Over the course of a semester, the editorial page board sometimes starts to feel like the complaint department. Each day, we try to make a suggestion to improve our school, the surrounding community or higher education broadly. For instance, this fall we've called for:
— A new center for humanitarian aid and disaster relief that would promote both research and realworld practice
— Making the night football game a yearly tradition
— A standardized letter of recommendation request form that all students and professors could use
— More interdisciplinary courses that involve the hard sciences, like the new class at Harvard on the science of food
— A new venture capital fund that would invest a small percentage of the Rhode Island state employees' pension fund in Rhode Island businesses, as originally proposed by gubernatorial candidate Ken Block
— Upkeep in the campus gyms that reflects the $64 recreational facilities fee implemented this year
— Vigilance on the part of both students and administrators in keeping Brown bedbug-free
— More cooperation between students and neighbors to make sure off-campus parties are minimally disruptive
— Improved advising on senior capstone projects
— Passage of the DREAM Act
— Repeal of the new property taxes imposed by the Providence City Council on rental houses
— Vigilance in maintaining complete anonymity in donations to college senior gift campaigns
— Stepped-up enforcement of the academic code in departments other than computer science
— An end to political attacks based on opponents' college writings
— Keeping Four Loko legal
With all these suggestions, some readers might think that we're a bunch of complainers or that we have some axe to grind. This couldn't be further from the truth — we think Brown students are indeed the happiest in the nation, and we consider ourselves among the happiest of the happiest. So in our last editorial of the semester, we're not going to go out with a bang. Rather, we'd like to give our school a good old pat on the back.
Thank you to our fantastic classmates and to the amazing professional staff that make this place special. The level of freedom and opportunity available here is simply incredible, and we're grateful to be a part of it. We wish everyone a happy, healthy and relaxing winter vacation.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
