Columns

Newlon's Rebuttal: Should the University ban smoking near buildings?

Newlon '14.5: Should the University ban smoking near buildings?

When I walk outside the Rockefeller Library or my dorm room, I feel vaguely like I've stepped into a 1960s bar on an episode of "Mad Men."

Carty '15: Should the University ban smoking near buildings?

Banning smoking near Brown campus buildings is ill-advised because such a ban does not advance public health or change personal incentives in any meaningful way.

Carty's Rebuttal: Should the University ban smoking near buildings?

Corvese '15: Just a pinch

I am not a doctor. I am not a pharmacist. In fact, I have no medical training. But I do know enough about trends in infectious disease to know that flu shots are a very important part of promoting health and wellness of self and others, especially during these coming winter months. For this reason, ...

Lattanzi-Silveus '14: The alternative to the lesser evil

We're less then two weeks from the presidential election. President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney are each whipping up a storm about how we should vote for them because the other will lead us all to ruin. Both are eager to agree that there is a clear choice between the two of them and the two ...

Currens '10 MA'11 and Silverman '13: Moraff's '14 entitlement is showing

Daniel Moraff '14 wrote an op-ed article complaining, essentially, that the Brown Corporation is rich ("The horrifying makeup of the Brown Corporation," Oct. 17). To be more specific, he is outraged that half of the members of the Corporation come from the financial services industry.

Fuerbacher '14: Rethinking 'having it all'

In September, Marissa Mayer, the exemplary "Employee No. 20" of Google and new CEO of Yahoo!, gave birth to her first son. As a high-profile businesswoman who has ostensibly attained both personal and professional success, Mayer reignited the debate over whether women can truly "have it all." This discussion ...

Brundage '15: Redefining success in college

No matter how much we may have hated or loved our respective high school experiences, there was at least one comfort we all shared: Success was easy to define. Whether you attended Phillips Exeter Academy or a public school in a poor neighborhood, there was a fairly consistent success formula. You were ...

Tobolowsky GS: Work ban for grads bad for students, U., future

As many of you may be aware, the Graduate School has recently proposed establishing a firm limit on outside work for graduate students, capping it at 20 hours a semester. Not 20 hours a week, though I can certainly understand how your eye would read that for you. Twenty hours a semester - which works ...

A real solution to the Brown Dining Services dilemma

Dorris '15: Why therapy is cool

It's midterm season again. Our stress levels are rising. As the week goes on, listen to the conversations around you. Haven't you heard at least one person jokingly begin a sentence with "My therapist thinks..." or end with, "That's what my therapist said"? Do you ever see self-critical jokes on Twitter ...

Drechsler '15: A real solution to the Brown Dining Services dilemma

Hudson's Rebuttal: Should financial aid be the University's top priority?

Zacks '15: Should financial aid be the University's top priority?

Last spring, the Herald poll revealed that a plurality of students - 37.8 percent - believe increasing financial aid ought to be the University's top priority, a far greater percentage than that supporting the second-place priority - improving on-campus housing. Yet anyone walking through the newly ...

Zacks' Rebuttal: Should financial aid be the University's top priority?

Hudson '14: Should financial aid be the University's top priority?

Mention the words "financial aid" and you will likely pull yourself into a heated discussion about Brown's priorities. Financial aid has helped many. Without financial aid, thousands of talented and motivated students could not attend Brown. But, though important, increasing financial aid should not ...

Mayo '13: Negating affirmative action

Nine years ago, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor penned a 5-4 majority opinion in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger that upheld the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School. In that opinion, the Court ruled that a race-based criterion for university admission ...

America's only open curriculum, WRITten off

Until last year, Brown was in a curricular league of its own. There are plenty of colleges that purport to have some variety of "open curriculum." Some are very close to open - like Amherst College - and others are pretty far from it - like the University of Rochester. But to our knowledge, not a single ...

Tomson '15: Terminate Adidas contract now

The streets of Jakarta roared Oct. 3 when two million workers in factories throughout Indonesia went on strike. They are calling for an end to labor practices that have led to a severe lack of job security and lower wages as workers become increasingly temporary, expendable and exploitable to companies. ...