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And, because of Kidder's extensive underwriting commitment our brokers have access to more municipals than most of their counter- parts in the industry. In addition, they can give you the thinking of experts in our thirteen regional offices who spe- cialize in local offerings throughout the country. Whether you would like your securities to yield more interest or more securrty Kidder, Peabody will give you a wide choice in tax-free bonds. Talk to one of our brokers at an office near you. ^^H Kidder, Peabody IH €9 V.O« INCORPORATED ^H FounJifl laCi ^H Mtmbtfi NfuYoTk and Amtfian Stmt Exihenft^ cwCT 60 oHicw woridnnde / M«mbet SIPC BROWN ALUMNI MONTHLY MAY 1984 Volume 84, No. 8 BROWN IN THIS ISSUE Editor Robert M. Rhodes Managing Editor Aline Hiniiian Diffily '73 Assistant Editor Katheiine Hinds Editorial Associate Peter Mandel '81 A.M. Staff Assistant Judith Reed Board of Editors Chairman John J. Monaghan "55 Vice Chairman Cornelia D. Dean '69 Harold Bailey, Jr. '70 Daniel Chu '55 Stuart P. Erwin, Jr. '55 Lacy Herrmann '50 Dante G. lonata '59 Linda Mason '64 Cathleen McGuigan '71 Toni H. Olivieio '65. '73 Ph.D. John V. Reistrup '58 Donald B. Smith '42 Wendy J. Strothman '72 Wallace H. Terry '59 Billy R. Wooten '70 Ph.D. John A. Worsley '56 © 1984 by Brawn Alumni Monthly. Publislied monthly, with combined issues in December/ January. June/July, and August/September, by Brown University. Providence. R.I. Printed by The Lane Press. Burlington. Vt. 05402. Editorial offices are in Nicholson House, 71 George St., Providence. R.I. 02906. Member, Council for the .\d\ance- ment and Support of Education. The Mimlhly is sent to all Brown alumni. Please allow eight weeks for changes-of-address. POSTMAS- TER: Send form 3579 to Brown Alumni Monthly. Nicholson House. 71 George Street. Providence R.I. 02906. The cover: Brown's undefeated men's crew at practice on the Seekonk. Photograph by John Foraste. 2 10 12 18 42 44 53 56 Solving the Puzzle of Chronic Schizophrenia John Hinckley may be this decade's best-known schizophrenic, but his fellow sufferers fill hospitals across the nation. Psychiatrist Rick Wagner of the Program in Medicine faculty is trying to help chronically mentally ill people function in society. They've Got a Good Beat — And You Can Dance to It Blind Dates, a Brown-bred rock/pop band, is a favorite at campus parties and local clubs. Now they're going after their dream: A major-label recording contract. Can four classically-trained musicians make it in the cutthroat world of com- mercial rock? Stopping Out of College Into the Real World The College Venture Prograin is helping hundreds of students take time out from their studies to experience real-life work environments. From handbag buyer for a large department store to apprentice with )im Henson's Muppet-makers, the jobs offered through Venture have changed students' career aspirations and revived their interest in academics. LEMS: A Different Kind of Research Lab It's comparatively small, but Brown's Laboratory for Engineering Man/Ma- chine Systems (LEMS) is generating ex- citement among the faculty and students who work there. It also is piquing the interest of industries with developments such as computers that "see" and "listen," and the potential for sophisticated ro- botics applications. Departments Carrying the Mail Reflections Under the Elms Sports Bearing the News The Classes Obituaries Books CARRYING THE MAIL A vote for 'traditional' medical curriculum Editor: I was exlremely disap- pointed to learn about Brown's Pro- gram in Liberal Medical Education (BAM, February), mostly because, were I an undergraduate applying to medi- cal school today, I would not be able to apply to Brown. In 1976, when I ap- plied to Brown's Program in Medicine, I was a philosophy major at another institution. As an undergraduate, 1 had taken one pre-medical course during my freshman year and it was not until my junior year, while studying in Paris, that I decided to pursue medicine as a career. In my final summer and senior year I managed to complete the re- maining pre-medical courses and ob- tain early acceptance at Brown. Having just completed three years of residency training in internal medi- cine at Columbia University's Presbyte- rian Hospital in New York City, I've had a chance to compare the students and house staff at a more traditional medical center. I would have to report that, as a group, they are at least as lib- erally educated as those at Brown, and perhaps more so. 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They reflect an elitist attitude that is not con- ducive to either recruiting aspiring and able minority students or to promoting the growth and positive image of those Tougaloo graduates currently enrolled in the Brown program. Perhaps you will have the "guts" to extend an apolo- gy to the Tougaloo student bodv. CREASIE FINNEY HAIRSTON, M.D. Nashville, Tenn. Dean David Greer replies: My remarks concerning the background of some Tougaloo students (I said "a couple of homes of medical students") were in- tended as an expression of admiration for the initiative and motivation of youngsters who make their way through universities and into the pro- fessions from such origins. Certainly those students must overcome obstacles which the suburban, prep-school group do not experience. In my opinion, those students should take great pride in their accomplishments. In the final analysis, actions speak louder than words and the commitment of the Program in Medicine at Brown to affirmative action is solid testimony to our respect for the minority com- munity. Among non-minority medical schools, we are tenth in the nation in the percentage of minority students, many of whom come from extremely impoverished backgrounds and most of whom do very well at Brown, both per- sonally and academically. We'll stand on that record. Giles Milhaven Editor: In your otherwise excellent profile of Giles Milhaven (BAM. March), you missed two things, one fundamental to the man's character, the other a mark of his influence: Giles's mad craving for ice cream and the terribly frustrated generation of new teachers nurtured and groomed by him while graduate students at Brown. As a teacher, he's not an easy model to emulate. But his method and style — especially for graduate students who, like myself, co-taught a class with him — are etched forever as benchmarks to which all future success and failure as a teacher must inevitably refer. His presence in my past constantly reminds me that the demands 1 put on my stu- dents nuist be repaid, in kind, by work of my own. That I remain sensitive to the difference between criticism and being critical. I fail as a teacher if I stop learning as a person. I carry the burden of knowing now that teaching is a pro- cess of continuous self-discovery. These serve my students well. But the mandate is exhausting. I even get angry at him sometimes during those 6 a.m. work sessions. Giles knows, how- ever, that it's an anger born of love. DAVID D. COOPER '77 Ph.D. Santa Barbara, Calif. Editor: Abandonment of the priesthood for a position on Brown's faculty seems like a retreat to the clois- ter rather than a stepping out into the world. But if the erstwhile Jesuit. Pro- fessor (Father?) Giles Milhaven. can have such an impact on Brown stu- dents, think what several faithful Jesu- its could do. JAMES G. BRUEN. JR. '70 Cenlreville, Va. Editor: I read with interest your article about Giles Milhaven. He is quoted as saying. "There's nothing in the Bible against abortion ..." If the quote is accurate. I would refer him to Exodus 20:13 where he will find a very clear prohibition of abortion. ANTHONY R. VERNAGLIA '62 Cumberland, R.I. Faculty fellows Editor: I read Katherine Hinds's March article on Brown's Faculty Fel- lows with great interest. When I at- tended Brown (1974-78), it was the common and general wisdom that Brown's New Curriculum was a good idea that had been betrayed by cut- backs in the advisory bodies which were supposed to replace distribution re- quirements. While this situation did provide us with some experience later useful in understanding Reaganomics, some of us felt a bit cheated by the cre- ation of a system that offered many opportunities, but little advice on how to choose among these opportunities or on how to best use those opportunities that we did choose. All too often, this meant that the New Curriculum per- mitted the narrow pursuits of pre-pro- fessionalism, rather than encouraging the broader studies of a liberal arts education. Now, I see that the Faculty Fellows program, who.se beginnings, with Peter Heywood in Appleby Hall, I remember very well from 1976, has been expand- ed so that most of the students now on campus will have some contact with these fine teachers who have found it in themselves to give so much of their time and energy to the students. While the weekly parties and discussion groups are great in and of themselves. I have two hopes for the future of the Brown Faculty Fellows: First, that the program will continue to expand, so that an even greater number of teach- ers will be able to help Brown's stu- dents. Second, that these teachers will be ever more active in advising students on their academic choices, particularly in helping students to broaden their course work outside the limits of any narrow concentration. With such ad- vice, I believe that the students now at Brown will have what we who attended in the middle-to-late seventies felt we lacked: the knowledge to properly use Brown's New Curriculum, to avoid pre-professionalism, and to make the most of an education at Brown Univer- sity. DAVID W. BABSON '78 Stamford, Conn. Left out Editor: In the March issue of Brown Alumni Monthly sports column, you left out only one other varsity women's squash player who won her match against Dartmouth on February 1. How come? That player was Lisa Benatovich '86, at #7 — That's me. It was my first Ivy League win, and I was pretty happy about it! I just wanted to bring it to your attention. LISA BENATOVICH '86 Campus 'Revolted' by ROTC vote Editor: I was revolted at the news of the faculty's anti-ROTC vote. Most, if not all. of the ills of our beloved USA are caused by the majority wish being thwarted. Certainly the majority is not always right, and Brown should be in the forefront of education and ameliora- tion of that majority wish. But in this cause of national de- fense, the majority, overwhelmingly, rightly, wants our country to be able to mediate with the Russians in the only language the Communists under- stand — strength. When I participated in the ROTC at Brown, it certainly further rounded my education and love for my country, as it strengthened our forces for World War II. What kind of faculty does Brown now seek to employ? HENRY LOEB 43 Forrest City, Ark. The breakdown lane Editor: Rather than publishing an article by someone who doesn't "know how people who are permanently disa- bled ever adjust to it" {BAM, March), I think it would have been more enlight- ening and informative to your readers if you had interviewed some of the Brown students, faculty and staff who have disabilities and who are leading productive and fulfilling lives in a vari- ety of ways. You might have considered such questions as the accessibility of the campus, the availability of support ser- vices, and the ways that people with disabilities cope with university life, rather than printing an article which does nothing to overcome stereotypes or to suggest ways in which people with disabilities might be able to participate fully in the university community. CAROL POORE Assistant Professor of German Campus The February 1978 issue of the BAM car- ried an article about Brown's efforts to make the campus more accessible to handicapped persons and an article by Professor of Polit- ical Science Lyman Kirkpatrick about his experiences as a permanently handicapped person. — Editor Editor: I was surprised and pleased when I read "Reflections ' in the BAM. Ms. Hinds gained more insight during her experience with temporary and partial disability than most people choose to do. It is too menacing to everybody. The third lesson, how peo- ple cope with permanent disability, which she never learned and most peo- ple don't learn, is one of our biggest problems in rehabilitating disabled people. The disabled are here among us. Their numbers increase with the ex- tension of life and the wonders of modern lifesaving intervention. We, the health care team, provid- ing rehabilitation care, can assure you that people learn how to cope. When we have diminished abilities, most of us find the hidden resources we never had to use and with the rehabilitation input. 1984 The Eclectic Shirt Co . Inc White Shoes not included. It's no secret what makes a great polo shirt - 100% cotton cloth, ribbed sleeves, a long tail these are the fea- tures which define the polo shirt as the classic it has become. Add to this proven winner, however, your own logo, and you create some- thing truly original, as distinctive and unique as your company or organiza- tion itself. The Eclectic Shirt Company can trans- late almost any design into embroidery for your shirts. Send in the coupon below with your logo, or call us at 212 496 0861 to find out more. We'll do the shirts, but you'll have to get the White Shoes from Brooks Brothers. mail to the Eclectic Shirt Co 642 Amsterdam Ave \'V. .\^' lOUZ.") I am enclosing my logo, please get in touch with me Name Phone " best time to tall: days . LYNN JACHNEY CHARTERS Private crewed yacht charters in the CARIBBEAN, NEW ENGLAND and MEDITERRANEAN. Fine per- sonalized service since 1968. Vir- gin Island bareboat listing also available. Tel: Lynn Jachney 617-639-0787 Box 302AM, Marblehead, Mass. 01945 TOLL FREE: 800-223-2050 r decor international 171 newbury st. boston handwoven rugs orientals- kilims- dhurries tapestries- folk art C^ ^.■^j^,^,^.-^-^-^-^.^,^ < Gk)od Meetings. Guaranteed. If you're ha\ing a meeting in Provi- dence, we'll guarantee you a good one. You'll get the room you want. Set up the way you want it. Exactly on time. Your meals will be served on time. Your room will be spruced up while you're at lunch or dinner. And your bill will be ready for review as soon as you're ready to leave. What's more, if something isn't perfect, you won't have to pay for it. For instance, if a coffee break is two minutes late, the coffee's on us. Or if a meeting room isn't ready on time, it's free. And so on. If this sounds good to you, call us next time you're planning a meeting. (401) 421-0700. With a guarantee like ours, you can't lose. ^LTMOra, A DUNFEY HOTEL Kennedy Plaza, Providence. RI 02903 tluy If.irn lu-w skills to cope. Skills arc physical, mcnt.il. emotional and their motivation oiigiiiates trom the hope they will be reintegrated in the com- nninilv. Unfortunately, the community at large, tamilv. triends, workplace, etc. are not knowlcdgcahie, not emotionally prepared to tacc and help a disabled person. We aie also helping lamilies to learn while the disabled person pro- gresses through the rehabilitation pro- cess. .\n\ help to increase the awareness of the population at large of what Ms. Hinds learned is more than welcome. \'ERONIQUE SUSSET, M.D. Cninslim, R.I. The writer is chief of physical medicine and rehabilitatiun at Virks Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island. She also is clinical assistant professor in Broum's Program in Medi- cine. — Editor Another Band fan Editor: This letter is long overdue, and one that 1 wanted to write before I read any of the letters in the Monthly concerning the Band. Since I live fairly close to State College, I went to the Brown-Pennsyl- vania State University game hoping Brown would not be humiliated. (The team was not, and I received several compliments from Penn State friends Ivy League Vacation Planning Guide We think we can be of assistance to you in planning your next vacation. Listed below are advertisers offering free booklets or brochures. All you need do to receive this material is circle the corresponding numbers on the coupon and return it to us. We'll do the rest! /. EURO CARIBBEAN YACHT- ING — sail the picturesque coast of Yugoslavia aboard a 17-meter, fully- equipped ketch with experienced crew. Water-ski and wind-surf as well. For further information — Circle No. 1. 2. 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Box 2869 Clinton, lA 52735 Please send the vacation/travel information corresponding to the num- bers I have circled: 1 Name {please print) Address City Note: Offer expires August 31, 1984 . State about the team's surprisingly good showing.) However, the show-stopper was the Brown Band. 1 was truly proud to see the 7.5, ()()() fans standing and cheering the Band throughout the Band's entire stay on the held. For innovative com- tuentary and physical performance, 1 have never experienced a show like that the Band piU on. My apprehensions concerning the Band (brought about by the uncompli- mentary and derogatory remarks Fd heard previously) were laid to rest by the Band's performance and the crowd's reaction. Congratulations, Brown Band! ALEXANDER RESKO '34 Mifflintoum. Pa. Activism is alive Editor: I am heartened to see that political activism is alive on the Ameri- can campus. The Corporation's recent approval of the divestment proposal speaks well for the future of University involvement in moral and social con- troversies. When the issue of South African divestiture was first raised at Brown, many University officials (and some students) viewed the protesters as a radical fringe group. This did not help a situation which was already fraught with tension. Misconceptions prolifer- ated on both sides, making productive discussion difficult if not impossible. Although the wheels of any bu- reaucracy turn slowly at times, they do turn. The present outcome illustrates that political participation need not be accompanied by adversarial confronta- tion. I realize that not all problems can be solved within the system, but it is a good start. Universities should be harbingers of change rather than products of tbeir times. It is therefore critical that the members of these institutions speak out on moral and social issues. Three cheers to the trustees and students for taking a stand. PETER W. SIMONSE '80 Philadelphia See Under the Elms, this issue. — Editor Safety at the UEL Editor: This note is in response to the letter about the Urban Environ- mental Laboratory (UEL) from David Rosenbaum, which appeared in the March issue of BAM. UnfortiMiately, Mr. Rosenbaum responded to only partial information. Professor Harold Ward, the director of the Center for Environmental Studies and the Brown official in charge of the design of the UEL, indicated in a letter to Mr. Rosenbaum (below) the precau- tions taken in the construction and outfitting of the building. To that information I can add that the Rhode Island Department of Health has now tested the UEL's indoor air for radon and formaldehyde ron- centrations. These measurements show that concentrations of radon and for- maldehyde are factors of ten below acceptable levels. The results of these texts show that the building is functioning as designed and that there is no danger to any oc- cupants of the building from exposure to radon or formaldehyde. In addition, other tests are underway. Moreover, the permanent residents of the building have not complained of the air seeming "stale" or otherwise unpleasant. (The human nose is a very sensitive detector of confined air pollutants.) Just to be sure, however, we are working on an even more detailed and comprehensive indoor air quality testing program for next year, part of a nation-wide effort being conducted through Harvard's School of Public Health. In conversations subsequent to his letter, Mr. Rosenbaum has indicated that he thinks — on the basis of the ad- ditional evidence — that our design is appropriate and that our testing pro- gram is more than adequate to detect any problems. DUDLEY BURTON Campiis The ii'riter is acting director. Center for Environmental Studtes/Urban Environ- mental Laboratory. — Editor The following letter was sent from Harold Ward to Mr. Rosenbaum, with a copy to the BAM: Certainly your concern for in- creased risk of exposure to toxic ma- terials when infiltration rates are re- duced is important and is one that we have been addressing during the plan- ning and the initial stages of the opera- tion of the Urban Environmental Lab- oratory. I hope it will relieve your concern initially to know that we have three air-to-air heat exchangers in the building which give us approximately one air change per hour. All that I have seen suggests that this is adequate for the protection of health, especially if real attention is paid to reducing the level of toxic materials that are brought into the building. We do not. for ex- ample, use a gas stove and have been careful about the composition of build- ing materials and fabrics brought into the building. Unfortunately, we have not yet obtained the funds necessary for real time measurement of expected con- taminants (radon, formaldehyde, etc.) nor have we yet been able to screen for other volatiles that might be present. In the meanwhile, we operate the heat exchangers at a higher level than we expect will ultimately be necessary, to be on the safe side. I certainly appreciate your offer of assistance and, particularly, would wel- come your help in finding a way to measure diiectly radon levels in the building. Thank you again for your concern. HAROLD R. WARD Campus The writer is director of the Center for En- vironmental Studies. — Editor Mid-life parents sought Editor; I am a graduate of Brown (Ph.D., Sociology, 1981) and am cur- rently conducting research which may be of interest to some Brown alumni. I am trying to locate "mid-life parents" (couples in which the woman was thirty or older at the birth of a first child) who would be willing to complete a ques- tionnaire on their experience as older parents. As a faculty member at Provi- dence College and as a mid-life parent (our daughter Katie was born when I was thirty-three and in the midst of my dissertation), I became interested in the trend towaid delayed childbearing and its impact on families and social institu- tions. My current research is a result of that interest. I am certain that there are many Brown alumni who are part of the trend toward delayed childbearing, and I hope to hear from you. If you and your spouse would be willing to partici- pate (it involves about forty-five min- utes to complete a questionnaire which will be mailed to you), please write to me at the Social Work Department, Providence College, Providence, R.I. 02918, or call me at 401-865-2525. Although I know mid-life parents have many demands on their time, I would like to see Brown mid-life par- ents participate in this study. I know you have a lot to contribute. I look for- ward to hearing from you. ELLEN P. SALVATORE '81 Ph.D. Providence The writer is assistant professor of social work at Providence College. — Editor EUROCARIBBEAN YACHTING invites voii to sail the pietiiresiiue coast of YUGOSLAVIA aboard a 17-metcr tully-et|uipped ketch with experienced crew. V\'ater-ski and windsurf as well. Write Jonathan Wohl 40, a\ . de I'Ahreuvoir 78170 La Cede St-Coud FRANCE LONGISIAND SEDUCE YOU Just 12 cottage cooms on a private 300 acre island two miles by boat from the Antigua,West Indies mainland Sailing, tennis, waterskiing. Remote, relaxed,seductive. See your travel agentor call Resorts Managemen1:lnc.,3t (800) 225-4255. In New York (212)696-4566. LONG ISLAND Resort Aatigua - West Indies FLOATING HOTELS ON THE CANALS OF FRANCE Cruise beautiful French canals on hotelboat! Superb French cuisine. Relax on sundeck or cycle alongside while floating through Burgundy. Visit picturesque vil- lages and chateaus. Individuals or chartergroup (maximum-12). Paris pickup. HORIZON, 215 N. 75th, Belleville, IL 62223. 800-851-3448 Fine Antique Map Reproductions From the rare map collection of the John Carter Brown Library Write for free catalogue to: Maps, JCBL Box 1894, Brown University Providence, RI 0291Z 401 863-27Z5 REFLECTIONS The Days After 'The Day After' By Paul Good 74 T -A. he 10 he American Broadcasting Company's made-for-television movie, Tlie Day After, was aired in November in millions of American homes. This gripping film shows the effect of a nuclear attack on Kansas City and the experience of a few survivors in a nearby town. Having lived through the immediate destruction of the nuclear blast, they struggle against radiation sickness, food shortages, and social chaos, as we watch. The movie does not attribute blame, discuss causes, or propose solutions to the problem of nuclear war; its purpose is simply to document the destructiveness of nu- clear weapons. What effect does such a graphic portrayal of the devastation of nuclear weapons have on the viewing public? Does the film motivate people to take political action or does it create a sense of powerlessness and despair? While the answers to these questions are still emerging, one study by sociologists Donald Granberg and Norman Faye provides interesting data to consider. In 1972 they presented the film Hiro- shima-Nagasaki to 113 college students to see what effect it would have on their orientations to nuclear war. The film was very similar to The Day After, depicting the destruction of property and the gruesome physical and psy- chological injuries to survivors of the first atomic bombings. The results indicated that the movie significantly increased anxiety about nuclear weapons, decreased the percentage of people who wanted to survive a nuclear war, and made peo- ple iTiore reluctant to approve the use of nuclear weapons in a variety of provocative situations presented by the authors. In contrast, the movie had no effect in changing a person's score on a seven-item pacifism scale, nor did it alter people's estimates of the likeli- hood of nuclear war in their lifetimes. The conclusion reached by Granberg and Faye was that presenting a vivid picture of nuclear war serves primarily to sensitize people rather than to cre- ate instant pacifists. Apparently, films of nuclear holo- caust are more effective in creating arousal than they are in persuading people to take a position for or against nuclear weapons. This is consistent with social psychological research showing that arousal must be followed by a persuasive message in order to produce attitude or behavior change. Movies like Hiroshima-Nagasaki and The Day After do help us realize how potent and unconscious are the de- fense mechanisms that we use to avoid awareness of the nuclear danger. The most significant of these defenses, what psychiatrist Robert Lifton terms psychic numbing, includes such psy- chological processes as denial, isolation of affect, and habituation. All of these together cut off our ability to think about and to feel terrified by the bomb. The numbness affects not only the public but also the people who make decisions about nuclear war and peace — our leaders. Recently, after Congress passed the largest defense budget in U.S. history. Representative Ronald Dellums noted: "If there are millions frightened about nuclear war, I did not feel it on the floor of Con- gress ..." T -^^ wc wo shocking proposals have been suggested for restoring the hu- man sensibilities of leaders who could actually launch a nuclear war. The first is suggested by physicist Roy Wood- ruff, chief of nuclear design at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. Woodruff, who is responsi- ble for deciding what goes into the bomb, points out how difficult it is to imagine the awesome power of nuclear weapons and recommends that every five years the world's leaders person- ally witness the explosion of a one- megaton bomb. Even more striking is a proposal by Roger Fisher, professor of law at Harvard. Professor Fisher suggests that the codes needed to fire a nuclear weapon be placed in a capsule that is implanted next to the heart of a vol- unteer who accompanies the President everywhere he goes. This volunteer would carry a butcher knife. If the President ever decides to fire a nuclear weapon, he would first have to kill with his own hands that innocent human being. Perhaps in the blood and gore he would overcome his numbness and realize the implications of what he was about to do. These proposals may seem absurd because they indicate the extent of desensitiza- tion and the intensity of experience needed to break through it. The Day After provides a valuable opportunity to confront images of megadeath and extinction buried deeply in our subconscious minds. Viewing the nuclear nightmare allows a "return of the repressed," as the psychoanalysts say. To reclaim hidden fears and repressed fantasies is a chance for insight into the nuclear di- lemma and possibly a way out. The Greeks kept reenacting mythic tragedies on stage not because they were sadomasochistic, but because the dramas enabled the working through of difficult conflicts in imagination rather than in reality. In the same way, end-of-the-world imagery may be an essential, continuing part of any genu- ine, durable peace. Paul Good is a psychologist living in San Francisco and working with Peace and Common Security (PACS), a new organi- zation dedicated to research and education on the problem of mutual survival in the nuclear age. Albert V Casey Chairman of the Board & CEO American Airlines. Inc. I'm a volunteer supporter of the International Executive Service Corps, a not-for-profit organization with a vital mission: We send retired U.S. exec- utives to help companies in develop- ing countries. The executives receive expenses, but no salary. Our main purpose is to help developing countries succeed in busi- ness. But the benefit doesn't stop there. These countries consume about 40 percent of U.S. exports. With the support of over 800 U.S. companies, we have com- pleted 8,500 projects in 72 countries. Our Board of Directors and Advisory Council include the CEOs of many of America's largest companies. Join me in helping busi- nesses in developing countries. For more information, write to Albert V. Casey, Chairman of the Board & CEO, American Airlines, Inc., at 8 Stamford Forum, P.O. Box 10005, Stamford, CT 06904-2005. Or, if you prefer, just call this number: (203) 967-6000. International Executive Service Corps (Sincil LINDEKTHE ELMS mnitjrfi^ f — ly •■ . ..vt^' 12 Reflections in the mirror glass of the addition to the Bio-Med Center. University announces divestiture policy Brown has taken a significant step in acting against apartheid in South Africa. The Corporation's Advisory and Executive Committee voted at its April meeting to oppose apartheid through the University's investment policy. The vote was in agreement with a resolution that declared, among other things, that the University would not "invest in American companies with one or more subsidiaries in South Afri- ca if such subsidiaries do not operate in substantial compliance with the Sullivan Principles, as they exist at this time." The Sullivan Principles, authored by civil-rights activist The Rev. Leon Sulli- van, require companies to hire and pay black workers equally, to provide train- ing and promotion opportunities for them, and to contribute to education, health, and other community develop- ment projects. In addition, the University will not invest in companies that "through the supply of goods or services are directly mvolved in the maintenance or enforce- ment of apartheid." According to Rob- ert A. Reichley, vice president for Uni- versity relations, interpreting words such as "directly involved" will be the responsibility of the University treasur- er, who will implement the policies mentioned in the resolution. Reichley indicated that the Uni- versity has divested itself in the past of certain holdings with ties to South Af- rica. "There are stocks no longer in the portfolio that were before." And why South Africa, when there are other countries whose governments are not examples of rectitude? "The issue is not one of good government versus bad government," explains Reichley. "The issue is apartheid. The trustees felt that apartheid was not consistent with the goals and ideals of Brown University. "The issue has come before the Corporation several times in the past ten years," says Reichley, "but this is the most substantial position Brown has yet taken on the issue. The feeling on the part of the trustees was that the passage of a decade has allowed ample time for companies operating in South Africa to at least substantially comply with the Sullivan principles." The resolution also stated that the University would divest its portfolio of investments that were not in compli- ance with the Sullivan Principles as soon as possible without suffering un- due financial loss. According to Reich- ley, an estimated $6-10 million may be affected out of a total endowment portfolio of approximately $200 mil- lion. "We won't divest at a loss," says Reichley. "We will do so as quickly as possible without eroding University endowment. Two years seems like a good amount of time." The University will also take a new tack, by making its decision to divest a certain stock known to the company before declaring the disinvestment publicly. Further, the University will consider the divestment policy when accepting gifts. The report by the Committee on Proxy Issues noted, "While we believe that for numerous reasons the Corpo- ration should refrain from becoming involved in political issues, particularly ones far from home, we regard apart- heid as so repugnant to various of the principles for which the University stands as to warrant an exception in its case." Reichley said that kudos should be given to the students who originated the proposal last fall. Kent Greenfield '84, Mark Koide '84, and Roland Pear- son '84 said that they "consciously de- cided to utilize the established lines of communication and discourse between students and the administration instead of the typically student-oriented, more radical forms of protest such as rallies, sit-ins, and other public acts of disrup- tion." The seniors formulated a refer- endum that was submitted to the stu- dent body, which approved it by a 7:2 margin. The resolution then was ap- proved by the Undergraduate Council of Students before it was presented to the Corporation's Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility. According to the Boston Globe, "a number of other universities have adopted similar resolutions, but Brown is believed to have taken the strongest stand so far among the Ivy League col- leges." Yale University, according to the associate director of public information, Steve Kezerian, adopted its policy on divestiture in 1978. "Yale will vote as a stockholder to ask companies to abide by the Sullivan Principles," Kezerian says. The Yale Corporation statement says, "If any U.S. -based company oper- ating in South Africa in which Yale owns stock refuses to commit to the Sullivan Principles, or has not used their best efforts to fulfill them within a reasonable amount of time, the Uni- versity will consider alternative action, which could include disposing of their shares in that company." Harvard will not hold stock in companies that do more than half their business in South Africa, or certificates of deposit in banks that make loans to till- South Afi'iian government. Ac- cording to Micliael lUutiu'iifeld, vice piesident lor stiutciit attairs at Har- vard, "Harvard will (onsider di\esting stock in companies when the company has siihst.mtially failed to meet 'reasonable ethical standards,' and there is no hope for improvement. Those standards don't necessarily have to be the Sullivan signatories — it's con- ceivable the company can be doing right bv its employees without strictly adhering to those signatories. Through our own investigations we determine if they're performing to ethical stand- ards." Harvard, however, has resisted student pressure to sell all holdings in companies that do business in South Africa. "Harvard, as I understand it is with Brown, does not have a blanket policy when it comes to divesting. We can do more as a shareholder, continu- ing our exhortation and inquiries, than we could by divesting," Blumenfeld concludes. K.H. Total Brown costs to rise 7.6 percent The overall cost of attending Brown in 1984-85 will be $13,720, an increase of $970, or 7.6 percent, over the current year's fees. The figure was approved by the Corporation at its February meeting. Tuition was set at $9,940, an 8.6 percent increase; and room and board charges will total $3,345, an increase of 5 percent. The Corporation postponed assigning the specific dollar costs by category until March so that the ad- ministration could develop projections for energy and physical-plant expendi- tures. The tuition fee increase was approved by the Corporation's Adviso- ry and Executive Committee by mail ballot in March. The new price tag represents the smallest percentage increase in Brown's total costs since 1977-78, when the total charges to Brown students increased 7.1 percent. The University's annual cost hikes rose to a high of 15.5 percent in 1981-82, then began to diminish (12.9 percent in 1982-83, 10.3 percent in 1983-84). At its April meeting, the Advisory and Executive Committee set tuition for the Program in Medicine at $13,330, an 8.6 percent increase. A.D. 14 Alcohol use on campus: 'We're not anti-alcohol, we're just anti-crazy' A group of administrators and students that has been studying aspects of undergraduate alcohol use (and abuse) expects to have an interim re- port completed this month, says Dean of Students John Robinson '67. Robin- son is chairing the seven-inember Al- cohol Policy Group, which was formed in March after a weekend of campus partying resulted in the hospitalization of fourteen students for alcohol poi- soning. "The whole emphasis on alcohol is something we must address," said Di- rector of Police and Security Services John Kuprevich after that weekend, which was "bid weekend" at Brown's residential fraternities. "We are at a crisis point in alcohol abuse here." Kuprevich observed, however, that Spring Weekend (April 26-29) was a comparatively good weekend; there were no serious alcohol-related inci- dents or injuries, despite three-and-a- half days of revelry in Providence's first truly spring-like weather. "It wasn't like bid weekend at all," he said. "I think there's a greater general awareness of alcohol abuse. After bid weekend, peo- ple took a step back." Perhaps contributing to a calmer approach to drinking during Spring Weekend was a series of half-page ad- vertisements that ran in the Brown Daily Herald. They were sponsored by "Rhapsody in Booze," an alcohol edu- cation group made up of concerned students and coordinated by Health Education Specialist Rosa Emory. "Getting drunk, throwing up, being hungover ... have absolutely nothing to do with the Vernal Equinox, but each year some Brown students take awful chances ... We're not anti-alcohol, we're just anti-crazy. Go ahead, have fun this [Spring] weekend, but be responsible." The advertisement went on to advise students to beware peer pressures to overdrink, to pace themselves, to eat frequently, to look after their friends, and to be considerate of non-drinkers who might be "fighting private battles to stay sober." The Alcohol Policy Group, says Robinson, grew out of a deans' retreat held in March. "One of our agenda items was to come up with a saner alco- hol policy," he says. "This task force was the result of our discussion." The people serving on the committee, he adds, are all involved in student life and alcohol-related issues on campus. Be- sides Robinson, the grouj) indudes David linnan, diiedor of student activ- ities; Kupieviili; Toby Simon, director o( health education; Joellen Brown '87, ol the Undergraduate Couiuil of Stu- dents; Michael Persky '85, piesident of Kappa Sigma fraternity, representing the Association of Fraternity Presi- dents; and Ken McGraw '84, a staff member of The Underground, a stu- dent pub located in Faunce House. "The final product of the study group," Robinson says, "will be a com- prehensive policy on alcohol. We'll be working on that over the summer." Associate Dean of the College Bruce Donovan '59, a "recovering" al- coholic who is responsible for counsel- ing students with severe addiction problems, thinks such a policy is ur- gently needed. "I feel good about the counseling we do," he says, explaining that Health Services refers particularly alcohol-troubled students to him. "But 1 think we've been average as far as our policy goes on campus. The message the University sends to undergraduates about drinking has not been strong and clear. The old-fashioned moral tone has gone, but there's nothing to take its place. Moderate social norms seem to be missing on campus." "The [Rhode Island] law says you can't drink until you're twenty, and that will probably go to twenty-one soon," says Kuprevich. "Basically, the law isn't 100-percent enforcable. You also have to realize that you're dealing with stu- dents at college, many of them on their own for the first time, and they're going to try some illegal things. We have to address that issue and hopefully come up with a statement that makes clear what the University's policy is if stu- dents choose to disobey the law. Stu- dents now basically believe they are exempt from the state law while they're on campus. "I'm glad we're facing this issue," Kuprevich adds. "Whenever there's a vacuum, people will bring in their own beliefs and rules. I hope we're finally going to get students to understand that the University isn't sitting back saying we don't give a damn about drinking. Because we do." A.D. An evening with Mailer: Quips and pontifications 1 he lecturer pit)mised that "it would turn out to be an odd evening. Whenever I speak," he remarked, "it is an odd evening." The audience, made One of the world's best sings out for Brown Mezzo soprano Marilyn Home, star of New York City's Metropolitan Opera, sang in the first Waller Nei- man '46 Memorial Concert at the Providence Performing Arts Center in late April, and, according to the Providence Journal, she left the audi- ence "begging for more." Home was awarded an honor- ary doctor of music degree by Presi- dent Howard Swearer, who cited her for her "spectacular mastery of her art, for the vivid emotions with which she imbues her characters, and for the sheer sensuous beauty of her singing." The first recipient of the Rossini Foundation's Golden Plaque, which honored her as "il piu grande canlanle del mondo," the greatest singer in the world. Home sang an all-Rossini selection. She was joined on the program by the International String Quartet, and the Brown Chorus and Orchestra. The concert was held in memo- ry of Walter Neiman '46, who was president of WQXR, the classical radio station of the New York Times, for ten years prior to his death last year (BAM, June/July 1983). The proceeds from the concert will cre- ate the Walter Neiman Archives of Sound Recordings in the Brown Music Library. According to Robert A. Reichley, vice president for Uni- versity relations, the Neiman Ar- chives will encompass all records and tapes in the library. In addition, Reichley says that "radio station JOHN FOR AS IE WQXR has contributed ninety-six instrumental and opera recordings, which they advertise as ninety-six records every collection should have. (Ninety-six also happens to be WQXR's call number.)" The concert was supported by the Neiu York Times, the Association of Concert Broadcasters, and WQXR, which has promised regular contributions of this kind to the Neiman Archives. Home's concert was one of a series in which visiting artists have appeared at Brown. Other musicians in the series, which began in 1977, include Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Issac Stern. up mostly of Brown students, laughed, and there were even a few catcalls from the back rows. The lecturer feigned surprise: "When I was at Harvard," he said, "we thought people at Brown didn't laugh much." A lot of things have changed since the lecturer, Norman Mailer, was in college. For one thing. Mailer is now a rather "unsavory" literary figure (as he puts it) instead of a "lonely and envious undergraduate" studying, of all things, aeronautical engineering. For another thing, people at Brown do laugh these days, and there was plenty of laughter during Mailer's April 15 appearance in Sayles Hall — an event sponsored by the Brown Lecture Board and attracted a 15 16 large and vocal crowd. Before the Piililzcr Prize-wiiiiiing novelist (and laiher of Kate Mailer '84) stood up and displayed his ihetorical talents, the audience sat through an hour-long docunientary that was made for PBS in Germany several years ago. As Mailer described it, "It amounted to a long intei view with me in which 1 talk about half the subjects under the stm." Filled with Tyrolean background mu- sic, still shots of Ernest Hemingway, and interviewers reading questions from cue cards, the film served mostly to whet everyone's appetite for the unedited Mailer and for the quesiion- and-answer period that was to follow. On his soap box at last, Mailer strutted about, pretending not to un- derstand student questions and pon- tificating happily, his Harvard-acquired accent superimposed on the original Brooklyn one. There was a flurry of objections from the audience over his use of the pronoun "he" (instead of, say, "he or she") when he made a comment about a hypothetical young writer. Mailer growled that there was one thing he liked better than gender — the Eng- lish language. "You can't run a tractor through it," he admonished, and to scattered hisses and boos, remarked: "Feminists are not always the best etymologists." Those who remember Mailer from his days as a heavy drinker, drug-taker, and Vietnam War protester, may be glad to know that he still has some life left in him — even though his curly hair is kept short and he wears a polite blue blazer and gray flannels. Mailer himself has not yet become polite. He answered a serious question about sexism in the '80s with the quip, "I don't think there is much sex anymore." And in response to one final, rambling piece of interro- gation, he snapped, "Are you putting me on?" P.M. Beyond the big chill: Brown professor teaches Iceman to talk Charlie has a problem. He left his cave 40,(J00 years ago to hunt for food, and he was flash frozen — cryogenically preserved — and then defrosted in this year's movie Iceman. His problem is that he has a failure to communicate far greater than Cool Hand Luke's. Char- lie's larynx and vocal cords, like his fel- low Neanderthals', were not very so- phisticated. As a result, the sounds he is physically able to produce sound to our untrained ears like grunts and nasal Phil Lieberman holds a latex cast of a voice canal. noise. But to Philip Lieberman, chair- man of Brown's linguistics department, those noises comprise a meaningful language. He should know — he created the language for the luovie. His name is even listed on the closing credits — "right above the telephone operator's name," he says with a gleam in his eye. Lieberman was approached by Ice- man's director, Fred Schepisi, more than a year ago and asked to devise a Neanderthal language for Charlie. "Schepisi is a demon for accuracy," Lieberman says. "I went to see another movie he had directed. Barharasa. and was impressed with the length that Schepisi went to to get the details right." When Schepisi and company began research for Iceman, it was natural that they would come across Lieberman's name. In the early seventies, Lieber- man had published a paper, "On the Speech of Neanderthal Man," "that caused a furor in anthropological cir- cles." Lieberman and Edmund Crelin at Yale University hypothesized that Neanderthal man became extinct be- cause his mouth was well adapted for chewing but not for speaking. And speaking was important tor survival in the time when Neanderthal lived. In his Marston Hall office, stuffed with boxes of papers and lined with framed photos by Lieberman, the pro- fessor — constantly moving, rapidlv talking — grabs a box filled with latex models of vocal tracts. He picks up sev- eral and demonstrates how the oral cavity of an orangutan, a Neanderthal, and a newborn human are similar. In all three, the tongue is coinpletely in the mouth and the larynx exits directly into tiic mouth. But in adult humans, the larvnx and the tongue have migrat- ed further down the throat. Lieberman picks up a latex model of the human larynx and explains, "If Neanderthal man had had a human vocal tract, the larynx would have ended up way down in his chest." "The larynx," Lieberman contin- ues, "converts a stream of air into puffs, like a reed in a woodwind instrument. Humans are moving the tongue around in the airwav above the larynx all the time, which changes the filtering prop- erties of the airwaves." And creates dif- ferent sounds. The way the larynx has evolved, accoiding to Lieberman, is "not very efficient for breathing, eating, and chewing, and the mandible [lower jaw] got smaller along the way. So what does it buy us to have the larynx farther down the throat? Vowels like e and consonants g and k; sounds that aren't nasal. And what is the selective value of having these sounds? There's a func- tional reason for the ability not to na- salize sounds — nasalized sounds create two times as much confusion. It makes it much more difficult to perceive lan- guage. Portuguese, for instance, is a very nasal language, although it's mov- ing away from it now." Charlie, our Neanderthal friend who wakes up from a deep-freeze sleep 2,000 times longer than Rip van Win- kle's, was unable to produce the e sound — what Lieberman calls the "super-vowel for huiuan speech, the best perceived of all vowel sounds. Kids have the least difficulty producing e sounds." But Charlie couldn't have produced them. So what would he have sounded like? "What sounds do chil- dren pick up first? A consonant fol- lowed by a vowel. Then a consonant followed by a vowel followed bv an- other consonant. Then vowel conso- nant vowel. Kids have trouble with r's and I's, and we also weren't going to put any 'clicks' in the language. Children don't learn clicks until they're quite old. "As for vocabular), it would have been very simple. Same with syntax. Charlie would have the svntax of a two-year-old. He would combine the word for food with gestures and tongue movement." Lieberman demonstrates. "We wanted to make the language transparent for audiences. I coached ]ohn Lone, who played Charlie, in ges- tures and body movements as well as language. Schepisi wanted to depict Neanderthals as primitives, not like they were in Qiiesl for Fire. What a silly movie that was — the Neanderthals were depicted as gorillas, raiding and eating huiTians. But look at what we know of Neanderthal culture. They took good care of their aged, had ritual burials, and their stone tools were rather com- plicated. They lived in cold areas and had to have clothes. They weren't brutes. They had very robust limbic bones, and were twice as strong as humans, with huge browage and very powerful jaws." Lieberman created the language, coached the body movements, and checked the script for language and cultural inconsistencies. And he's gen- erally pleased with the end result. "Lone did a good job," says Lieberman with a smile. "He only screwed up a couple of times." And possibly only the linguist who created the language would notice. K.H. PEOPLE A former outstanding student ath- lete, Stephanie Sanders '80, has been appointed assistant to the director of the Brown University Sports Foimda- tion. In her new position, Sanders is re- sponsible for most of the Foundation's on-campus activities: producing an all-sports newsletter, developing a stu- dent athletic committee, and helping with annual fiuid activities and special donor relations. After graduating fiom Brown, San- ders joined the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer teaching English and physi- cal education in a small village in Zaire and then as a regional administrator supervising volunteers posted throughout Zaire. A classics concentra- tor who was chosen by the department as its most outstanding student, San- ders served as captain of the soccer and ice hockey teams and also played varsity basketball and lacrosse. She earned All-Ivy honors in soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. "A notable scholarly event" is how the London Times desciibed the publi- cation of the first F^nglish translation by Brown Professor Gerald J. Toomer of Ptolemy's Almagest. In a short, witty review, the Times referred to the Almagest as "heavy with tables and diagrams, and working itself up to a spate of prolixity on matters such as the geometrical computation of total parallax. [It's] not the people's choice as top of the pops for a cozy read ... [but] for a thousand years it was the world's basic textbook of as- tronomy. It was one of the most influential scientific works in history, a masterpiece of technical expression, and it deserves a much wider audience than those able to read it in the origi- nal or the only other available transla- tion, German. "Professor Toomer [in Brown's history of mathematics department] supplies us with the authoritative translation, exposition, and commen- tary," says the Times, "about the an- cient road to the stars; and about as much as your average non-specialist can ptolerate about Ptolemy." Brown students can ingest their food with a little more pride these days: Their chef, Gino Corelli, has been named "Rhode Island Chef of the Year" by the local chapter of the .\merican Culinary Federation. Corelli, who is now executive chef for the University, oversees meals for 4,000 Brown students and employees. He has been cooking at Brown for thirty years. Glenn Normile '72, manager of police and security services, has re- signed from Brown to become director of security at Wheaton College. Normile had worked for Brown .security since he graduated. Physics professor John Quinn has been named associate proxost for the faculty, replacing historv professor James Patterson, who will return to teaching after a two-year term in the office. There are three associate provosts at the University. Quinn will be re- sponsible for the faculty staffing plan and the academic planning that un- derlies it. He will also oversee faculty personnel actions, affirmative action plans for faculty hiring, and a contin- uing review of faculty benefits and retirement plans. In an effort to address a national shortage of qualified scientists. Pres- ident Reagan requested that the Na- tional Science Foundation create awards to help voinig scientists and engineering facult\ establish academic research careers. Stuart Geman, asso- ciate professor of applied mathematics, has received one of the Presidential Young Investigator Awards. The awards provide $23,000 an- nually for up to five years. In keeping with the government's objective of improving links between the academic and industrial sectors, the awards will also match any industrial support dol- lar-for-dollar up to $37,500. The total amount of Geman's award could reach $100,000 per year. It was one of only nine given to researchers in the math- ematical sciences. Geman's reseaich interest is de- veloping a unified theoretical basis for computer image processing. He is working on algorithms that will allow thousands of microprocessors to work on diffeient portions of an image si- inultaneously. His work in computer vision may have applications in the fields of medical image processing and robotics. A member of the Brown facultv since 1977, Geman graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1971, completed basic sci- ence training at Dartmouth's Medical School in 1972, and received a mas- ter's degree in physiology from Dart- mouth in 1973. He earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. K.H. 17 SPORTS By Peter Mandel 18 Photogenic serve A tall leiinis player winds up, and, straining with effort, delivers a tre- mendous serve. That memorable slow-motion scene was featured in Fields of Concentration, a film sponsored bv the Brown Sports Foundation. The tennis player is Darryl Lind- sey, a Brown senior, who not only has the strongest serve in the Ivy League, but is perhaps the primary reason for the Bruins' continued success this year. In 1983, Coach Bob Woods's team set a school record by posting fourteen wins against only four losses — but four of the squad's top six players graduated, and expectations for 1984 were modest. "We have a good attitude," said Woods, conservatively, when asked about his team's chances. Then Lindsey stepped in at # 1 , having competed at the #2, 4, and 5 singles positions last year, and conserv- atism vanished. He proceeded to win his first seven matches (before finally losing to Princeton on April 7), and his record stood at 10-4 as the Bruins pre- pared for the New England Champi- onships at Yale on May 4 and 5. Ac- cording to his coach, "Lindsey is a great deal more consistent this year. He al- ways had the 'big game' but now he is working very hard and is a better all- court player." Brown has lost close 5-4 decisions to perennial tennis powers Harvard and Yale, but has been able to defeat such teams as Cornell, Dartmouth, Navy, and Penn, thanks to the singles and doubles play of Lindsey and team- mates such as Andy New '84, Barry Judge '84, Ned Handy '84, and Adam Weinberg '85. Lindsey is one of a handful of black tennis players ever to compete in the Ivy League. "I chose Brown," he says, "because it seemed more flexible, more suited to me as a person than, say. Harvard or Princeton." A native of Croton, New York, he won the Eastern Interscholastic Championship three times while attending the Horace Mann School in New York City, and also won the private school championship three times. Darryl Lindsey demonstrates his powerful forehand. Woods and the rest of the Bruin coaching staff were immediately im- pressed with the fact that, at 6'2" and 185 pounds, Lindsey "still didn't sac- rifice anything in the way of quickness or agility." And they may well have passed word along to the Sports Foun- dation that here is a young man with an extremely photogenic serve. Historic day for crew The winner's trophy had been sto- len. The race wasn't officially timed. The weather was cloudy, and the See- konk river freezing cold. Despite all of the above, April 14, 1984, was an historic day for the Brown men's crew. It was the first time the Bruin varsity had defeated Harvard in a dual regatta since the two colleges began racing each other twenty-one years ago. Even last spring, when Brown won the IRA Regatta and beat Yale at the Nationals (as well as during its 4-2 reg- ular season) the Harvard jinx held up. The Bruins lost a dual meet to the Crimson, were edged out by Harvard in the Eastern Sprints, and placed third as the Cantabridgians won the National Championship in Cincinnati last June. However, the Brown crew — coached by Steve Gladstone and led by a solid group of senior oars- men — finally got the revenge it has been training so hard for. Coxswain Chris Snell '84 told the Providence Jour- nal that "Harvard's race plan was to bust us up early," and while the Crim- son did maintain a lead at the begin- ning of the race. Brown kept the pres- sure on and finally went ahead with about 800 meters left to go. "When our boat came even, I knew we had it," Snell said after Brown had won the race by half a length. Gladstone says that he "was not surprised by the victory. Though it is difficult to measure the ability of a crew, this year's has a great deal of confidence which, of course, increases with each new success." After outracing Dartmouth by three-and-a-half lengths on April 28, the Bruins were undefeat- ed on the regular season for the first time since I960, having also beaten Boston University, Northeastern, and Yale by at least a length in each case. The crew looked ahead to the Eastern Sprints in Worcester on May 13 and the IRA Regatta in Syracuse at the end of the month. Gladstone predicts the varsity boat will be "in the thick of it," but whatever happens in those races, a Brown crew will keep Crimson rowing shins as sou- venirs for the first time ever. Roundup Brown baseball reached a high point on April 20, as the Bruins swept a doubleheader Irom Army — and hit seven home rims in the process. How- ever, the team has also suffered through several doubleheader losses (C>)rnell, New Hampshiie, Harvard) in an up-and-down 1984 season. As of late April, Mike Sweeney '84 was leading the Bruins with a .438 batting average, and relief pitcher Thom Heckard '84 had a 2.63 KRA. Women ''s softball went into the l\\ League Championship lourney in late April with a record of 7-8. Brown finished second to Princeton last spring in the toiunament, and this year the Bruins ended up in third place with four victories and two losses. Llnde- feated Princeton retained its crown, while Yale sneaked past the Brown women to come in second at .5- 1 . On April 28, the Brown women's crew defeated Smith College by three lengths on the Seekonk, avenging its 1983 loss to Smith and improving the crew's record to 4-5. With one dual regatta remaining (against Northeast- ern Universitv on May 5), C^oach Gavin Viano's Bruins looked for a strong showing at the Women's Eastern Sprints on Mav 13. Men's lacrosse saw its hopes for the Iv\ League title and an NCAA playoff berth go down the drain as the Bruins lost to Harvard, 13-1 1, on April 18 and Penn, 7-4, three days later. Bi-own did rally to beat Dartmouth, 1 1-7, on April 28 and had a chance for a second-place Ivy finish. Scoring lead- ers after eleven games were lorn Gag- non '86 and John Keogh '86. Brown women's lacrosse went into its last week of competition with a 2-7 overall record. Victories came early in the season over Boston Clollege (6-4) and Clornell (10-6), with the BrowTi women having a difficult lime against their other l\v opponents. After nine games, leading scorers for the Bruins were Eileen Cioldgeier '85 and Lauren Becker '87. SCOREBOARD Baseball (14-22-1) Virginia 9, Brown 8 Brown 19, American University 3 Brown 4, Providence 4 Brown 4, Rhode Island College 2 Brown 2, Navy Navy 9, Brown 6 Princeton 7, Brown 3 Brown 5, Princeton 1 Providence 2, Brown Brown 3, Penn 1 Brown 8, Penn 3 New Hampshire 6, Brown 1 New Hampshire 7, Blown 2 Brown 8, Army 6 Brown 14, Army 5 Cornell 7, Brown 6 Cornell 17, Brown 4 Holy Cross 9, Brown 4 Brown 17, Roger Williams 2 Harvard 9, Brown 3 Harvard 9, Brown 3 Brown 9, Dartmouth 8 Dartmouth 7, Brown 3 Connecticut 21, Brown 1 Columbia 18, Brown 12 Brown 18, Columbia 12 Brown 1 1 , Northeastern 7 Northeastern 19, Brown 6 Rhode Island 9, Brown 5 Brown 7, Yale 6 Yale 6, Brown 5 Bryant 8, Brown 5 Women's Softball (12-11) Stonehill 3, Brown I Brown 9, Stonehill 5 Brown 8, Bryant 2 Brown 2, Bryant Massachu.setts 2, Brown Massachusetts 5, Brown Providence 5, Brown Brown 5, Providence 2 Brown 20, Fitchburg State 3 Brown 8, Fitchburg State 5 St. John's 2, Brown St. John's 7, Brown 2 Long Island 10, Brown 3 Brown 1 1 , Barrington Providence 6, Brown 4 Brown 3, Harvard 1 Brown 7, Clornell Yale 1, Btown Blown 9, Dartmouth 5 Brown 2, Penn 1 Princeton 5, Brown I Brown 3, Rhode Island College Rhode Island College 5, Brown 3 Men's Lacrosse (9-5) Brown 13, Adelphi 6 Brown 19, Holy Cross 7 Brown 13, New Hampshire 10 Brown 9, Massachusetts 8 Brown 16, Princeton 7 Harvard 13, Brown II Penn 7, Biown 4 Brown 1 1 , Dartmouth 7 Brown 22, Yale 12 Brown 14, Cornell 10 Women's Lacrosse (4-7) Penn 16, Brown 6 Brown 6, Boston College 4 Brown 10, Cornell 6 Yale 13, Biown 3 Rhode Island 9, Brown 8 Dartmouth 7, Brown 4 Harvard 15, Brown Princeton 16, Biown 8 New Hampshire 13, Brown I Brown 8, Holy Cross 2 Brown 1 1, Boston University 8 Men's Tennis (12-4) Brown 8, Boston College I Brown 9, Occidental Brown 9, Cal-Poly Columbia 7, Brown 2 Brown 5, Penn 4 Brown 7 1/2, Amherst 1/2 Brown 5, Navy 4 Princeton 6, Brown 3 Brown 6, Boston University 1 Blown 9, Providence Brown 5, tkirnell 4 Brown 7 1/2, Army 1 1/2 Yale 5, Brown 4 Brown 7, Dartmouth 2 Harvard 5, Brown 4 Brown 9, Rhode Island Women's Tennis (5-5) Brown 6, Cal Tech 3 UC Santa Barbara 8, Brown 1 Princeton 7, Blown 2 Brown 5, Boston University 4 Brown 7, Cornell 2 Yale 6, Brown 3 Brown 6, Dartmouth 3 Harvard 9, Brown Penn 7, Brown 2 Brown 9, Massachusetts Men's Crew (5-0) Brown 6:28, Boston LIniversity 6;39 Brown 5:39, Harvard 5:41 Brown 5:33, Northeastern 5:37 Brown 5:24, Yale 5:29 Brown 5:37, Dartmouth 5:48 Women's Crew (5-5) Dartmouth 4:53, Brown 5:01, Connecticut C^ollege 5:09 Radcliffe 5:30, Brown 5:38, MIT 5:46, Northeastern 5:53 Rutgers 5:14, Brown 5:18 Syracuse 5:42, Boston University 5:47, Brown 5:55 Brown 5:07, Smith 5:16 Brown 5:58, Northeastern 6:07 Men's Golf (6-4) Bryant 561, Brown 575 Providence 201, Brown 205, Boston College 224, Northeastern 229 Brown 402, Columbia 412 Providence 394, Brown 401, Rhode Island 429 4th of 8 teams at Ivy C:hampionships Brown 382, Providence 400, Harvard 422 Dartmouth 477, Brown 480 Men's Track (0-3) Yale 86, Brown 77 Dartmouth 90, Harvard 62, Brown 43 Women's Track (2-1) Brown 69, '^'ale 58 Harvard 81, Brown 52, Dartmouth 24 19 The Puzzle of Chronic Schizophrenia A young psychiatrist links Brown and community health services to try to prevent the wreckage of mental illness Bv Katherine Hinds w. 20 hen John Hincklev tried to assassinate President Reagan, he thought his actions would gain him the attention and love of the movie actress who was the object of his obsession. Hinckley had had "mental problems" for years; before the assassination at- tempt, his parents had kicked him out of the house in a last desperate effort to get him to straighten his life out. Today Hincklev is incarcerated at St. Eliza- beth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and his parents are on a personal cru- sade to enlighten people about the complexities of mental illness. |ohn Hinckley may be the most notorious schizophrenic of the decade: unfortunately he is not the only one. State and private mental hospitals are full to bursting with people suffering from chronic schizophrenia. A large percentage of them are in and out of hospitals for most of their lives, never quite recovering from the illness long enough to be pioductive or fulfilled. They are a forgotten, powerless group. Richard Wagner is a young psy- chiatrist trying to piece together the puzzle of chronic schizophrenia in hope of finding ways to help these patients function acceptably in society. Dr. Wagner is an associate pro- fessor at Brown, affiliated with the department of psychiatry at Butler Hospital. He is also director of Rhode Island's Psychiatric Research and Training Center located at the state's Institute for Mental Health (IMH). Dr. Wagner has the unusual opporlunilv of being able to see research brought down from the ivory tower and put to practical use in the wards at the IMH. He is in the unique position of easing collaboration between state agencies while serving as a conduit between Brown and the state of Rhode Island in relation to psychiatric research. He teaches classes at Brown, he's an ad- junct professor of pharmacology at the University of Rhode Island, and he supervises a staff of eleven at the IMH. And that's only half his week. From Thursday through Saturday, he is in Washington, D.C., at the National In- stitute of Mental Health, continuing his basic research in psychopharmacology. Dr. Wagner's interest in chronic illness comes from being exposed to 'patients in the chronic mode " when he was a student and medical student at Yale University. He feels that one of his greatest strengths now as a teacher is in providing students with a role model of someone who is treating chronic illness. He is something of a crusader for chronic cases. "I'm inviting students to think of medicine as a 'laying on of hands,' as a cure. I ask students, 'What cures?' With the possible exception of antibiotics, there really are no cures. Even with something as simple as ap- pendicitis — the doctor takes the appen- dix out, but that's really not a cure. Since there are so few cures, we're mis- directed in medical education. "It's so heartening to ha\e a patient come into the ICU with congestive heart failure, then have him recover. Interventions seem so great, but you have to have some kind of tollow-up. P"or instance, [we had] a patient we saw tiiree or four times with heart failure, and we were able to get him through the acute episodes. But what we didn't take into account was that the patient was living on a Hxed income in a fourth-floor walk-up. He was only able to go up and down the stairs once a day. Once we got him an apartment on the first floor of a building, he hasn't been readmitted." Medicine, Wagner believes, is successful at treating pa- tients on an acute basis. "But once we get them over the initial onslaught in the emergency room, we don't talk to patients enough. We're not asking them what floors they live on. "Technology is fantastic, but it's only half of the picture. It's not as glamoious to tieat the other half. Acute medicine has made some fantastic strides in the last few years, but it really hasn't significantly changed ihc le\el of function of patients, or the outcome. It helps individuals who might be dead not be dead. I'm interested in the fimc- tionality of patients, and just how de- bilitated chronic cases get. I would like to see the level of care for chronic pa- tients connnensurate with that for acute patients. " s chizophrenia," explains Dr. Wagner, "is a disorder of thought, mood, and action categorized by pri- mary symptoms of defect in thought association, effect being blunt or inap- propriate, autistic behavior of social isolation, naicissistic preoccupation, or idiosyncratic thinking and ambivalence of feelings and/or action." (His dehnition is textbook perfect, and it tolls off his tongue. Ihis man must have been a master of memorization in medical school.) "In older to better organize their disordered thinking, schizophrenic individuals will often have secondary effects including hallu- cinations (usually auditoiy), delusions, paranoid feelings, and regressive be- havior. Eugene Bleuler [a psychiatrist working at the turn of the century] ac- lu.tlly coined the phrase 'schizophre- nias,' and it's important to note that it's plural. Although the word is literally translated to mean split mind,' it does not refer to split personalities. It refers to a fragmentation of thought, an in- congruity of usual mental thought." When he was at Yale Medical School, Dr. Wagner says he "got onto the behavioral science Hack because I wanted to go into psvchiatrv. The way the program was set up taught us the controveisies in the whole range of psychiatry. We had seminars on psy- choanalytic theory, on biologic theory, on community psychiatry, each taught by leaders in the field. All of these dis- parate views were brought around a particular patient with a particular theme." lo explain this way of teach- ing, Dr. Wagner uses one of his favorite analogies — the old fable aboiu the blind men who try to describe an elephant by 21 22 i-x.iminiiig clitifrciil |).irts. Because iMtii blind man was approaching ihc bcasl Iroin a iinic|iic angle, llieir de- sciiplions varied widely. "In llie sense of how orientation dictates how we view a problem, looking at schizophienia is like tonchiiig the elephant. Individnal schi/oi)hrenia within a community set- ting would niake us examine how we can tieal .i patient outside ot the hospi- tal. It it weie a biologic/teseaiih asjjcct, we would be conceiiied with the neu- lotiansmitteis, how they are aiiaiiged, and how we can turn them aiound. From an analytic viewpoint we would try to understand what the experieine ol psvchosis is." Dr. Wagner's lirst work with chionic cases was a study he did tor his thesis at \ale. He was inteiested in how people within the medical community view patients in terms ot their sutjslance abuse. "I studied a number ot treat- ment modalities for drug abuse. I sur- veyed people who were treating drug abusers at different types of facili- ties — say. at a methadone maintenance center, a de-toxification unit, a short- term facility. I gave them short bio- graphical \igiiettes of ditlereiit types ot patients and let them relate what they thought the outcome of the program would be. For instance, I'd give them a sketch of a twenty-year-old, white male who has legal problems and doesn't live with his family. And another sketch ol a thirtv-live-vear-old black male with no legal problems who lives by himselt. Assuming the people who answered were being completely oljjective in terms of their programs, you'd think that across sex, race, legal status, and marital status, the expected outcomes would be the same. But they came out completely skewed according to the difterent progiams. Some said they reallv coiddn't work with some of these made-up individuals. What we were shown was how these programs, in es- sence, 'pre-select' their clientele. Those made-up individuals would be encour- aged or discouraged from staving in a program. "I was doing this research in the early seventies when there was a big push to hnd an effective treatment for drug abuse. We had all these service- men coming back from Vietnam ad- dicted to heroin. Yet, all the predictions that we would have this huge rash of addiction that would continue literally for decades turned out to be wrong. The high incidence of addiction disap- peared in a couple of years. We had always thought of addiction as being addicted to a drug as opposed to a situ- ation. But as soon .is the sei\i(cmen got out ot the social set ol heroin being av.iilable and [the use ol it| expeded. to a place where getting heioin was diflicult, and mote than that, where the (■xj)(rlatii»is themselves had changed, the addiction dropped oft. We discovered a very small minority stayed hooked, and yet we know that with most programs dealing with heroin abuse, probably only a minority — perhaps 2.5 per- cent — get off the drug completely. A good 25-50 percent ot them would be dead, and the remainder would be on and off the drug. So to see this huge gioup of addicts come back and react the way they did threw all the theories out the window. But it fit very closely with my research of how expectations affect outcome." (ommumty. Ur. Wagner spent thiee years working on this progiam. trying to get an idea ot which patients lit the pattern ol being able to be helped with a similar progiam. He says that not all patients can be treated this way. "From the first year of my residen- cy to my last. I felt I knew less and less about schizophrenia. I started with the idea that I really knew it. and got much lurther away from that. Kven thougli indi\ iduals have similar symptoms, they are iiiiite dif lei eiit. the disorder is very difficult to understand. " Like elephants to a blind man. Moving to a different part of the elephant. Dr. Wagner joined a group of physicians at the National Institute of Mental Health and turned from study- Schizophrenia is diagnosed more in this country than anywhere else W hen Dr. Wagner moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to do his resi- dency, he got involved with an experi- mental program for community treat- ment of schizophrenics. "The program was a program in assertiveness training (PA T). When patients were sent to the state hospital for treatment, we would ask if they would be willing to partici- pate. If they said yes, we would ran- domly assign them either to the PA T program or to regular tieatmenl. With the ones who entered the PA F, we did on-the-spot evaluations to see if there were any way we could work with them within the community; or, if that were impossible, to delay the necessity for hospitalization, or minimize the dura- tion of the stay." According to Dr. Wagner, the PA T program "helped the patients get jobs and places to live, and gave them better communication skills so they were bet- ter able to take care of themselves within the communitv. We gave them all of tliis input while thev were lieing treated. When we looked at the slats a year later, we discovered that of the PAT group, only 1 1 percent went into the hospital at all. Of that I I percent, the average stay was significantly less than the control group in the hospital. With a concerted eft'oi l. many patients who are having acute exacerbations of I psychosis can probably be treated in the ing the conimunity aspects of schizo- phrenia to the biological. "I joined Dr. Richard Wyatt's group in D.C.. looking at schizophienia from the basic science point of view. What were the concomi- tants of schizophrenia, what were .some of the biochemical leases, some of the neuroanatomical changes. electro- physiological changes? What I found was that the confusion 1 had in Wis- consin increased. Two patients who look identical in terms of symptomatol- ogy are totally different biochemically or electrochemically. And the course of their illness would be different. As we worked and got to understand better why some patients do well, and others don't, it became clear that we were re- discovering the wheel." Eugene Bleuler understood that schizophrenia wasn't a single disorder. "But tor the next fifty years," Dr. Wag- ner continues, "people tried to put all schizophrenias in one category — the catatonics. the hebephrenics, the para- noids, the disinvolved. There may be a large overlap between these groups, but the symptomatology may not be the only criteria. I think we're discovering the same thing. If you look closely at individuals with schizophrenia, [the symptoms] are only the tip of the ice- berg diagnostically. "The work at the NIMH over the last five years has led me to my main interest. What is the basis of the differ- ent disorders within schizophrenia? What is the outcome over time of each individual, and how does this relate to Wagner: It's not as glamorous to treat the chronic patients. the disorder? We can better understand the disorder by sort of kniiping, using different categories. The most obvious category is diagnosis." w e diagnose schizophrenia much more frequently in this country than the rest of the world." Dr. Wagner says, "especially compared with Euro- peans." A new nomenclature has been introduced recently, which allows much more fine tuning of the diagnostic mechanism. "Now that we can hone in on a more clear diagnosis, our inci- dence of schizophrenia is decreasing. This doesn't change the fact that indi- viduals have psychosis or they don't, but the diagnosis is important. Once you are able to find a diagnosis, you're able to ask questions. For instance, among a group of individuals who seem relatively homogenous, how do their backgrounds differ, and how are they similar? Do their backgrounds dictate how the course of their disorder goes? "We've found some interesting things. Schizophrenics who were more withdrawn in childhood or adolescence were the ones who did poorly in the long term. We have also found that those who had other neuiologic or neuroanatomic changes — things like small changes on a CAT scan — also tended to do poorly over time. "We started thinking that within groups of schizophrenics there are subgroups of those who do better, and those who do worse. About one quarter go into the hospital, come out, and never have another episode. Another quarter go in and never leave. And the other group has an undulating course, often downhill, so that each time they get psychotic it's a little worse." The treatment of schizophrenics has varied over the last few decades from electroconvulsive shock treatment to lobectomies, lobotomies, and drugs. One of the most comprehensive psy- chiatric studies was done by Bleuler's son, who followed his father's patients for up to seventy years to see what their outcomes would be. "These patients all had different treatments, and it turned out that the treatments have made no long-term difference. This is really disheartening," Dr. Wagner adds. "We really can treat the acute episodes, but it's the chronic cases we're having trou- ble with." Dr. Wagner believes that the an- swer in treating schizophrenics may be to pay more attention to the disordered behavior and less to treating the disease itself. "It's similar to what I discovered about drug abuse. Our own perceptions concerning the individual determine whether we treat him or not. I think we might have more success if we focus in on what is functional, what is dysfunc- tional and treat that, as opposed to treating simply a schizophrenic." If schizophrenics could be treated in the context of the cominunity, as Dr. Wag- ner and his colleagues did in the PAT program, perhaps they could live more 'normal" lives. "One of the dishearten- ing things about PAT was that as soon as we pull away that superstructure, a lot of the schizophrenics slip back. So if you stop following them for a couple of years, they have exactly the same prog- nosis as if they had never been treated. Again, this work has given me a sense of how we need to view this elephant." A fter five years of working at the National Institute of Mental Health, Rick Wagner's personal life determined his next move. His wife, Elizabeth Wheeler '79, had decided to go back to medical school. They set out to find a medical school where Dr. Wagner could teach or continue his research. He was offered a position at Butler Hospital by Dr. Nathan Epstein, a professor of psychiatry at Brown, but the position wasn't quite right because it didn't afford Dr. Wagner the opportu- nity to have research beds. "Dr. Epstein, to his everlasting credit, explained that Butler really didn't have the chronic population I wanted to work with. He suggested that I look at what the state had to offer, and perhaps work out an arrangement with them, because they certainly have the chronic patients." "Wagner's appointment is a great thing," says Dr. Epstein. "We've tried to set up a working relationship between Brown and the MHRH ever since I've been here. It's not easy to do when you have two structured systems with their own organization, rules, and makeup. It makes it difficult for collaboration. We hope this will be the first of many such collaborations." Eventually, a position was ham- mered out so that Dr. Wagner is "loaned" to the state to direct the Psy- chiatric Research and Training Center, while he's on the faculty at the Brown medical school. Neil Meisler, associate director of mental health services for the state of Rhode Island, came up with a challenge for Dr. Wagner. "Neil said we could take a couple of the current wards at the IMH and make them into clinical research wards. He said it I was willing to re-train the staff I would be backed to the hilt. I became very excit- ed at this prospect. This past year in continued on page 55 03 The music is LOUD and the floor is filled with a jumble of sweaty dancers. Blind Dates members Deutsch, Altman, and Ward rock the Living Room, a Providence nightspot. Blind Dates: A Good Beat- And You Can Dance To It 24 By Anne Diffily Photographs by John Foraste H -ey, you want to be a rock-and-roll star? Listen: Just get yourself an electric guitar, take some time, and learn how to play. So sang the Byrds — in so many words — some fifteen years ago. Their simplistic recipe for stardom, replete with bundles of money and throngs of screaming fans, deftly limned the dream of many a teenage musician. And in the volatile world of pop music, there have been enough "instant" suc- cesses during the last few decades to keep the dream alive and alluring. Who will be the next Bruce Springsteen? The next Police? The next Cyndi Lau- per? The next Blind Dates? The next who'? Okay, okay. Slow it down. Blind Dates isn't yet a household name. You might say the band is a dor- mitory name, having achieved loyal followings on the Brown campus and at other area colleges. Lead singer Sean Altman '84, songwriter/guitarist Josh Deutsch '83, bassist David Ward '85, and drummer Deutsch: "Melodic pop with a twist. 25 Spingam: No spikes or spandex. Ward: "Personalities break up a lot of bands. We're really lucky." Deutsch (left) writes songs that "showcase" Altman's strong tenor. 26 Jason Spingarn (a RIkxIc Island Col- lege student and hiothei of Jed Spin- garn '85) formed Blind Dates in 1981. They have since become one of the most popular dance bands in the area. They are a favorite at the Campus Dance, and this will be the third year they have provided music on Lincoln Field for that reiniion-weekend event. Their aspirations, liowever, range far beyond playing at Blown parties and New England nightclubs; even bey)nstructed by a Rhode Island dowager to provide a secure storage spate for her collection of imported china, the room is nearly soundproof. Three members of Blind Dates — Altman, Deutsch, and Spingarn — live at The Vault, and the band normally practices there at least several nights a week. "We moved in two years ago," says Deutsch. "Rehearsal space is hard to come by on campus. We used to practice in the basement of Richardson, where the MacColl Studio [for elec- tronic music] used to be. But it was risky leaving our equipment there; too many other people had keys." Blind Dates' sound is a blend of rock, pop, and reggae; the band mem- bets' roots are in classical music. Bassist for years, including three years with Brown's High Jinks, an a capella group, and now takes voice lessons with Nancy Rosenberg '76. (""I got paranoid I would get nodes [on his vocal chords]. The lessons have helped my breathing, but my technique is still horrible. I strain; you can see the veins in my neck.") Spingarn, a New York friend of Deutsch and Altman, has "always" studied the drums. At Brown, Deutsch and Altman roomed together; with Ward, who lived on the same hall, and three other mu- sicians they formed a band, the Gener- ics. ""We played for parties every week- end," Altman recalls. "The Generics played every song you can imag- ine — from the Police to the Squeeze; even the theme from " f he Monkees!" " Blind Dates was born in the fall of 1981. Deutsch and Altman invited their old friend Spingarn, who had spent a semester at an art school in Florida ("'and hated it"), to join thein in the new band. The musicians wanted to per- form original music with a minimum of ""covers" (songs recorded by other bands). Deutsch, who began writing music in high school, shifted his com- posing into high gear. The band's rep- ertoire currently draws from some three dozen of his songs. And the name? "We had booked our first show, at Wellesley College," Altman recalls. "We needed a name in a hurry. In a bar in New York, either Jason or I suggest- ed Blind Dates.' We all thought it was hokey, but it got a great response. " 27 Blind Dates fri - sat - sun - phlpsi Pembroke 'Video is made for bands like us' 28 Helping Im-I lli.il i espouse was a series ol clever, giaphicallv simple posters leatuiiiig a laitoon (Irawing ol a young woman in a mini-skirl. Bearing a slight lesemblance to Veionita of "Anhie" comic-strip fame, she ap- peared in various guises each week to promote Blind Dates appearances: As a rapturous Scarlett in Clark Gable's arms; helping the Marines hoist the flag on Iwo Jima; clutched high over New York l)y King Kong. One Blind Dates postei — a take-off on a James Bond movie ad that showed Roger Moore aiming a gun through the legs of a woman in the foreground — b)rought ffack from women on campus and got band members summoned for a dis- cussion with student-life deans about sexist images. "People collected the posters," claims Altman. The kitchen wall of Ihe Vault sports a complete set. s access is double-edged, it ap- pears, for musicians who also are stu- dents. As Blind Dates got better and more popular, playing as many as four dates a week, on average, in some months, its members had to assess their priorities. "I had horrible problems with academic work," Altman says. He took a year off from Brown after his sophomore year; "I convinced my par- ents I'd get this rock-band stuff out of iny system." Ward, who entered with the class of 1984, took a leave after first semester last year and has been working days for a computer software company. "I would have gone back to school this January, but so many things started happening with the band." Deutsch, on the other hand, graduated with his class last June, cum laude with honors in English, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. But, he says, "the band takes up most of your social life. You make a big commitment to not enjoying the social aspects of your college career. It lakes discipline to balance working with aca- demics." Blind Dates' first record, "Don't" b/w "Hold On," was leleased last July to good regional reviews. "A nice effort which is (gasp!) intelligently organized and produced," wrote Bob Angell in Providence's The New Paper. " 'Hold On' keeps the party going in a proper vein. Top-notch drum sound. Can't miss. A necessary purchase. Crab it right away. " And in Boston Rock. Rob Taiuienbauni '83 wiote that the single reminded him "of Seven-Up: it's clean cris[), and refreshing ... 1 his is pop music we'ie talking about heie — with crystalline production, line melodies (and one of the best rhythm sections aiound); an impressive single. " Ihe h.ind's second record is pro- fessional all the way. It was recoifled in New York at the Power Station, pro- duced byjcjsh Cutfreund '85 (formerly of the nciw-defunct band Redline), and featmes sophisticated mixing and ad- ditional guitars and keyboaids. "Radio" giabs a listenei's attention with Deutsch's catchy, syncopated guitar chords, .sets feet to tapping when Spin- garn's drums pick up the beat, and gets everyone singing the infectious chorus along with Altman's rich tenor: "You can time the radio " Several critics have noted that Blind Dates' lyrics are on the whole lightweight, and that the music isn't groundbreaking or 'new" in the avant-garde sense. "We're not an art band," letcjrts Deutsch, who when not composing dance tunes likes to write ballads. "We're a commercial band; we want to make some money. I don't ever feel I'm comprc^mising anything artistic by writing this kind of music. Good dance music has what I call both Jeel and craft. I'm proud of the fact it will sell. )ust because it's accessible tcj lots of people doesn't mean this music doesn't come from the heart. It's not preten- tious; it's fun." While he admits Blind Dates' dance-oriented music isn't entirely his cup of rock-and-rcjll tea. Tony Lioce '68, rcjck and popular music critic for the Providence J ourudl-BuUelin. considers the band to be "in the upper handlul of bands aiound here. Iheir nmsic is in that unexplored area between reggae and rock-and-roll. They do it well, with a lot of spirit. And they're doing origi- nal material, so you have to treat them seriously. Their new record is very carefully done, very classy." T .M^ h< he coming months will de- termine whether Blind Dates gets a chance at stardom via a recording con- tract, or dissolves and becomes just a memoiable dance band of the past. Band members aie optimistic. "The 'Radio' video is going to be shown on a closed-circuit campus video network at universities around the country." Altman says. "To be honest. I'm genuinely confident we'll be signed. We've gcjl a solid album's woith of stuff. And video is made for bands like US — we sound good, look good." "This has been a dream since I was in my first band in seventh grade," David Ward says. "It's a tough business, but I thinic our chances are good." "The problem with this business," Deutsch says philosophically, "is also the thing that's so exciting about it: The rewards are disproportionate to the work you do. The whole rock-star fan- tasy can be very lucrative; the returns can be astronomical. We're all trained musicians, as opposed to many bands that have succeeded without the work ethic." Indeed, Altman says, "the hours in this business are terrible, but we're still enjoying it. And that's the key. "At the risk of sounding granola-y, making the video was a real trip foi us, " he adds. "There was a wardrobe expert, a hairdresser, professional models and actors." The band has invested all its earnings, as well as the investments of parents, friends, and other backers, in promotional materials such as the two single records issued to date, the video, and demo tapes. ("We're anxious," Alt- man remarks with a grin, "to get input, advice, and huge sums of money from Brown akuiini.") That commitment to going first- class, the members of Blind Dates think, helps to set the band apart. "We're the only ones in town with this kind of video," says Deutsch, "with these kinds of recordings, with a mar- keting scheme conceived by Sean. That's why we're doing things our peers aren't — getting industry atten- tion, getting good gigs. We're achieving preconceived goals. If we make it hap- pen, it will be at considerable cost. But we feel our product is worthy." If it doesn't happen, Ward will re- turn to Brown for his degree in com- puter science, Spingarn will continue studying at Rhode Island College, Alt- man may go into marketing or try to hook up with another established band, and Deutsch already has been accepted at law school. "We'll always have other skills to fall back on," Deutsch says. But will those alternatives be as appealing as the musical hobby that grew into Blind Dates? "I can intellec- tualize forever about careers, " Deutsch says. "But yeah, I'm excited. A video! Are you kidding? This stuff is great." Blind Dates 29 Time Out! When students need to take a break and get out of the academic arena, the College Venture Program helps them find ways to stretch themselves By Katherine Hinds Photographs by John P'oi aste "When I left Brown I didn't expect to return. I left in a daze. I was confused and scared. Through the work I did and the people I came in contact with, my goals became clear and my confidence and eagerness grew. So I'm back!" — lorinci (liilkijc W'litiirt' sliideiu I 30 t vvoLiIci be a clieaiii tor inaii\ ol us: to be able to stop the course of our oidiiiary lives and take a year off to ex|)lore other ways of living, different parts of the coinUrv, inuliarlecl tei rito- v\ uilliin ourselves — vet knowing all along that we coukl retinn to the fa- miliar framework of oiu' lives re- freshed, renewed, and with a clearer perspective on who we are and where we're going. This in essence describes what the Clollcge Venture Program is all about. It proxides a wav for students who are unsure about what they are doing with their college careers and, generally, their lives to "stop out" of college and explore other possibilities. B) pro\ iding coimseling and a job bank of liundreds of temporary jobs, Ven- ture is one route students can take when thev feel thev cannot cope with college life anvmore. "Some students just feel plain worn out," explains .Susan Stroud, director of the ten-college consortiimi that makes up the College Venture Program. "They've done everything that was expected of them, and in the second year of their college education they're asked to make an important decision about their lives — to decide what their major is. They move from that to the bigger question, 'What am 1 going to do with my life?' Venture provides the opportunity to step back and get con- crete experience to help sort through the decisions that have to be made." Ihe (lollege Venture Program will celebrate its tenth anniversary this summer. According to Stroud, the idea tor a program to help students in need of a break from college began with the Braitmayer Foundation, a small, family foundation in Massachusetts that was lofjking for something innovative to do with a small amount of money. Origi- nally the program was set up at North- eastern University, which had a long record in cooperative work-slud\ edu- cation and extensive job placement experience. "Setting up Ventiue was an acknowledgement in tlie earh seventies that students weir taking leaves, and tli.it mIiooIs wcicn'l lRl|)ing students use their lime away in a consti uctive way," says Siroud. "In a sense, students were doing ii aiivway, and the Brait- mayer Foundation figured this would be a good wav to tapitalize on the phe- nomenon. '■ 1 he Iduiul.uion was also con- teiiied that liberal arts degrees were becoming less \aluable to employers. We've (ome full circle now, to where theie is less emphasis on the attainment ol the M.B.A.. foi instance, and more on the value of a liberal arts education, the question then was, could .schools assist students in making good use of their time away, and provide them with good work experience, too? Colleges were beginning to invest in the idea that thev might have some responsibili- ty to help students plan their careers then. Part of this whole awareness was that Venture was a way to expose stu- dents to the work world." Northeastern became the "agent" for Ventme. although it did not join the consortiimi of schools that set the program up. Brown has been a mem- ber of the progiam from its inception. Venture operated out of Northeastern for four years, until the representatives from each college decided thev no longer wanted a pilot program, but wanted something thev could iiin themselves. Stroud, who had been working for Ventme for six months prior to its in- corporation as a non-piolit organiza- tion, was olferetf the job ot director and asked at which member school she would like it to be based. "It was a toss-up between Brown and Wesleyan," says Stroud. "Brown is more convenient to public transportation, which is good for the students and busitiess reps who come here to be inter\iewed." Also, at the time of incor])oration, Weslevan didn't have a centrex phone system — long-distance calls had to be booked in ad\ ance. "We spend so much of our time on the phone that we have to have easy access to long-distance lines. " Fhere were other, moie philo- sophical reasons tor moving the pro- gram out on its own, Stroud savs. "We lelt that there wasn't much sensitivit\ to liberal arts students at Northeast- ern — most of their students are in specific colleges, and we were dissat- isfied with the kinds of positions they were developing lor our students. We thought we could do il better oiu- selves." So Biowii it was, and Btinvn it has been since 1978. 1 he leu schools that comprise the The Venture staff: David Williams '80, Eleanor Leyden, and Susan Stroud. consortium today are Bates, Brown, the University of Chicago, Colby, North- western, Oberlin, Skidmore, Vassar, Wesieyan, and the College of William and Mary. Membership costs each school $10,000 this year — a figure set by the board of directors, which in- cludes a representative from the dean's office of each school. The board sets policy, budgets, fees, and new initia- tives. The Venture staff, which is housed in newly-renovated offices in Rhode Island Hall, includes Stroud, two program officers, David Williams '80 and Eleanor Levden (University of Chicago '82), and support staff. Each of the ten schools has a campus represent- ative who counsels students about Ven- ture, but all students interested in the program — approximately 400 a year, out of which 53 percent are placed — are referred to the Venture staff at Brown. Here they are coun- seled, and, if things work out, they find employment for a few months or a year. "If you're even considering taking time off, you have doubts about what you're doing at school. School is sim- ply too expensive and too important to your future to go through it in a state of uncertainty. If you wish to wallow in confusion, there is a huge world out there to do it in, but don't throw your tuition money away doing it." — former Venture student w len students are feeling that they need to take time off, they are often "wallowing in confusion." Associ- ate Dean of the College Karen Romer, Brown's representative on Venture's board of directors, says that there are "three groups of students who take time off. One group is studying efficiently and doing well and has for a long time considered the importance of experiencing other things. A second gioup is uncertain about things, has no clear-cut direction, is broad in interests and diverse in ability. They're wonder- ing how they continue a liberal arts education without knowing where they're going. A third group is floundering academically. If these stu- dents stayed on campus much longer, they would continue to deteriorate. They need a new self-view. They think they're total disasters, and they have to find a new spml of energy. Counseling tends to be with these last two groups." According to Romer, the "con- sciousness level about leave-taking on campus is pretty high. We have work- shops here for leave-taking, which in- cludes going abroad, going to other schools, and taking time off to work." When Brown students express interest in taking time off, thev are referred to the Resoiuce Center, which is coordinated by Linda Kramer '77. Kramer is the person who might steer a student toward the Venture job bank. "Jobs are tough to find — that's what appeals about Venture. The jobs that are offered build competence and skills and get the student away from acade- mia. For some people the decision to take the time off is easy and clear. For others there's a struggle about whether it's okay to take off. A lot of them just need help with the technicalities. I think there are probably a huge num- ber of students out there who think about taking time off who never come om- way. " The Ventuie job bank offers a constantly changing list of appealing jobs that are noteworthy for their di- versity alone. Stroud says, "We are committed to having not more than 15 percent of the jobs in the bank be vol- untary. The pay range for the jobs is broad, and there is a different pay scale for profit and non-profit organizations. Often the non-profit jobs will include room, board, and a stipend. We require that minimum wage be paid. " A casual Hipping through the job bank notebook reveals the range of Venture jobs. Apprenticeships are of- fered in choreography and dance, with professional filmmakers, musicians, painters, photographers, sculptors, and writers. There are a host of environ- mentally-related jobs, such as working on a farm, as a land conservation in- tern, or as a wind power intern. Indus- try and retailing are represented, as are jobs as a museum research intern, a commercial design apprentice, an in- vestigator with the public defender's Lisa Poniatowski '84: "/ hadn't found my niche here." .^kWm 31 otfiii', and a rescauli liaiiuc al a /oo in Wasliingtoii. D.C. StiMUii savs, "A voluiHaiN poNilion has lo l)c a very umisiuil job, and sn- pervision has to l)e t'xc client. Lisiialiy these jobs are with non-proht organiza- tions, bnt not always. One example is the job working as an editorial associate with Utirjit'r's magazine. Oi somctiiing re.illv extraordinary, like woi king al llu' Soviet attaiis desk at the State Depart- ment — where could von get experience like that?" Stroud savs that Venture tries to work out llexible hours tor vol- unteer jobs because the students usually have to support themselves while they are taking time off. "Taking time off put a smile on my face, money in my pocket, and ideas in my head." — a Venture student who worked for General Electric in Cleveland M oney is a big issue when a student thinks about taking time off. Tuition rarely goes down from year to year, and a student's parents tnight conceivably worry about how they will continue paying for their child's educa- tion. "I think the financial concerns are concrete," admits Romer. "Often stu- dents have to start repaying loans dur- ing the year they're taking off, and tui- tion does go up. The pro side of the financial issue is that this time off pro- vides a year of relief for parents, when they don't have to pay out the money. They can put it aside, or do things like taking a vacation. And in some jobs the student does make a lot of money." Another positive aspect is that Venture jobs are often public service- oriented, and the student may be eligi- ble for a Starr fellowship, awarded for public service (BAM, Noveinber 1982) upon returning to school. For Derrick Burns '84, taking a semester off from Brown meant rear- ranging his hnancial-aid package. But it was something he felt he had to do. "I had always wanted to go abroad, but it was kind of a hassle for me, with all of the financial-aid consideratioirs. My parents didn't want to deal with all of it. "After the first semester of my junior year, I was very tired of school and wanted to take the second semester „2 off. I was really over-involved with Elise Sprunt '84: Life after college will be the big adventure. extra-curricular activities, including Brown Student Agencies, Kappa Alpha Sigma, the Third World Pre-Busmess Society, and AIESEC;. By the time 1 had finished the final paper of second se- mester, 1 knew I couldn't do it again. Mv father came to get me, and while he drove me home we talked abom my taking time off." Derrick's parents had predictable concerns. "My parents wanted me to get through college in four years. In the back of their minds they were thinking that if 1 took time off, I wouldn't go back to school. Neither one of them went to college, although my father has an associate's degree because he's a policeman. My parents worried a lot about the little things, like how would I get to work, and they kept say- ing, 'Be sure to get a job near a bus line!' I knew I had to get a job, and I also knew 1 couldn't stay at home." Because Derrick had waited so long to begin the Venture process, he didn't find a job until August. "There were a lot of environmental jobs open, but I'm business-oriented and there were only three jobs that interested me." He ended up living in Boston, working as an assistant buyer intern in women's handbags for Jordan Marsh. "1 really enjoyed playing the lole of the young professional. Going to work with people in business really made me feel like an adult. There's a certain amount of responsibility just in getting up and being on time. It's not like skipping class, or cruising in five minutes late. I matured in terms of interpersonal skills, dealing with the vendors and the personnel in the fifteen branch stores." An economics major from Rock- ville Centre, New York, Derrick says the tiine off did a lot for him, including showing him that retail was not going to be his lifework. 'Tor me, schoolwork had become something that had to be done. I did it not to discover something or learn it; I was doing it because it had to be done. After a long period of non-enjoyment, I ain now interested in exploring and discovering. I came back with more direction, and I'm more organized. I got back to school January 25, and h\ February 5 I had my resume printed up and cover letters out looking for a sunnner job. I'm going to be working on Wall Street this summer, which is a perfect job for me. I haven't yet gotten all A's at Brown, but I'm going for it this semester. I don't want to graduate and feel that I never even tried to do that. I'm i mining track and I'm president of mv fraternity. "And although I think watching mv friends graduate this vear will be hard, if I were graduating now, I would have blown a lot of things. I'm not ready to interview for a full-time job." "I've never known anyone to regret taking time off, but I've known many graduates who didn't and wish they had." — former Venture student A nother concern among students who are considering taking a semester or a year off is that they will be out of step with their freshman-vear classmates. "So often people feel there's something magical about their gradua- tion year, " says Karen Romer. "But it's not the year of graduation that counts, it's the learning going on. 1 he pattern of taking five years for education doesn't mean that a student is less than serious. It's not like they're taking time off to work at McDonald's. And I don't have a problem with the concern about graduating with one's class or losing touch with one's friends. When you have friends who are friends, you d(3n't lose them. Furthermore, Brown is full of interesting people to know. It's that grade-school mentality to think that there is a difference between third- and fourth-graders. That just doesn't hold up here. You can always make new friends." Lisa Poniatowski '84 had complet- ed her junior year when she realized she needed a break from academics. She knew she needed lime off, even if it meant returning to Brown after the friends she had nurtured for three years had left. "I was really floundering and still hadn't found my niche here. 1 needed to reassess why I was at Brown. I was spending all this money to be here, and I needed to make better use of time and not just tread water." Initially Lisa, a psychology major from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, moved to Boston to find a job. Then she doubled back to Brown and went through Venture. "I felt confident that I could get a job — it would be easy with the systein. I also thought the caliber of jobs they had in their job bank would be higher than those I could get on my own. I had worked full-time one se- mester as business manager at WBRU, so I had professional experience in radio. I wanted to continue working in the media, and wanted to be exposed to a different medium. I thought a job at an ad agency would combine my psy- chology backgiound and my interest in the media." Lisa moved to New York and went to work for the advertising agency of Wells, Rich, and Greene as an assistant account executive working with overall marketing and strategic planning for the Tender Vittles cat food account. "One good thing about Venture is that it shows you what you don't want as well as what you do. It proved to me that I didn't want to be in advertising. But the job was fun and it was great fun to be in New York City. I had a lot of disposable income and free time. So- cially my life was full and wonderful. "I really missed the academics, though, and I was eager to get back to classes. I decided for the first time to make them a high priority and take them seriously. I could see how the academics might pay off, if I put enough time into them to get some- thing out of them. The Venture job gave me skills and tools to perform at a higher level. Working with people, for example, and being accountable to someone. If a deadline is not met, tak- ing responsibility for that. You have to learn how to budget your time. And working with authority figures, too, made it easier for me to approach pro- fessors when I returned. I was also not timid about raising my hand in class, which I had been before. Derrick Burns '84: Time off means financial and parental concerns. "When I was working, I felt like my Iriends here were the ones out of step. When I came back, my class had gtad- uated, and I didn't mind then that I was the one out of step. Venture is a good way to get out of the academic environment and explore a different part of your character. This is the age when you should take advantage of it. You have no ties. It gives you a new perspective on Brown, on education, on why you're doing what you're doing. It helps you clarify your goals and interests, and it helped me eliminate some choices. " While Lisa was floundering and unsure of what she was doing academi- cally, Elise Sprunt '84 says she was "sort of atypical for Venture students. I was too motivated in terms of my school work. Most kids feel burned out and ready for a break. I was too wrapped up in my academics. When I went to apply for jobs, I thought I wanted something where I could 'have adven- tures.' " Brown is Elise's third school: She began at Mount Holyoke, transferred to Wesleyan, and then decided to take time off. It was when she visited the Brown campus to interview with Ven- ture that she first thought of Blown as a good place to go to school. Elise worked at two outdoors Venture jobs, one on a farm in Vermont and one teaching environmental education in Superior National Forest in Minnesota. "I taught snow-shoeing, rock climbing, cross-country skiing — anything to do with the outdoors. We were half-in- doors, half-outdoors, using nature as a classroom. "I discovered that I could take risks and get off the beaten path. It was important to me to see that there are many things out there. I gained a lot of confidence, and I'm not so worried about what I am going to do alter I graduate. In a way, I'm looking at next year as the big adventure." Elise, who is a Starr Fellow this year, works at the Resource Center and spends a lot of time talking to fellow students considering taking time off. "I usually tell them to go ahead and do it. Now is the perfect time. You get a breather and new experiences, and it makes you appreciate your schoolwork more. You know you're going back, and there's no pressure on you to think that what you're doing is a 'real' job. I look at my year off as my year." "If Mom and Dad don't like the idea of a year off, that may be a sign that you 33 need to get away from them as much as to get away from Brown." — loi iiitr \ cimiii- ^llnl^lll T .•^^ Ml) iiiK- sptiit in college is part of the iiest-vatatiiiij; process tliat many parents accept readily. But some par- ents balk when their son or daughter informs them that he or she has to get away from the academic envircjnment for a change of pace. The obvious fear is that the student won't return. "Of course it's best when the parents sav they understand," says Stioud. 'Ntore likely, though. the\ are concerned and wondering why time off is necessary. Parents usually worry that the kid is taking a leave of absence and won't re- turn. Yet more than 90 percent of the students who take time off return to Blown, .^nd they're much more likely t(5 come back if you provide them with a framework." Stroud's point is high- lighted by one student who wrote when he returned to school, "If I had not followed my own instincts and listened to others instead, I might have dropped out my junior or senior year in frustra- tion, and probably never returned." "It's a matter of a communications gap," says Romer. "The minute a par- ent says, 'you'll never find a job,' the student feels squelched. We point out to them how to breach the gap. It may be the first time parents have said 'no' since the student has been away at col- lege. Sometimes it's haid to work ihiough that. Once oi twice stiidenls ha\e had to make contracts with their |)arents, the differences have been so strong. We tell the students to have their parents call us, and we give them the Venture biochure and assure them that Venture is a real progiam." Linda Kramer, herself a Venture student in 197.5, feels that "a four-year graduation date isn't based on any- thing, really. Students have to look at the long tange of life. Taking time off is such a special opportunity, it only enhances school when you return. Col- lege is so special, there is no hurry to get through it. " When she worked at a Venture job, Kramer stayed in Providence, some- thing she doesn't lecommend because it doesn't get the student far enough away from Brown. Ellen Hillsinger, in her first year of Brown's medical school in the seven-year continuum, did the opposite — she went to England on a Venture job. "I wanted to do something re- warding, and while the programs studying at schools abroad are nice, I wanted to do something special. I wanted to get involved in a different culture and get to know the people socially. " Ellen worked in the village of Tumbridge Wells as a community ser- vice volunteer, in a program that helped rehabilitate delinquent adoles- cents who had been referred bv the court, "it was kind of like a social club, although there was a definite philoso- phy behind it. We were fostering posi- Venture across the Atlantic: Ellen Hillsinger '84, the Yank. in 34 live social inlei action. We wanted the kids to take responsibility for their ac- tions. We tried to show them that we respected them. At lit si the kids didn't know what to make of it. Before 1 left I was sort of afraid. I had seen Clockwork Orange. But these kids weren't the tough kids; they were the losers. Some- one would say, 'Go shoplift,' and they would and get caught." Hillsinger says there were no real cultural barriers to overcome except some vocabulary. "They used so many words I didn't know. The kids would swear at me and I wouldn't know it was offensive and I would laugh. And then they'd laugh at me. They called me Yank and had lots of questions about America. Their ideas about Americans were just what they got fiom television. They asked if all Americans carried guns. I think my being there was broad- ening for the kids." Stroud says that identifying more overseas jobs is one of Venture's goals. "But it would be difficult to do without personal contacts." She is hoping that as alumni of the ten schools learn about the Venture program they will provide leads on jobs in other countries. One Brown alumnus who has got- ten excited about Venture is John Wright '58. Wright is manager of writ- ing and publications for the Aluminum Company of America. Alcoa has been supportive of Venture for years, and this year the Alcoa Foundation award- ed the program a grant to publish a newsletter. Wright says, "I think the Venture program is super. A lot of companies are leery about hiring students, but we don't have that problem at Alcoa. We use the same selection process in hiring interns as we use for college graduates, and they produce for us. We look on them as entry-level employees." "Brown is smart to make it easy for students to take time off," Kramer con- cludes. "The other Ivy schools don't pay much attention. The whole process is such a healthy thing. It's good to take a break from the intensity. It would probably be good for all of us." T .A. he he Venture staff attempts to gauge student interests and keep the job bank reflective of what students want. Williams and Leyden, the two program officers, are responsible for job development. "We're really tuned into picking up continued on page 41 Getting Wired at LEMS Researchers and students put their heads together and their hands on to create tomorrow's computer technology Research engineer Rolf van Widenfelt '83 discusses with Mike Levy '84 (left) the circuitry needed for the flight simulation system being designed by Mike and five fellow students. By Anne Diffily Photographs by John Foraste B cfore he was hired as a sen- ior tccliiiicai assistant in a Brown engi- neering laboratory three years ago, Arpiar Kaioustian ran a repair shop in Cranston. Rhode Island. There, for fifleen years, he hxed people's televi- sion sets, tape recorders, and stereos. He did warranty work on a variety ol industrial products. The Athens native loved working with his hands, and he was good at what he did. But three years ago Kaioustian closed his shop. "1 was Idiii'lw" he explains in a light accent that evokes his homeland. "I worked alone seven davs a week with no vaca- tions. I like to mingle with people." Now Kaioustian mingles from early morning until quitting time — which may be as early as 5 p.m. or as late as 9 p.m., and which often includes Satur- days and .Sinidavs. In a (juiet way he has become the heai t of Brown's Labo- ratory for Kngineering Man/Machine Systems (I.KMS), a facility within the electrical sciences faculty of Brown's Division ol Engineering. "Arpie," as he 35 is known K) one .mil all. assists lio/ciis of iiiKlfrgiailuati' and graduate stu- dents, as well as tlie lab's fi\c priinipal faculty investigators, every day. "I don't really do one thing in the lab," he says. "It's a little of everything. I usually come in between 7 and 8 a.m. and clean up. 1 look after the students and find whatever parts and materials the> need. I advise them on technical aspects of their projects, within my capacity. I do repairs of instrumenta- tion, order supplies, and keep up with what everyone is doing." The last is something Kaloustian deems a pleasure rather than a duty. "Seeing all the different groups doing projects is an enjoyment in itself," he claims. "There is a mutual exchange of ideas. I help them get started on pro- jects, and I learn from what they're doing." He had some vocational train- ing in electronics repair, but since com- ing to Brown Kaloustian has taken four courses at the University, "two in math and two in engineering. It was to up- date mv knowledge. I learn in order to keep up with the students. There is an excitement here," he adds, "that keeps the place going." E 36 xcitement seems to reign — in many forms — at LEMS. The labo- ratory was founded in 1980 to facilitate collafjorative research on the design and analysis of intelligent (i.e., com- puter-based) systems. Housed in three rooms on the third floor of the Barus and Holley building, the lab simmers with the low-key excitement of ongoing faculty research; vibrates with the in- tense concentration of twenty graduate students working on projects for their theses and dissertations; resounds with the exuberance of soine thirty under- graduates doing independent studies projects or assisting with other re- search; and it fairly snaps with electric- ity when Professor of Engineering Harvey Silverman '71 Ph.D., LEMS's director, strolls through. "Is that your synthesizer?" Silver- man barks at two seniors leturning from a demonstration to a computer science class. "Let's hear it." They will- ingly comply. "When you finish vour thesis, we'll call about getting a patent on that." In another room five students are typing at computer terminals, one with a colorful giaphics display. Two of the students are women. "We have a lot more women now," Silverman says. He turns to a student and shouts, "RIGH T, Dianne?" Diainie Cloiter '84 laughs, "Right, Professoi Silvei man." Silvci- inan addicsses the room at Luge: "When are the most people woi king in here?" The unanimous reply: "Between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m." He nods, grinning. "We're open twenty-four hours a day. A lot of students like to work in the middle of the night. We try to make this a cordial place to he." In fact, Siherman and his faculty colleagues designed the laboratory to facilitate sharing. "You almost have to walk through and talk to everybody when you come in," he says. "It's a very talkative situation. I was a manager at IBM, and I've seen the problems that occur when people don't talk to each other. The object here is finding the best way of getting a job done. Asking somebody a question is often faster than looking it up." "It's stimulating here," agrees Ken Robbins '84, co-inventor with Joe King "84 of the state-of-the-art music syn- thesizer Silverman has just listened to. 'With so many people working in the lab, you always have someone nearby to bounce ideas off." Ideas, and the research to buttress them, are abundant at LEMS. Provid- ing an environment for their nurtm ing has been one of Silverman's primary goals since he was hired away from iBM. "Brown wanted tne to get a pro- gram going in computer engineering, " he says. "I agreed to come, with the idea that current faculty in the systems area of electrical sciences would get involved in developing an appropriate laboratory facility. "After I arrived, David (>)opcr and I got togethei with Bill Wolovich and Allan Pearson [all of whom are pro- fessors of engineering]. Dave was doing work in image processing [computer vision, in simple terms], and he was borrowing equipment from the geology department. " Wolovich was doing work in the areas of nuiltivariable systems and digital control; he has since become interested in robotics research and has spent this year on sabbatical at IBM, working with the Automation Research Group there. Pearson's research has dealt with systems theory and control systems. "The common thread," says Silverman, "is that we all were dealing with intelligence systems — with hard- ware, software, and algorithms. '"We decided to pull this group together. The idea was for faculty to work in a collaborative fashion, com- bining resources in a single laboratory. We spent a month or so thinking of a name; then we said, 'Let there be LEMS!' And there was LEMS." The Division of Engineering provided two rooms, first on the second Hoor and later on the third, for the new facility. This year a third room, a large work space used extensively by graduate and undergraduate students, was added. The research taking place at LEMS, while somewhat daunting to those imfamiliar with the vernacular, is potentially useful and even saleable. A Providence company, Spheie, Inc., formed a year ago to utilize Silverman's research on computer voice recognition (BAM. May 1983), now has a working Arpiar "Arpie" Kaloustian at work in the LEMS lab. In the speech room, graduate student Jim Ray field (left) and LEMS director Harvey Silverman discuss their research on speech recognition. "demo" model of the machine it hopes to begin manufacturing this summer. In exchange for teciinoiogy developed in l.EMS, Sphere gave Brown an un- disclosed number of shares; the com- pany has "first-look" privileges for any new technology Silverman develops at Brown, which it can then purchase at a competitive price. A notiiei area of research that has drawn the interest of several outside companies is David Cooper's work in pattern and image recognition. "Ciooper's software for image analysis has potential for such industrial appli- cations as quality control," says William Jackson, president of the Brown Uni- versity Research Foundation (BURF), an office set up this past year to coordi- nate the licensing of Brown-originated technology. "Many companies have a need for automated quality control. You could have a TV camera scanning every item on a conveyor belt, looking for variations from the desired prod- uct." Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc., and an unnamed tobacco company are among the firms interested in Cooper's re- search. Is it tough to sell research coming out of a lab as small as LEMS? "Size is not a disadvantage," insists Jackson. "It all conies down to individual effort. And there is an advantage for a com- |)any working with LEMS. Because we're small, the personal touch is there; a company is treated more enthusiasti- cally. Harvey Silverman is unusual [among Brown research faculty]," Jackson adds. "He has a number of years of industrial experience, so he has no prejudice against industry; he un- derstands what it's all about. And he has pizazz. It's a combination of his personality and his experience. "We don't want to become a con- tract research house," says Jackson. "But with less federal money available for research today, faculty can't afford to thumb their noses at industry. The commercialization of technology is very much on trial at Brown. Many engi- neering faculty take great pride in not i)cing practically oriented, but rather maintaining a strong base of theoretical work. The LEMS group is very results- oriented." David Cooper, however, makes a distinction between his role as a re- searcher and the role of industry. "Our goal," says the bearded professor, who has been at Brown since 1966 and is associate director of LEMS, "is to de- velop a theory, then to get algorithms that work under a wide range of condi- tions to illustrate that theory. " He does not, he stresses, build hardware. "Industry is in a better position to de- velop actual systems." But much of the prototype hardware being developed by others in LEMS, he adds, is relevant to his research. His research. Cooper says, repre- sents "the interface between mathe- matical theory and engineering. Our work with computer vision is of a more fundamental nature than that being done in some of the larger groups at other schools." In the smallest of LEMS's three main rooms. Cooper demonstrates his work on the image- processing equipment he shares with another faculty researcher. Judy Sockut Silverman '67, '69 Sc.M. is Cooper's research assistant and programmer. (She also is married to Harvey.) "It's me, Judy, four graduate students, and currently one undergraduate" working on the project, Cooper says. As Judy Silverman types instruc- tions into a terminal, a screen fills with photographic images of a house sur- rounded by trees. "First, we concen- trate on recognizing textures," says Cooper. "While it's relatively easy to set 37 ii|) a miKlt'l ol .1 liouM- Ix'i.iusi- (il ,ill iIh' slLii^lu lines, you can't niakr a dtlci- niinistic jrconictrii nioclcl lor a ticf, or tor foliaj^c or grass. There are loo manv variations in intensity. So wc use "stochastic' piocesses to identity these objects. We construct a probabilistic description of how the image ot a tree vaiies. 1 lie inalhenialical model lor ihis can then generate its own anilicial data on texture. So. the computer can both recognize itie texture ot a tiee, and generate an image that represents the average variations in iiitcnsil\ of that tree." Clooper's programs also are en- abling computers to make judgments about thiee-dimensional objects based on two-dimensional leprescntations. He uses simple, basic shapes such as spheres, cylinders, planes, and cones. "If you're looking at a little piece of an object, how do you decide what shape that object is? It's a shading pioblem," Cooper says. "It's similar to processes in art: Vou get an image through the ef- fects of shading. We can do that math- ematically, and the machine can classify shapes. The uses for this type of tech- nology," he adds, "include medical image analysis." Cooper's image-pro- cessing svstem displa\s a demonstration of a boundary finder for a kidney in a CAT scan. Cooper tias two short-term ("within a tew years ") goals for his imaging re- search: "We want to permit a robot to recognize parts and estimate their posi- tions, and we want the machine to be able to recognize vehicles, such as cars, in outdoor scenes. " The theory he is developing could have applications in other aspects of mechanical image analysis: It could extract information from visual satellite data. "How many bushels of wheat do the Russians have in a field? Is there blight in a particular forest?" Cooper has been working on these particular problems since 197(i. "There are five of us in LEMS now. If we all functioned iiidi\idually, we'd have a few small activities going on. But now we have a research center that's small, but reasonably powerful. The VAX is a good, husky computer for a group our size. [LEMS has its own DEC: VAX/1 1-780 computer, a hunmiing machine that occupies its own small room swirling with ventilation to keep it cool.] We're going to be getting a couple of digital cameras that will take images of objects in motion. And there is this image-processing facility that I share with Dick Bulterman." 38 T JL Ik he lour l.EMS faculty re- searduis .ilicads mentioned were joined by Die k Bulteinian '82 Ph.D., a computer scientist whose research in- terests are in computer graphics and computer architecture. His appoint- ment tcj an engineering faculty position in 1981 has been helpfuf for both the division and LEMS. "We complement the computer science department," Haivey Silverman explains, "and we stress as strong a cooperation as possi- ble. All CS ccjncentrators take two courses in this depailment. While we're more interested in building things, in applications, and in hardware, there's really no very solid line between com- puter engineering and computer sci- ence." Bulterman, who did his I'h.D. work with computer .science chaii man An- dries van Dam, acknowledges that it is somewhat unusual for a Ph.D. in com- puter science to be on an engineering faculty. "At some schools there is ill will between computer science and engi- neering departments," he says. "One of the reasons they were eager to have me here was to make sure the two groups worked well together. Computer engi- neering is just starting up here, as an option within electrical engineering. We encourage our students, within the restrictions of the engineering core requirements, to take computer science courses. "One of the things that made Prof. David Cooper, associate director of Judy Sockut Silverman '67 at work in the woiking at liiown so .ippealing lo me," he adds, "is being on ihc ground floor of a new progiam. LEMS is an inter- esting place to work. We've taken pains not to glow too fast. But we've also been able to attract funding from .sources such as NSE and the Depart- ment of Defense in years when it has been very tight. We now ha\e the sec- ond-best departmental comjniter facili- ty on campus. [Comijuter science has the most sophisticatecl one.]" Both Silverman and Bulterman supervise large numbers of students. At age ihii t\-thiee, Bulterman seems to enjoy a special rapport with them, and he often spends evenings hanging out at LEMS, helping students with inde- pendent studv projects. ""Our students are able lo use facilities not nc^rmally available to students, especially at the undergraduate level, at other schools," he says. "They can come in here, build things, and really get them to work. There is a heavy monitoring load on the faculty here, but I feel strongly about the quality of undergraduate education. There are man) days 1 spend the entire day meeting with stu- dents. '"My toughest pioblem is finding time for the research end of my work. " Bulterman has found that of the un- dergraduates he employs in his re- search, "about 30 percent of them are of real help to me. Abcjut 20 to 30 per- cent are very strong. And the oth- ers — well, it's a net gain for them, and that's fine. We don't have undergradu- ate students here simply to serve as slaves to research projects." niiitiniied on page 40 LEMS, and research assistant LEMS graphic room. James Spencer '87 built his first robot at age thirteen When James Spencer '87 was young, he played with erector sets and Lego — games that let him hmld things. "If anything broke in our house, I'd trv to fix it," he recalls. "Then I started taking things apart that still worked! That's when my parents bought me kits." The movie Star Wars gave new di- rection to Spencer's interest. "I became fascinated with robots. 1 wanted to build a robot that could emulate human motion." So, at age thirteen, he built one. But it could only be operated b) means of an "umbilical cord" with hand-held controls. As a junior at Brooklyn Technical High School, Spencer began building a better robot. He displaced a ping-pong table and took over a third-floor room in his family's home. Tw(j vears of scrounging for surplus parts and metal, and pains- taking work with a drill press, hacksaw, and screwdrivers, resulted in "EIUMM," a.k.a. the Experimental Individual Universal Mobile Manipula- tor. EIUMM is imposing-looking at five-foot, ten inches tall and 355 pounds. It has a crane-like single arm that can turn, twist, and grasp. It rolls along on tank-like tieads that can turn on a dime. Powered by a Diehard ma- rine battery, it can be operated with remote controls at a distance of up to a quarter-mile. And it's a winner: EIUMM won first prize for its creator in a nationwide student science compe- tition sponsored by the National Secur- ity Agency in February. (Another Brown student, Angela Harris '85, took second prize for designing a bit-slice computer.) Spencer brought EIUMM to Brown with him. At first the robot stayed in modest quarters: a mainte- nance room. But Spencer brought the machine up to LEMS earlier this se- mester, and EIUMM has found a home among more intelligent, computer- based machinery. Spencer has bigger plans. The engineering major will begin working James Spencer and his robot, EIUMM, in the hallway outside LEMS. on an independent study project under Harvey Silverman next fall. "I'll be starting on another robot, an intelligent one," he says. "This one is just a me- chanical accomplishment." He expects it may be a three-year project, costing anvwhere from close to $100,000 to a quarter-million dollars. "It will move on its own, have basic artificial intelligence, voice recognition. It will be able to scan a room and recognize patterns and objects; to carry out commands; to in- teract with human beings. "They're doing a lot of research here in LEMS," Spencer adds. "By the time I've finished the mechanical stuff on the new robot, I feel the other com- ponents — speech and image recogni- tion, for example — will be on a higher level, and I'll apply them to the robot. This could be one of the first robots with speech recognition. It will have a manipulator [hand and arm apparatus] that can recognize what kind of object it's picking up." His project advisor, says Spencer, is "really excited. But Professor Silverman is also concerned with my getting my other course work done. He'll say to me, 'James, I haven't seen you around here in a while — and that's good! It means you're getting your work done.' He's interested in me, not just in LEMS." Spencer hopes to get a doctorate in computerized control svstems someday. In the meantime, he'll be working for IBM this smnnier, writing programs for robotic arms. And for the next three years, you can bet he'll be hang- ing around LEMS a lot. A.D. 39 Prof. Dick Bulterman (seated at desk) holds a bi-weekly evening project meeting with independent study students in his office. Demand Joi independent-study or research-assistant positions in LEMS is high among engineering undergradu- ates. That's good for LEMS: "We can be very selective," notes Bulterman. Says Silverman, "We use measures to exclude, unfortunately, students we think won't be successful in this setting. There are people who can do independent studies, and those who can't. We are not babysitters." Indeed, the students one observes at work in LEMS are purposeful and confident. Carl Beckman '84 is bent over a work table, wrapping orange wires on a board to create what appears to be the web of a deranged spider. But there's a method to this seeming mad- ness: A computer printout of a program tells him where each wire is placed. Michael Levy '85 is creating graphics in the next room, using an old video-game screen as a monitor. "This is all student-built hardware," Silver- man says proudly, pointing to the monitor and the microcomputer it connects to. "Taka" Takamura, a master's-de- gree candidate from Japan, came to LEMS to work on robotics. In soft, 4Q halting English, he explains his re- search: "I am interested in the me- chanics of using computers." He wrote mathematical equations that would al- low a robot arm to take objects from one point to another, and tested them on "Rhino," a mechanized arm that Takamura describes as "a kind of so- phisticated toy, with six motors." He spent every day in the LEMS lab last summer as well as several days a week first semester, testing his progiam. "This semester I wrote my thesis. That was almost as hard as the math!" Taka- mura jokes, alluding to his difficulties with written English. Ken Robbins and Joe King, the music synthesizer collaborators, are so excited about their project their sen- tences tumble into one another as they talk. King, a computer science major, wrote the software, and Robbins, an engineering major specializing in com- puter engineering, built the hardware. "This board," says King, pointing to a slab of circuitry, "can handle the com- plexity of sixteen real instruments." He punches at a terminal keyboard. "You can choose the scale you want from a menu; for instance, you can go from our twelve-tone scale to the Chinese pentatonic scale." He demonstrates: a foreign-sounding note progression em- anates from a speaker. "Both of us are musical hackers!" Robbins exclaims. They've been work- ing on the project since their freshman year, after Robbins built a small syn- thesizer from a kit and realized, "Wait a minute, we can do this better." They did research on music synthesis, talked to music-store salespeople, and studied computer science and electronics. "Pecjple in the industry say the most important thing for a student is to have done a project, " King says. "We've done this from beginning to end," adds Rob- bins. "This is all original stuff. A lot of people in school build one small pro- ject, and that's it. With something like this, you see the overall project as well as the little details." "This project," says King, "gave us a better idea of why we're studying things, of how the theo- ries work." B 111 [ackson of BL'RE notes that some taculty feel such practical coiuses are "temporal. When the fads change in ten years, the students won't have a basis of knowledge to apply to them. But I think the fundamental requirements of the engineering de- gree will prevent that. In mv view, you can't be a good engineering depart- ment if you don't have some practical applications. Students are at a disad- vantage if they don't get their hands on a wrench." "LEMS is carrying on the academic orientation of the division," agrees Bulterman. "We have a good under- standing of the theoretical world, and as good an understanding of the prac- tical world. We don't have to be apolo- getic about teaching real-world skills." Real-world skills have immediate advantages for the facility, too. The laboratory has started an Industrial Affiliates Program, in which a target group of about ten industries — both local and national — will become in- volved with LEMS in a nimiber of ways: providing fimding for graduate fellow- ships and special research, supporting cooperative research, and possibly, re- ceiving some of LEMS's expertise. Al- ready industry has played a large role in getting LEMS off the ground: Digital Equipment supplied a grant for the VAX computer, and Analog Devices, Inc.. supports undergraduate student research at a rate of 1150,000 over five years. "We want people [in industry] to realize LEMS is a good place to put funds," says Bulterman. "Finding good people in this field is tough. Through affiliation with LEMS, companies will become more known to students. " u niess he is out teaching a class, Harvey Silverman is a pervasive presence at LEMS. His voice echoes in the adjacent hallway; one moment he is sitting at a table expounding on theory with a group of graduate students, the next he is checking supply in\entories with Arpie Kaloustian. He delights in showing of f the latest contraption in the speech-recognition area of the lab (his area); he has dubbed the new database machine a "LEMStrument." "Harvey is an exciting person," says Kaloustian. "He's very bubblv, and very knowledge- able. He's seldom wrong about anything. I'd like to beat him someday, but so far I haven't!" "Har\ey gets things done," adds Dick Bulterman. "He's delightfully abrasive. Even people who don't like him respect his enthusiasm and what he's trying to do. He's a character. And he's become the focal point for the whole group at LEMS, in a very positive way." Silverman himself utters what is perhaps the understatement of the year: "I'm very gung-ho," he agrees. "LEMS is going to be at the leading edge of research. We're going to keep the money coming in." His rapid-fire manner of speaking and his at- tire — open-necked, short sleeve oxford shirt; khaki pants; crepe-soled shoes — are casual, but Silverman's mind is intense and purposeful. A plastic sign bordered in orange sits prominently on his desk. In Hebrew characters it spells "THINK." "Om objective here was never to build an empire. This is just a place to do what we want. And there's some- thing new every day, and good people to talk to. People like Arpie — he has so much enthusiasm. His credentials weren't the best of all the applicants for that job. but I hired him right away, and he's done a yeoman's job. He comes in early, leaves late, comes in on weekends. He has spirit. And that's something that's hard to convey." It is something easy to find, how- ever, on the third floor of Barus and Hoi ley. VENTURE continued possible job leads," explains Williams. "Our antennae are up all the time. When something's hot, like the David Letterman Show, for instance, we think about approaching it for a possible job. If we don't have a contact, we try to figure out who to get in touch with and write letters introducing them to the program. We spend a lot of time going after new, unique possibilities and in the process we find out about intern- ships already existing. We use students, employers we're alreadv working with, alumni, television, newspapers — any- thing, for lips. " One job Williams is especially pleased to have roped is one with Hen- son Associates as an apprentice pup- petmaker. "I was visiting some Brown friends for Christmas dinner in Brook- lyn. A friend of theirs was along who is a major puppetmaker for the Muppets. He mentioned that Henson Associates was looking for a quality reliable source for apprentices without wanting to spreaci the word all over the country. After a little hammering-out, we swung it. We've placed two apprentices there, unfortunatelv none from Brown. This job lets students be an integral part of the creative process with a major inter- national company." Williams says that in the early years the Venture program was heavily weighted with jobs in education, envi- ronmental work, human services, and public interest groups. "Economic forces and the current administration have combined to make those jobs much fewer and farther between. Now we've shifted focus to science research, business, publishing, and the arts. "One special interest of mine now is to make this program more accessible to minorities. For many reasons — cultural, social, and financial — mi- norities don't make use of taking time off. There is a social stigma to 'dropping out.' And there is often such a tremendous drive for minorities to get in, and stay to get what they're here to get, that to break that up enters some uncertainties into the equation." "There are more things to an educa- tion than on-campus stuff. Sometimes it's just inertia at Brown that keeps you going." — former Venture student I I's the students who keep us all sane here," says Susan Stroud. "You meet these kids when they are confused and not sure what they are doing here, and then you see the changes when they come back. A lot of times they will say that being independent — being something other than a student — was the best part of their Venture experi- ence. If you're nineteen years old and you're not a student, what are you? These students are put in a different situation from academia, where other skills are being tested, and it's very affirming." "Leave-taking reaffirms the im- portance and value of a liberal educa- tion," says Romer. "Students are able to see the difference in the working world between the person who has a liberal education, and one who has a vocation- al education. I think leave-taking rein- fuses energy back into the University as to what a liberal arts education is all about." "Do it. And don't look back." — former Venture student 41 42 fccf IGSt is different. When the finest talent in retirement community planning is commissioned, and when the sponsoring nonprofit organization is celebrating 150 years in the human services, the result is not just another retirement community! — 1 Glccf In the beautiful Hudson Valley's Y^/" at retirement community V^^lOoL - your gracious, independent lifestyle is sustained; - your entry fee is fu//y refundable, to you or your estate; - your apartment or townhouse is elegantly appointed; - your choices among activities are many and varied; - your health needs will be met by licensed professionals; - and your desire to go "antiquing," or browse charming shops, or dine in delightful inns, is facilitated by free GreerCrest transportation. the Retirement Community of distinction Please send me more information about GreerCrest. Name Address Mail this request to GreerCrest Box D Millbrook, NY 12545 BEARING THE NEWS A potpourri oi ahmiiii .utivilifs A celebration in New York City The Brown Bear Awards, present- ed each year during the Commence- ment exercises, are the highest honors the Associated Alumni of Brown Uni- versity can bestow. What may not be widely known is that the award was created and first presented, in 1940, by the Brown Club of New York. In commemoration of this, the club held a "Celebration of Honors" on Val- entine's Day. Present were thirteen Brown Bear recipients, the widows of two others, nine former Brown Club presidents, five former presidents of the Pembroke Club of New York (now merged with the Brown Club), Presi- dent Howard Swearer and other Uni- versity officers, and members of the club. One hundred and eighteen alumni and alumnae have been honored with the award. According to a short history of the award prepared for the occasion by Chet Worthington '23, former editor of this magazine and himself a Brown Bear recipient (in 1962), the idea for the award was probably Ralph Palmer's '10. He was president of the New York club in 1940 and, Chet writes, "if Ralph was not the only member of the 'committee' with respect to the award, he was at least an influential, if not dominant, member of it." The philosophy for the award was to recognize those alumni who, in the words of the University Charter of 1764, had proved themselves "duly qualified for discharging the Offices of Life with usefulness and reputation." The first three recipients were Dr. Moses L. Crossley '09, director of re- search, Calco Chemical Division, Amer- ican Cyanamid Company, a leading figure in contemporary chemotherapy, a University trustee, and president of the Associated Alumni; Dr. John H. Morrissey '09, a distinguished surgeon and urologist; and Karl D. Gardner '13, president of W.T. Grant Company and a University trustee. They were each presented a six-inch bronze Brown bear modeled after the original statue in front of Marvel Gymnasium. The New York club presented the One of the early Brown Bear winners, Frederick Rohlfs '26 received his 'Bear' in 1952 from Associated Alumni President Dwight Colley '18. Among the award winners present were Ed Sulzberger '29 and Bob Cronan '31. awards again in 1941 and 1942, but then suspended the pi actice during the remaining World War II years. By then the Associated Alumni thought the idea such a good one that the national or- ganization asked to add the awards to its program. The New York club ac- ceded to the request, and in 1946, the awards became part of the Associated Alumni. A document adopted at the time specified that the award shall be presented "to one or more alumni as a recognition of outstanding personal service rendered to the University over a period of years. In selecting the Marguerite Rohlfs '28 talks with President Swearer at the celebration. award, neither financial aid given the University nor achievement in the fields ol business or professions is to be con- sidered." The selection broke with precedent in 1972 when it awarded the first Brown Bear to an alumna, Doris M. Stapelton '28. Each year since, an alumna has been among those hon- ored. A permanent display of Brown Bear statuettes has been set up in the Brown Club quarters. Those on display honored Gardner, Palmer, Quentin Reynolds '24, Frederick H. Rohlfs '26 (whose widow, Marguerite Hager Rohlfs '28, was present at the celebra- tion), Jeffrey S. Granger '13 (whose widow, Caroline, was present). Norma Caslowitz Mimves '54 (current presi- dent of the club), and H. Stanton Smith '21. Brown Bear winners present were Walter Adier '18, Robert V. Cronan '31 (a past president of the club who gave the audience a short history of the Brown Bear Award), Jay W. Fidler '43, John E. Flemming '33, Joseph F. Lock- ett '42, Teresa Gagnon Mellone '39, Gavin A. Pitt '38, Harold G. Rogers '27, Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. '45, Edward Sulz- berger '29, Richard L. Walsh '37, Dor- othy Williams Wells '52, and Phyllis Baldwin Voimg '45. Appearing on the program besides Cronan were President Swearer, who spoke of the importance to the Univer- sity of its alimini, and John E. Lieb- mann '41, director of the Development Office's New York office, who put the program together. Brown Club of Phoenix is rising from the ashes We've received the followmg note from Mike O'Neil '73, new president of the Brown Club of Phoenix: "Contrary to popular perceptions, the Brown Club of Phoenix is alive and well, or at least attempting to be so. Elected at a recent organizational meeting, Mike O'Neil, the new club president, took the first steps toward reactivating the club by sending out membership forms and an interest sur- vey to alumni in the area. "Any alumni in the Phoenix area who are interested in club activities and did not receive the mailing should con- tact Mike at 418 East Erie Drive, Tempe, Arizona 85282 or by calling (602) 894-6728 or (602) 967-4441." Support group for Pembroke Center A Council of the Pembroke Center Associates has been formed, according to Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of His- tory Joan W. Scott, who is also director of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. The new council will focus its piogram and ac- tivities on alumnae and alumni partici- pation in the work of the Pembroke Center, which was established by the Corporation in 1981. The council is one result of the response to an invitation last August to become a member of the Peinbroke Center Associates. More than 350 alumni and alumnae have given their financial support and expressed an in- terest in active participation in the cen- ter. Trustee emerita Christine Dunlap Farnham '48 is serving as the first chairwoman of the council. Other members are Dorcas A. Baker '78, Ruth Wade Cerjanec '33, Sheryl B. Chapman '71, Judith Korey Charles '45, Anne Jones Compton '60, Jean E. Howard '70, Polly Welts Kaufman '51, Elizabeth G. Kenyon '39, Frances T. Rutter '41, Doris Hopkins Stapelton '28, Judith Cameron Whittaker '59, Margery God- dard Whiteman '64, and Ruth Harris Wolf '41. Board of Fellows members Nancy L. Buc '65 and Ruth Burt Ek- strom '53 are advisors. Professor Scott, Associate Pembroke Center Director Elizabeth Weed '73 Ph.D., and Staff Director Barbara Anton are also mem- bers. 43 THE CLASSES bv Felt M M.iiulfl /~v A Phiiis are completed for ourtland, N.Y.; son Dean is in Boulder, Colo.; and son Bill is at Cor- nell working on a Ph.D. in music com- position. Hope plans to attend the 35th reunion. "I'm sure looking forwaid to this, " she says. Eleanor Galkin Graham, Cranston, R.I., has been a social worker in the Cranston public school system for fifteen years. Maiy Dure Johnson, Akron, Ohio, is a part-tiine real estate agent. She is conservation chairman of the Akron Garden Club, a member of the Wom- en's Board of Akron City Hospital, and a member of the Akron Blossom Women's Committee, which she also has served as chairman. She and her husband, Alan (Harvard '47, Harvard Law '49), spend time at their place in South Conway, N.H., to ski in the win- ter and mountain-climb in summer. Helvt Ulen Moyer, South Windsor, Conn., is an assistant chief supervisor with The Travelers Insurance Compa- ny. She is a Fellow of the Life Manage- ment Institute. Helvi has two grown sons — James, who is 31 and married, and Paul, 29. Her husband is Robert Moyer (see '50). Daniel Siegel, Westport, Conn., is president of Mica Corporation. The company plans to move from Stamford to Stratford, Conn., during this vear. Lee Brendlinger Smith. Lansdale, Pa., is chairman of the lownship Fund of LInited Way, coordinator for Blood- mobiles, and is active in church work. She also enjoys painting Pennsylvania Dutch frakturs and playing golL Lee has five children, all college graduates, and one grandchild. One son is a wood ciaftsman with his own business; a daughter and a son are in their own gold jewelry business; another daugh- ter is a disk jockey and is involved in television production work; and an- other son is in sales. f^ /^ Thomas J. Broiun is president r^ I I and chief executive officer of sj \y RCL Industries, Inc., an environmental engineering firm in Beverly, Mass., which manufactures electrochemical treatment equipment designed to clarify wastewater in food processing, metal plating, paper, chemical and tannery industries, plus 45 Sfuagf ncMliiuMit pi, mis. He is also loiulimiiig research lo powei RCI.'s et|iii|)iiR'iu using amorphous silicon and luiirogen from sea water. I'l-tt'i R. C.rui.si', Pi()\i(lence, writes: "Mv aiihitectmal firm, Kent, (anise X: I'arineis, has retenth (inishetl / \J proud to have two children at Brown: Kathie '85 and Bill '87. I've been appointed NASP regional director for Connecticut and Rhode Island. Have been vice president of the board of trustees of The New Canaan Coun- trv School and chairman of The Hori- zcjns Program, a summer educational and recieational experience fcjr 170 inner-city kids from lower Fairfield tA)unty." Sheldon P. Siegel, Allentown, Pa., has been le-elected to a third term as chairman of the Pennsylvania Public LV Network Operations Ckjmmittee. He also serves as a member of the State TV Commission. His wife, Lolly (Wellesley '57), has been named to the Kutztown State University board of trustees. John P. Wiley, Vestal, N.'V'., has been named senior engineer, advanced packaging operations, at IBM F.ndicott. John joined the company in 1956 at Kingston, N.Y., and transferred to Endicott in 1961. He has held various pcjsitions since then. fa^ ^^ Class President y«)«' Gold.shine r^ J Kolber writes: "The sympathy %J / of the class is extended to Judith Griswold Hicks on the death of her husband, James Hicks, on Aug. 14, 1983. Last May, Judy opened a book- store. Village Books, in Okie Mistick Village. David, a senior at Lehigh Uni- versity, is majoring in civil engineering; Melissa is a junior at the University of Veniionl In llu' pure iii.illi dep.ii Iment; and Seth is in the eighth grade. Judy is living at 25 West Mystic Ave., Mystic, Conn. 06355. George C. Bitting. Clayton, Mo., reports: "My daughtei, CC, graduated from Middlebury in the class of '83, and now lives in Bostcjn. George, ]r.. is a so|)li(>moie at SMU in Dallas, and .scjii Christopher is a junior at St. Louis Country Day School. South Ranch Oil Company, Inc., which I founded in 1974, and in which Brown University has an investment, is pulling out of the recent crash which destroyed many independent oil companies, and is now drilling in central Oklahoma and west Texas. " Eugenie Loupret Martin is a partner in Katz Martin Associates, career and management consultants in New York City. Her firm assists individuals in ca- reer direction and more effective job search campaigns, and works with cor- porations on staff development, out- placement training, business planning, and marketing. Alexander is II, and Cecilia is 8. Her address: 540 Main St., Apt. 130, Roosevelt Island, N.Y. 10044. t^ O /'"''''' ^"'^ Block, Highland 1^ St Park, III., tells us: "I am pio- %_^ \_J gram coordinator for Alter- native-Adult Dav Service. The program serves ten Chicago area suburbs and provides a therapeutic, secure environ- ment for handicapped older adults. It is sponsored bv Northern Suburban Spe- cial Recreation and the Highland Park Hospital. " Ham L. Snyder, Radford, Va., has been appointed to the R.H. Boyle Chair in Industrial Engineering and Opera- tions Research at Virginia Tech. Lloyd R. Wackerling, Evanstcjii, III., writes: "My daughter, Nadja, is a mem- ber oi the class of '86." ^ £~^ It's the big one! Our 25th V~\ \_J reunion is May 25-28 over \_-/ \^ ihe long Memorial Day Weekend — the first long weekend re- union under the new academic calen- dar. Figures. '59 always was a "first-ever" kind of class. And we will continue its leadership tiadition by set- ting the mark with a class gift of $1 mil- lion! Reunion Co-chairmen y/w Holsing, Vicky Santopietro Lederberg, Eleanor Lev- imon Lewis, and their committee of for- ty classmates report more than 400 re- sponses for our 25th Yearbook. Let's walk through the C.ates together again. John F. Bennett, Jr.. Plantation, Fla., writes: "I am co-owner of building material companies in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach. We have lived ill tile Fort Lauderdale area since 1970." James J. Holsni^, Loiigmeadow. Mass., reports: "I havejust been named to the panel of judges for the annual Eastern Wine Competition. Judges will critically review 800 wines from the LI.S. and (Canada east of the Rockies." J. Dorollica R. Blatk. Newlonville, Mass., was married to Steve Logowilz on Sept. 25 in Annisquam, Mass. She is production manager at MIT Design ScT\ices. Boh Condon has moved to Denver, Colo., where he is vice president ol acquisitions tor the Landsiiig Propertv Cloi poiation. "The key to tlie move from San Francisco was an opportunitv to open a new office and to take advan- tage of the great winter skiing." Christopher A. Gallo, Stratford, Conn., vx'dtes: "My wife. Debbie, and 1 became parents of a boy, C'hristopher If, on Julv 7, 1983. Om- daughter, |en- nifer, is now 3 f/2 years old. I'm still working tor Arthur \'oung & Company in Stamtbrd, C^onn. I ha\e been organ- izing a monthly luncheon program for Brown grads in Fairfield C^ouiuy. We meet on the third Fuesdav of each month, except July and August." Bruce Lillisloii is the London resi- dent partner for the Los Angeles law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg, & Knupp. Bruce specializes in commercial trans- actions with particular emphasis on the production and financing of motion pictures, music, and television pro- gramming. He has been with the firm since his 1977 graduation from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an associate editor of the law leview. Bruce can be contacted at 90 Chancery Ln., London WC2, Eng- land. Karen McAninch and Steven Mar- kovitz announce the arrival of Emily Ruth Markovitz on April 8, 1983. Karen is the business agent for the Service Employees International Un- ion, Local 134, representing 400 em- ployees of Brown — among others. Steve is a physical therapist in the Providence schools. Their address: 22 Memorial Rd., Providence 02906. Michael C. Nichols is in his third year as general counsel of Sysco Cor- poration in Houston, Texas. Sysco is the nation's largest food service com- pany. "I love my work," he writes, "especially the labor negotiation and acquisition. Our third child, Jessica Boyd Nichols, was born on Thanksgiv- 5JJ ing Day, 1983." Ddi'id I'erccldy. New \'oi k Cil>, li.is been promoted to Broadcast (iroup vice president at CB.S. In his new post. David will function in the office of the Broadcast Croup executive vice presi- dent in I hai ge of netwoi k news and the (;BS-owned television stations. He had been vice piesident. .idmiiiistiation. for CBS News. Richard /. Siiiclanka, St. C^air Shores, Mich., reports; "I am an execu- tive vice president at Northwest Food Company in Detroit. Happily married with two children, Beth, 4, and Michael, 2." John ()a\) Edward Tieniey, Jr., has been named vice president-divisional product manager for the Sheet and Bedroom Products Division of J. P. Ste- vens 8c C-ompany, Inc., in New York City. Responsibilities will include acces- sory products (comforters and bed- spreacis) manufactured for all channels of distribution — department stores, mass merchants, and private ticket companies. He was formerly the sheet and accessory product manager for Stevens Utica and Fine Arts Brands. "After all that, what's left to say but that I am looking forward to seeing old friends and all the brothers of Kappa Delta Upsilon at this spring's reunion." Jerome C. Vascellaro and Mary Agu- iar Vascellaro. Pelham, N.Y., report the birth of their first child, Jessica Eliza- beth, on May 11, 1983. ^^ I*"' Dr. Steven P. Borkovic, Napa, y r\ Calif., writes: "I am in pri- / %^ vate practice in dermatology in Napa and St. Helena, Calif., after having finished my training at the Uni- versity of California, San Francisco. " Dr. Scolt S. Calig, Van Nuys, Calif., reports: "Last July, I became an associ- ate of Pediatric Affiliates Medical Group in Canoga Park, Calif., and have just been named medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Hu- mana Hospital, West Hills, also in Ca- noga Park." .ScotI Camlin is working as assistant to the president of Continental Steel Corporation in Kokomo, Ind. He pro- vides advice on organizational develop- ment and strategic planning and directs a joint labor-management participation program with Continental Steel and the United Steel Workers of America. Duncan M. Davidson and his wife, Jean, of Englewood. C'alif, report the birth of their first child, James C^amer- on, on Dec. 28 in Denver. Thomas R. Fischer, College Station, Texas, reports: "I've Just been appoint- ed associate professor of electrical en- gineering at Texas A&M University." Mark F. Scott and Diane DiGi- antilippo Scott report the birth of their .son, Mark Francis II, on June 29, 1983. Hoivard J. Shire and Sharon Eisen- stat were married on Jan. 1 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and arc living at 16 West 16th St., New York City 1001 1. ^^ r^ 1 he Rev. Gary Eugene Alger I r^X was oiclained by the Lhiited / \J Chuich of Christ in 1981. He lives in Francestown, N.H., with his wife, Judy, and is pastor of the Com- munity C:huich of Francestown. Jefjrey Thomas Brouaring of the soul, a levelation to me of tiue importance or consecjuence ... William says I ought to respect her si- lence, her need to keep hci life to her- self, but I believe that love entitles me to something more." It could he argued that this is an intentional clinikiness, that it is the narrator who is stiaiglitforward to the point of seeming corny. She is blessed with good health and "a comfortable marriage," and expects Lainen and Eric, who has cancer, to be ""poignantly bound by a threat of death that sets them apart from the rest of us." This is her rather conventional scenario for the two. In fact, what sets Laiaen and Fric apart is their secretivcness and iinc(ini'('iili(iiialil\, something the narra- toi lias never been able to accept or understand. "" The private manner in which mv sister and her husband have chosen to live out the misery of his ill- ness puzzles me," she remarks. She remembers spying on her sis- ter as a child, after hearing her ""reciting numbers" on a summer night. "Laiuen, a liny ghost in her faded nighlgown, looked under the bed, checked inside the closet, aiicf then coimted the collection of china animals on the top of her dresser ... Though I could make little sense of what I had witnessed, what troubled me most was that this had l^een kept secret from me, that my sister's life was not open to me in the way I had always thought it to be. Even then, so many years ago, I did not believe in .secrets." The narrator in ""Aftermath" is (|uite similar. Her mother, who she be- lieves loved her more "than anyone ever would," has died and she wishes a closeness with her father — something she never had as a child. This desire is subtly woven into a narrative that is ostensibly concerned with the father allowing laundry to pile up, toothpaste to ""speckle" the sink — and allowing himself to marry an unpleasant person known simply as Molly. "1 think you're going to have to start paying attention to a lot of things," says the narrator, supposedly referring to household chores. Thurm's descriptive details distract us here; they intentionally trick us, keeping us temporaiily from the heart of the stor\ and the heart of tlie speak- er. Her father begins to call her on the |ilione, empkning an oven timer to keep llic bills down and phoning from places like liurger King. IJut toward the end of the story, the reader — and the narrator as well — catch on to the emo- tional undercurient that's been there all along: '"M\ father talks quickly. "1 only have enough change for the flrst three minutes,' he says. 'Can you be- lieve Molly accused me of spending loo much time on the phone with you?' It is the third time this week he has called. 'She's right,' I say, unable to admit how moved I am by this ccimpulsion of his to tell me nearly everything that happens to him. " The humor is still here, as it always is in Thurm's writing, and through it conies this discovery of emotion tightly controlled, not admitted. This is the essence of humor, after all. It is why funny things often seem slightly sad. It is also why Marian Thurm's stories are so full of little bits and pieces, so care- liiliv oiclinary, and yet so powerful. FLANNERY O'CONNOR: THE IMAGINATION OF EXTREMITY by Frederick Asals '67 Ph.D. University of Georgia Press. 1982. 268 pages. $17.50. Asals examines O'Connor's two novels. Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It .Away, as well as her short stories. He traces the development of her work, arguing that much of the power of her writing stems from "a rich passion ... for extremes." A rigorous and insightful critic, Asals is an associate professor of Eng- lish at New (College, Universit\ of Toronto, Canada. He li\es in Toronto. WE F WHD MAKEM3NEY MAKEM3NEY. We're Bankers Trust's Private Clients Group. All the resources for custom- ized money management assembled in one place. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Our Investment Services Division manages portfolios spanning a full range of investor objectives from maximum growth to maxi- mum income. In addition, we can show you how — We protect money for people who make money, through our outstanding Fiduciary Services Division. We bank money for people who make money, with a highly individualized Banking Services Division. We lend money to people who make money, through our Credit and Lending Services Division's complete line of credit instruments. Private Clients Group provides complete financial management to the high net worth individual. Professionals with expertise in over forty financial services working to get your money to work. Let us show you how we put it all together and how you can benefit from our unique capabilities. For information and our "Guide to Services," write or phone: Mr. Andrew L. Simon, Vice President, Private Clients Group, 280 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10015; Tel. 212/850-4994. Bankers Trust Company Private Clients Group Member FDIC BROWN Al.LMM MON llll.V Brown L'liivfisitv Box 1854 l'ro\i(Uiuc Kliiulf Kl.iiu I ()•_•( )i •_> ADDRtSS (ORKU HON RKQl'KSTF.D Non-Piofil Org. U.S. POSTACIK PAID FVrinil No. fii 1 Burlington, V 105401 VIA SATELLITE Brown vs Yale September 22, 1984 In cooperation with local Brown Clubs and the Alumni Relations Office, Brown presents a live telecast from Providence to a selected location in each of these cities: San Francisco Los Angeles Chicago Washington, DC St. Louis Denver If you live in or near any of these cities, save the date! The Brown University Sports Foundation