Individual opinions now overshadow the true essentials of sports coverage, said Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell to a full Salomon 101 auditorium Tuesday night. The Boston Celtic great was one of four members of a panel that discussed the role of the media in sports.

Nearly 8 percent of students have illegally used prescription stimulants – such as Adderall, Dexedrine and Ritalin – during this academic year, according to a recent Herald poll.

More than two-thirds of Brown undergraduates favor changing the name of “Columbus Day” on the University calendar, according to a Herald poll conducted earlier this month.

For the first time in recent memory, the majority of grades Brown students received last year were A’s, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.

On the football field, outside linebacker John Paul Eberenz-Rosero ’10 is hungry for big hits and tackles. But off the field, he differs from the team’s other players in an important way: He doesn’t eat meat. The junior football player is one of a handful of Brown athletes who consider themselves vegetarians.

While her teammates suffered through a rain-drenched weekend at the Brown Invitational, women’s tennis player Bianca Aboubakare ’11 spent the weekend at Pepperdine University in sunny Malibu, Calif. Aboubakare, who was named the Rookie of the Year last year in the ITA East Region and in the Ivy League, competed in a pre-qualifying weekend battle for a spot to play in the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships.

By the end of a seemingly nonstop weekend of tennis, the courts inside the Pizzitola Center were painted with yellow fuzz. The three-day Brown Invitational lasted over 24 hours, featured four women’s tennis teams and provided hundreds of tennis balls that were waiting to be smashed.

Three thousand miles would be a long distance to travel just to get in some sprints. So, for the men’s and women’s track and field teams, their trip to Europe became an opportunity both to compete and to enjoy new cultural experiences. Teaming up with Dartmouth, the Brown squads spent a total of 12 days in Ireland and England last June.

The women’s tennis recruiting rankings last spring contained some good news and some bad news for the Bears. The good news from the Tennis Recruiting Network is that Bruno has the 10th-best freshman class in the country. But strong classes at Princeton and Harvard, respectively ranked first and eighth, mean that both the newcomers and the veterans on Brown’s team will face a tough conference season.