The center of substantive policy debate has shifted to the far right. The question is not whether to cut government services, but by how much. Not whether to increase or decrease taxes, but who can decrease them more. Republican rhetoric that spending must be slashed because we are broke has carried ...
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property staged a protest against gay marriage March 23. Students responded with a spontaneous rally for gay rights. On the whole, the Brown community deserves praise for mobilizing to support gay rights. But certain aspects of this counter-protest ...
The public's conception of domestic terrorism has changed drastically over the past decade. As apparent from Rep. Peter King's (R-N.Y.) Congressional hearings, domestic terrorism is almost exclusively associated with Muslim extremists. While Muslim extremism is certainly one of the main types of threats ...
In the aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan March 11 and the consequent release of radioactive material from the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, many have raised concerns regarding the safety of nuclear energy. But when compared with feasible alternatives, it ...
As an alumni interviewer for Brown, I read Monday's story on 2015 admissions ("University admits record-low 8.7 percent of applicants," April 4) with a mix of awe and frustration. It is fantastic that a Brown degree is in such high demand. The 8.7 percent acceptance rate is stunning, as is the fact ...
Recently, the Graduate School published a new policy for sixth-year funding. In short, it asks graduate students to compete and be ranked against each other for a limited pool of money that would go toward their sixth year of doctoral study. Although it is characterized by the Grad School as increasing ...
I understand that a massacre of people by the Libyan government would have been a tragedy — one that U.S. fighter planes helped to avert. But lives are lives, and I don't believe Americans care as much as we say we do about the Libyan people. Is a good deed still good if the intentions aren't ...
At first glance, it might seem inappropriate that the motto of an institution such as Brown would be "In God We Hope." The God of our Baptist forbearers has had very little to do with our experience of the last four years. However, I believe that "In Deo Speramus" expresses something more relevant than ...
Before spring break, Sarah Gassel '12 bravely wrote in her column ("The case for infant rights," March 18) about her personal relationship with abortion, making a case for adoption over abortion and criticizing Planned Parenthood for not providing sufficient adoption support services. Not many of us ...
As global economic recovery remains a subject of uncertainty and scrutiny in the wake of the financial crisis, it is high time to remember some actors whose perennial crises are now all the more severe. Despite predictions that the economies of the poorest nations would be insulated from the global ...
The American education system is in trouble. International assessments reporting that the U.S. is falling behind other developed countries have become so common that we have become almost indifferent. At a time when, in absolute terms, Americans with only a high school education are earning less than ...
Last fall, the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented students, was defeated by Congress despite the appeal of students from across the country, including some from the Brown community. It seems fruitful, therefore, to explore the legal structure in which these DREAMers ...
When I first came to Brown as an international first-year, I arrived on campus weary and jetlagged from 24 hours of traveling. I proceeded to spend the next few days absorbing information about my new surroundings and playing icebreaker games with my international orientation buddies.
Comparing Israel to the purely evil and racist regime of apartheid South Africa is deeply offensive to Israelis and all those who seek a genuine resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Brown Students for Justice in Palestine publicized this analogy last week with a banner on the Main Green that ...
It always makes me sad when I go to the Brown Bookstore or the pharmacy and see them selling products that do nothing for students' health, save for giving them a walletectomy. The University should have better standards and stop selling medicinal products for which there is no good evidence of efficacy ...
In a recent discussion section of my history course, the teaching assistant running the section asked the class if we thought that there would ever be a community or political entity that would put an end to the strife that grips our world today. The argument ran that if there was no defined "other," ...
This, dear reader, is the column I have been putting off since I first started writing for The Herald.
As Bill Maher quipped on last week's "Real Time with Bill Maher," lackluster tsunami waves in California "pose a great danger to making everything about us." As always, the comedian-pundit jokes at the expense of big media outlets. Yet this time, his criticism rings true.
On March 2, 2007, presidential hopeful Barack Obama made a speech in Chicago regarding his "clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel." He went on to say that Israel was "our strongest ally in the (Middle East) region and its only established democracy," and then added, "That will always ...
Last Wednesday, Nancy Baron delivered a lecture on the idea that "being a good communicator makes you a better scientist." As the science outreach director for the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea, Baron has helped the world's foremost scientific experts communicate their research to ...
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