Opinions
Vishwakarma ’29: Skipping college for a white-collar job can’t end well
By Arya Vishwakarma | November 30“Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination. Get the Palantir degree.”
Columns
Opinions
Noxon ’27: Brown needs to reclaim the legacy of semiotics
By Oscar Noxon | November 25Once upon a time, there was a program at Brown called semiotics. Robert Scholes, an English professor, was hired to teach at Brown in 1970, arriving on College Hill to discover a “campus whose openness to new lines of teaching and research would make it the perfect incubator for these new ideas,” ...
Opinions
Cheong ’27: Brown needs an expanded on-campus housing requirement
By Daniel Cheong | November 24Off-campus apartments offer an attractive option for juniors and seniors looking for better housing. Some, such as 257 Thayer St. and 21 Euclid Ave., offer private bathrooms, modern kitchens and even gyms and fire pits that no residence hall could realistically compete with. But as more undergraduates ...
Opinions
Azhar ’29: Why we love victimless crime
By Dua Azhar | November 24When news broke of the recent heist at the Louvre — a meticulously executed theft that felt straight out of a movie — the internet’s reaction was oddly celebratory. Commentators joked about “modern Robin Hoods,” meme accounts praised the thieves’ taste and TikToks romanticized stealing from ...
Opinions
Mooney ’29: Brown must treat student food insecurity as the crisis that it is
By Max Mooney | November 24On Oct. 1, the federal government shut down, halting federal programs and services across the country and partially freezing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits starting at the beginning of November. In a typical month in 2024, SNAP helped 41 million low-income Americans afford a healthy ...
Opinions
Yeung ’29: Food for Thought: Rong Chic
By Christian Yeung | November 23There’s nothing I miss more during a cold New England storm than a warm, home-cooked meal. Particularly, I find myself craving a Chinese meal. Unfortunately there are not many authentic Chinese restaurants in Providence. And no, Chinatown on Thayer definitely doesn’t count.
Opinions
Tesler ’29: Brown needs real third places — and student clubs can help
By Zeke Tesler | November 21College introduces us to a hectic version of life. In the bubble that is being a university student, our social lives are often smushed together with the academic and domestic spheres of college. This results in a lack of spaces purely dedicated to voluntary and informal social gatherings — also known ...
Opinions
Lindemann ’29: ‘Just Kids’ reminds us how to be human
By Beatriz Lindemann | November 18I was gifted Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” on my 16th birthday and was instantly enamored. Since then, I have been known to gift it to my friends. Sometimes college students feel that they need to have their futures all figured out — this book shows that you don’t. In an Ivy League culture obsessed ...
Opinions
Edelson ’29: Understanding geography will help us understand our friends
By Clay Edelson | November 14“And that’s … where again?”
Opinions
Gupta ’25 MD’29: The worst break-ups are the ones that never happened
By Anusha Gupta | November 14There’s a particular kind of heartbreak that can feel almost embarrassing to admit out loud.
Opinions
Leggat-Barr ’28: Political hobbyism has no place at Brown
By Tommy Leggat-Barr | November 12Nov. 4 wins in New Jersey, New York City and Virginia, as well as staggering blue margins across the country, have given the Democrats a gift that we have yearned for since the beginning of the Trump administration: a rebuke to the president’s cruel agenda that gives reason for the Republican caucus ...
Opinions
Davis ’27: Diversity in higher education is a state issue
By Christian Davis | November 11It has been just over three years since oral arguments began in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a landmark Supreme Court case that ruled race-based affirmative action in higher education unconstitutional. Since that moment, selective universities have seen sharp declines in the number of Black ...
Opinions
Gardiner ’28: Man vs. the machine: the case for Wikipedia
By Isabella Gardiner | November 11Since we were old enough to use Google, Gen Z has been told Wikipedia is unreliable. I remember sitting criss-crossed on the floor of my elementary school classroom, listening to my teacher lecture about how, since anyone on the internet can edit a Wikipedia page, it shouldn’t be trusted. To this ...
Opinions
Kaak ’29: Neitzsche’s advice to ‘live dangerously’ serves as a meaningful guide to taking advantage of the Open Curriculum
By Avery Kaak | November 11Few philosophers have been more misunderstood than Friedrich Nietzsche. While his more flamboyant assertions — like his claim that God is dead — are crucial to understanding his work as a whole, discussion about Nietzsche is often limited to these statements alone. Among his more profound teachings, ...
Opinions
Rahman ’26: There should be more to friendship than political agreement
By Tasawwar Rahman | November 10The Herald’s Fall 2025 Poll found that two-thirds of Brown students believe sharing political beliefs is important when forming friendships. Among very liberal or progressive students, this rate is much higher. While it is undoubtedly easier to pursue friendships with people you relate to politically, ...
Opinions
Murray ’29: Brown needs to evaluate how it reports foreign gifts
By Clara Murray | November 10In recent months, elite American universities have been forced into highly publicized and contentious negotiations with the White House on topics from federal research funding to free speech. As a result, we have entered an era where universities like Brown are morphing into the government’s ideological ...
Opinions
Tesler ’29: Trump is leveraging distrust in elite universities, but Brown can change that
By Zeke Tesler | November 7Amid the Trump administration’s attacks on academic institutions, the sphere of higher education has faced strained public scrutiny, exacerbating longstanding perceptions of elitism and inequality within higher education. As a result, the concept of the Ivy League has been placed on trial and America’s ...
Opinions
Canfield ’28: 130 years after Brown’s first Jewish students graduated, Jewish life on College Hill is thriving
By Ethan Canfield | November 7As one of the first two Jews to graduate from Brown, Israel Strauss, class of 1894, was told by then-University President Elisha Andrews, class of 1870, to pursue different career paths because of his religion. Such comments were not unique in the long history of Jews in the diaspora. It would be hard ...
Opinions
Yeung ’29: Food for Thought: Frank & Laurie’s
By Christian Yeung | November 6Nestled less than a mile north of Brown’s campus, Frank & Laurie’s serves a delicious brunch on the corner of Camp Street and Doyle Avenue. The restaurant calls itself a “neighborhood affair,” an apt nickname for this homey eatery bustling with locals.
Opinions
Manhardt ’26: Courses at Brown should teach critical thought, not personal life skills
By Batisse Manhardt | November 4In her recent column, Beatriz Lindemann ’29 argues that Brown should offer a course on personal finance. Lindemann protests that the Department of Economics, ranked No. 11 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, should teach students about “budgeting, filing taxes and making wise personal investments.” ...
