Columns

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. ...

Moraff '14: The horrifying makeup of the Brown Corporation

Every so often, we hear that x percent of Americans don't know their own congressman. We are then supposed to nod sagely and share a chuckle about dumb, ignorant Americans. But here at Brown, our lives are mostly run by the Corporation, and we generally have no idea who they are.

Zacks '15: Leave those teachers alone

Last week, the editorial page board struck once more. Having shown the lazy, spoiled high school teachers of Chicago what's what, the board turned its attention closer to home. Rhode Island educators, this must be your lucky day. Brown students, forever cognizant of the "financial and social worth of ...

Newlon '14.5: Lectures and lactating

Assistant Professor Adrienne Pine '94 had a problem. The American University professor woke up the morning of Aug. 28 ready to teach her class, "Sex, Gender and Culture" - only to discover her infant daughter had a fever. Pine felt she had no viable childcare options as a single parent. So she brought ...

Gianotti '13: We take care of our own

Aristotle maintains that we humans are special. That is, we aren't here on earth just to be, we are here to live a good life. We are meant to be happy. The New York Times published an op-ed Sept. 28 by Richard Easterlin entitled "When Growth Outpaces Happiness." It discussed an unsettling finding - ...

Dorris '15: What's the skinny on Brown fat?

I recently Google-searched "Eating Disorders at Brown University," for an essay for one of my classes. I expected a multitude of clubs, petitions, and campaigns - in typical Brown fashion.

Corvese '15: Do you support Brown's online learning venture? Yes

It was just decades ago that science fiction envisioned a future in which people communicated through video. It pictured a world in which despite being on opposite sides of the world, people could interact face-to-face in real time, be it to share complex ideas or just have a conversation.

Eppler's Rebuttal: Do you support Brown's online learning venture?

Eppler '13: Do you support Brown's online learning venture? No

It's understandable why Brown would want to participate in Coursera. The rhetoric surrounding Coursera and other massive open online courses - MOOCs - is certainly lofty. Advocates promise nothing less than the democratization of education, liberating the world's best educators and thinkers from the ...

Corvese's Rebuttal: Do you support Brown's online learning venture?

Eppler '13 seems to be surprised by the prospect of people wanting a university education, even if plenty of knowledge is readily available in books. Unfortunately, simply reading a book is not the key to acquiring knowledge. That is why we have classes - to provide discipline and guidance in learning ...

Carty '15: Empathy over egotism

White guilt: the assurance that your fair skin color pegs you as prejudiced.  

Asher '15: Bloody, bloody Israel

Down the street from each other in Jerusalem lived two families, both named Harel, both with sons named Yuval. Though both Yuvals were the same age, their families didn't know each other, and as a result they didn't know that both were fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1982 Lebanon War. ...

Davidson '14: The problem with a 'bipartisan' education

Note: This column is a revised version of the original column, which was published by mistake. The Herald regrets the error.

Hudson '14: Major in debt