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Tomes '90: Without facts, can there be justice?

I have just become reacquainted with the William McCormick case and it troubles me as an alum and a father. The purpose of my column is neither to defend nor to disparage any of the parties involved, but to defend a basic tenet of a democratic society. Brown had to deal with a terrible situation and ...


Opinions

Kalyanpur '13: Safety net syndrome

I was recently contacted by an acquaintance still in high school for some advice on her application to Brown. I am sure you clearly recall stressing over the many generic questions that the supplemental application loves to throw around. But the class of 2016 has to answer the following: "If I could ...


Opinions

Seda '12: BUSUN and the art of simulation

You may have noticed the swarm of seemingly younger-than-average students taking over the Main Green this past weekend. Judging from the neat display of blazers, folders and nametags, you may have thought it was yet another job recruitment event or career fair aimed at those 2012-ers seeking to be employed ...


Opinions

Burch GS: On University loyalty to Joe Paterno '50

Recent developments on the Pennsylvania State University campus have raised deep concerns about failures in reporting campus sexual assaults. The vice president and athletic director have resigned. The school's president and legendary football coach and former Brown football star Joe Paterno '50 have ...


Opinions

Lebovitz '14: Sweeping the leg

I may be the only fan of NBC's "Chuck" left in the world today. Tied with the History Channel's "Pawn Stars" as one of the dumbest premises of a show on air, "Chuck" is about the adventures of a computer store employee who ends up with a government supercomputer in his brain. I won't go too far into ...


Opinions

Tobias '12: Is Health Services healthy?

The University's highest priority should be the health and safety of its students, yet this does not always seem to be the case at Brown. When I applied, I was told that students seeking Emergency Medical Services would have access to Brown's Health Services 24 hours a day and that all such visits would ...


Opinions

Moffat '13: Thinking about drinking

A topic that rarely gets addressed in The Herald's opinions columns is the drinking culture here at Brown. After recently learning that Sex Power God saw 12 students EMS'd from the party this year and that this semester's first-year Orientation had a similarly alarming rate of reported drinking incidents ...


Opinions

Hefer '12: Isms and an epistemic dilemma

Today, let us start with some truisms. Racism is bad. Sexism is bad. Classism is bad. Any discrimination of this sort is bad. Identifying instances of these things is important. We cannot effect change if we do not know what we have to change.


Opinions

Rosenbloom '13: A renewed commitment to individual rights

As Brown begins the search for its next president, it is important that we choose a candidate who values students' rights of due process and freedom of speech. Unfortunately, over the last decade, the Brown campus has become hostile to these individual rights. Administrative decisions, student actions ...


Opinions

Carter '12: Occupying the issue of social mobility

Two pieces caught my eye in the past week: "The Tyranny of the Meritocracy" by Megan McArdle in the Atlantic and "The Downward Path of Upward Mobility" by Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post, both of which found their inspiration in a piece written by Brookings Institute fellow Scott Winship in the ...


Opinions

Fast '12: It can't happen here

The recent child molestation scandal at Pennsylvania State University and its fallout prompt reflection on the set of circumstances that allowed these atrocities to continue unabated for years. Jerry Sandusky, retired assistant football coach and alleged perpetrator, remained free to commit unspeakable ...


Opinions

Carter '12: Faculty, students and the presidential search

A variety of issues surround the University's search for its 19th president, and many of them have already been discussed in these very pages. There are concerns about the search process itself, the selection of members who will comprise the committees so fundamental to this search process and the extent ...


Opinions

Cao '13: The liberal arts versus the real world

A friend recently complained to me that the expectations of a liberal arts education and the demands of the real world go in two opposite directions. On the one hand, he said, students are expected to gain higher awareness of the human and natural worlds they inhabit. On the other, the real world asks ...


Opinions

Spencer-Salmon '14: Greater expectations

A recent Herald article ("First-years ‘somewhat prepared' for Brown," Nov. 11) reported that nearly half of Brown faculty members find first-years to be "somewhat prepared" for Brown, and 11.4 percent considered them to be "somewhat unprepared." This may not sound dire or even particularly surprising ...


Opinions

Trupin '13: Students are not commodities

It does not take a detective to know where Brown banks. As anyone who receives checks from the University as an employee or has ever walked into the basement of the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center can tell you, this is a Bank of America school, though Sovereign Bank's campus center ATM and strategic ...


Opinions

Liebling '12: Stacking the deck

Six professors sit on the Presidential Search Campus Advisory Committee. Only one of them is a faculty member in the humanities. They are joined by three undergraduates — all studying economics or commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship. The two graduate students study cognitive science and ...


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