible to play, the college athletics sys-tem should reward stars by pay-ing them. Paying college athletes, the argument goes, would elimi-nate the need to suspend players for receiving improper benefits while leveling the playing field for athletes who currently get away with receiving benefits.

I don’t see why college athletes should be banned from selling their autographs. If fans can get autographs and then sell them, athletes should be able to profit from their own penmanship. Re-ally, anyone can sell his or her autograph — it’s just likely there

won’t be a market for them. But autographs should be the

only time athletes can profit off their talent. Playing a sport pre-vents players from getting a part-time job, so autographs are a compromise.

Athletes shouldn’t get en-dorsement deals — that would take necessary funds away from schools. And one of the beau-ties of college sports is that ev-ery four years, it’s an entirely new team. Fans come to support the team name on the front of the jersey, not the player’s name on the back — if there even is one.

Paying players is simply im-practical. College athletics de-partments do not have enough money to pay athletes, and sports programs have to share revenue among their entire athletics de-partments. Teams that bring in more revenue don’t keep all of their revenue or have higher bud-gets. They have to share the mon-ey with lower revenue sports.

Paying athletes from only high revenue teams would de-stroy any semblance of equality between high and low revenue sports. Schools would prioritize the sports that would pay ath-letes, and in doing so, would in-

crease the divide between male and female athletes. Only 21 women’s basketball teams were able to outearn their male equiv-alent, and of those, only three were profitable. There is no way schools would be able to pay ath-letes playing unprofitable sports, and paying only one gender of athletes would violate Title IX. The only way pay-ing college ath-letes and creating this imbalance between sports would be possi-ble is through altering Title IX, which could severely set back gender equality.

Only certain schools with large boosters could pay ath-letes. While some might equate this with a survival of the fittest mindset, it would make college sports much less competitive. If only certain schools have the ability to recruit athletes by pay-ing them, elite sports schools will be able to enlarge the gap be-tween them and other schools. Imagine March Madness going from a college basketball tour-nament of 64 teams with upsets

in every round to a tournament where the first half of games would be more like a preseason for top schools.

One of the biggest questions to address is why college athletes should be paid. College athletes put in countless hours of work

each week in their respective sports and, in top pro-grams, oftentimes treat those sports as their major. Proponents of paying athletes also contend ath-letes don’t even

get the benefit of a diploma be-cause they leave school early to attempt to make it in the profes-sional field.

But this isn’t entirely true. Not as many college athletes leave college without obtaining a de-gree as stereotypes suggest. Of players who were freshmen in 2005-06, 74 percent of men’s bas-ketball and 70 percent of men’s football players graduated. That percentage is actually higher than the general graduation rate of students, which in 2009 was 56 percent.

The most important concept

is that college athletes are already paid. If an athlete earns a full athletic scholarship to a private university, that involves earning an annual salary of over $50,000 a year. That is a lot more money than people without a college education or people playing as semi-pro athletes.

Scholarships provide stu-dents who might not be able to afford college a way to gradu-ate completely free of debt. This gives students from impover-ished backgrounds the chance to get world-class educations while being set up for future success. Let’s not forget that they also get the opportunity to compete at a high level in the sport they love. There are countless students who would love that opportunity.

As Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University’s men’s head basket-ball coach, said when asked if he thought college athletes should be paid, “That’s really the most idiotic question of all time.”

Andrew Feldman ’15 is currently working out a Nike endorsement contract to play ultimate Frisbee,

and can be reached at Andrew_Feldman@brown.edu.

commentary 7THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

Let’s leave being paid to the professionals

A word of caution for Iranian sanction negotiators

“Really, anyone can sell his or her autograph — it’s just likely there

won’t be a market for them.”

“Rather than devoting all energies to

haggling over nuclear policy with recalcitrant elites, the international

community needs to invest in empowering

Iranians.”

ANDREWFELDMAN

opinions columnist

ROBYNSUNDLEE

opinions columnist

daily heraldTHE BROWNscience & research

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013

Student wins SACNAS awards The University’s chapter of the Society for the Advancement of

Chicanos and Native Americans in Science won two awards from the national organization earlier this month.

David Barrera ’15 was honored for his research on “the effect of heat stress on tomato plant fertilization,” according to a University press release.

The chapter, established last year, also received a “Role Model Award.”

The University chapter helps students find internships and fellowships and works to engage students in the broader Providence community, like those at Hope High School, in science and research, according to a University press release.

Theresa Ramirez GS and Marcela Suruco GS began the chapter “to foster the success of students to be able to attain advanced degrees and careers and become leaders in science,” Ramirez said in the press release.

Team changes virus’ targetA team of scientists including University researchers published a

paper demonstrating a new technique for changing the target of a particular virus.

The study, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens earlier this month, found that changing one amino acid in a specific virus would also change the sugar to which the virus binds.

“I think it’s one of the first ... times that a receptor switch of this nature has been identified,” said corresponding author and Professor of Medicine Walter Atwood, in a University press release.

“There are dozens of viruses that use these kinds of sugars as receptors. What we’re showing is that it doesn’t take much to convert from using one type of sugar to using another type of sugar,” Atwood said in the release. “It helps us to understand evolutionarily how these viruses may adapt to a new host.”

Researchers could not directly test how infective the viruses are in different species because they were working with “safe psuedoviruses” according to the press release.

Stacy-Ann Allen-Ramdiyal PhD’13, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University, was one of the paper’s lead authors.

Progeria documentary premieres on HBO

“Life According to Sam” premiered on HBO Monday night to generally positive reviews. The documentary follows Sam Berns, a 16-year-old with progeria, a rare condition for which there is no known cure that causes early onset aging and death. Berns is the son of Leslie Gordon, associate professor of pediatrics at Alpert Medical School, and Scott Berns, clinical professor of pediatrics at the Med School.

Since their son’s diagnosis, Gordon and Berns have been working to find a cure for the disease, founding the Progeria Research Foundation and conducting a clinical trial of a promising new drug, The Herald previously reported.

“‘Life According to Sam’ is remarkable in the ways it mimics Sam’s guiding principle and spirit,” Hank Stuever of the Washington Post wrote in a review. “Although it has a lot to tell us about the science of genomes and the rigors of FDA approval, it doesn’t necessarily want you to feel sorry or outraged or moved to act. It only wants you to feel how fragile yet wonderful life can be.”

BY KATE NUSSENBAUM, SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITORSCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP

By EMMA JERZYKCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Children’s brains change in unexpected ways as they develop language, ac-cording to a new study conducted by researchers from the University and King’s College in London.

The study was published in the Jour-nal of Neuroscience Oct. 9.

The researchers focused on the development of myelin, the fatty ma-terial that forms an insulating sheath around nerves, helping them conduct electrical signals. Because structures that support language ability are usu-ally on the left side of the brain, the researchers expected to find increas-ingly asymmetrical levels of myelin in children developing language, with more myelin development on the left side, according to the study. They also expected the difference in myelin levels between the left and right sides of the brain to increase with the development of language skills.

The researchers hypothesized that the asymmetry of myelin would in-crease in children between the ages of 2

and 4, when there is enormous growth in language skills. But contrary to their hypothesis, the researchers found that the asymmetry of myelin in the brain was present as early as the age of 1 and remained steady as children acquired language.

Though there are many studies on myelin asymmetry, “there is a signifi-cant gap in the imaging literature with respect to children aged between 1 and 6 years,” the authors wrote in the paper.

Jonathan O’Muircheartaigh, lead author of the study and visiting scientist at the School of Engineering, said this is because “they won’t go to sleep and they’ll cry and they’ll be upset” in the scanner, moving too much for research-ers to collect usable data.

To test their hypothesis, the re-searchers performed cognitive assess-ments and magnetic resonance imag-ing scans on 108 infants and children between 1 and 6 years of age. In order to avoid the problems that other re-searchers encountered when attempt-ing to scan young children, researchers scanned children under 4 years of age while they were asleep and children over 4 while they watched a movie, O’Muircheartaigh said.

The lab in which the study was conducted, the Advanced Baby Imag-ing Lab, has two family rooms where families sit with their children until

they fall asleep and can be scanned, O’Muircheartaigh said.

For the cognitive assessments, re-searchers administered a battery of tests to measure receptive language, expressive language, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and visual reception, according to the study.

To determine the myelin levels in different parts of the brain, researchers used a technique called “multicompo-nent relaxometry.” O’Muicheartaigh said, “The signal you get out of MRI all comes from water. And by collecting different variants of images, you’re able to decompose that water into water that’s associated with different tissue pools.”

Sean Deoni, the principal inves-tigator of the study and an assistant professor in the School of Engineering, wrote in an email to The Herald that, “by isolating that signal, we can quan-tify it, and obtain an indirect measure of myelin content.”

The researchers are now examining how environment may impact language development, as previous animal stud-ies show that “the degree of myelination changes in response to environment and neuronal activity,” the authors wrote in the study. In particular, the researchers will study whether the pat-tern of their results remains as subjects continue to return for more scanning.

Imaging study probes language acquisitionThe study examined the structural changes that occur as infants and children develop language

By GABRIELLE DEESENIOR STAFF WRITER

Making grabbing motions in thin air and tossing invisible balls of energy behind her, Bridget Bourne, Reiki master teacher and practitioner, dem-onstrated the 80-year-old Japanese healing process of Reiki on an audi-ence member in the Peterruti Lounge yesterday.

The second program in Wellness at Brown’s series on alternative heal-ing techniques such as acupuncture, “Reiki; What is it? How does it heal?” presented brochures, information

about Reiki and a demonstration about the unconventional form of medicine to the 15 women in atten-dance.

Reiki involves practitioners laying their hands on another being to trans-fer energy and encourage relaxation and healing.

Bourne said she “immediately connected to the energy” of Reiki when her tarot card reader performed it on her. Reiki, Bourne said, has com-pletely changed her life — leading her to leave a bad marriage, lose 185 pounds and even leave her job at the United Health Center to devote her

career to the technique. To become a Master Teacher and

Practitioner in Reiki, Bourne said people must first familiarize them-selves with the practice. Then, with more formal training, someone can become a practitioner and eventually a master teacher, she said.

“Fifty percent of my clients be-come my students,” a testament to the connection others feel to the energy that Reiki transmits, Bourne added.

Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui, who studied health and heal-ing at a Japanese school of Buddhism during the early 20th century.

Usui realized that while healing people, his own energy was depleted or the sickness would be transmitted

to him instead, Bourne said. To keep his own energy intact,

Usui developed Reiki to channel heal-ing energy through a practitioner’s hands, Bourne said.

Such energy is everywhere in the universe, connecting everything around us, she said. Stress or injury may cause an energy block, where the energy “feels heavy,” she added.

“There’s nothing (Reiki) isn’t good for,” Bourne said, adding that aside from curing migraines, sinuses, joints, digestive problems, addiction, fertility problems and anxiety, Reiki’s healing energy is applicable to ani-mals, plants, food and even inanimate objects.

At her old job, Bourne said she

would perform Reiki on the faulty printers.

“I would hug it and give it Reiki and people would laugh at me but it would only work for me,” she said.

Bourne said she also used Reiki on a friend’s son affected with Dwarf-ism before he underwent a dangerous operation with a 50 percent chance of survival.

The child recovered unusually quickly, Bourne said — and though she acknowledged the proficiency of the doctors involved, she said she believes Reiki played a role in the quick recuperation.

Though Bourne said Reiki is not massage, meditation or a spiritual

Wellness program examines unconventional healing techniquesReiki, an alternative form of medicine from Japan, is used to channel healing energy through a practitioner

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

A new study conducted in the Advanced Baby Imaging Lab examined how changes in the brain correlate with language development. To conduct brain imaging scans of infants, researchers waited for them to fall asleep.

» See HEALING, page 5