Shopping period finally came to a close this week amidst the icy roads and puddles of slush left behind by Winter Storms Juno and Linus. Though Brown was the only college or university in Providence not to close, many professors were forced to cancel classes anyway due to the city parking ban.
Luckily for the many who ruined their boots walking through the sludge of Thayer Street, the fashionable sneaker company Electrolites — founded by alums Matthew Paul ’09 and Doug Berman ’09 — can replace any gaps in students’ shoe collections. Paul and Berman took inspiration for their business from ENGN 0090: “Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations,” showing how much good can come from actually attending the class. With some encouragement from Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine GP’15, the duo’s startup took off and is currently in the process of being sold to a Chinese sourcing agent.
As if students needed any more reason to wish they were artistic, many from both Brown and RISD ventured down the hill to hear actor, filmmaker and social activist Danny Glover. As the keynote speaker of RISD’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Series, Glover discussed the connection between art and activism. Describing art as “a platform to understand, to love, to have empathy,” Glover said it is artists’ responsibility to use their crafts to create a new world. He inspired many Brown students to vow to shop VISA 0100: “Studio Foundation” next semester.
While students were busy down the hill, faculty members gathered for a meeting to debate developing a new partnership with the Holy Cross ROTC program. Though some protested the partnership, mentioning that the military’s ban on transgender enlistment is at odds with Brown’s anti-discrimination policy, faculty members eventually voted 35-29 in favor of the relationship. At the same meeting, faculty members indefinitely tabled a resolution endorsing a statement on free speech that President Paxson P’19 drafted following the Ray Kelly incident last fall.
Grads and undergrads rallied together this week in hopes of improving working and living conditions for grad students. Rally participants noted that grad students entering their seventh year of research were recently denied health care and pointed to Yale and UMass Amherst as models of schools that give their grad students dental coverage. Grad students are also up in arms about the auxiliary housing situation, which provides them with a limited number of rooms above market rates. Brandon Welch GS proclaimed, “I can do better than this in a place in Manhattan.”
