I write to you from the frontlines of a losing battle. I’m a Brown student, and I am oppressed. Horribly oppressed. Invaders with an agenda, who think they know best and seek to implement their ideas and beliefs upon unwilling others, are at my front door. The ideological imperialists to whom I refer ...
As I dive into my sophomore year with eight months left until sophomores reach the deadline for choosing a concentration, I wonder how much the decision matters. Many of us hear how a degree from the prestigious Brown University is very respected. Therefore, the concentration is not as important as ...
In its September 2015 issue, The Atlantic released an article entitled “The Coddling of the American Mind.” It first came to my attention as it spread on social media with viral efficiency, spurred on by posts, re-posts and captions that promised it was more than simple click bait. Really it was ...
On Monday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. in Salomon 202, you should attend this semester’s first meeting of Brown Students for Hillary. Why? Because Hillary Clinton is a progressive champion for students, women, children and families. She is an experienced leader who has been breaking barriers for women in politics ...
President Christina Paxson P’19 was not shy about encouraging first-years to avail themselves of everything Brown’s widely trumpeted open curriculum has to offer at Convocation. But she delivered her speech with such reckless abandon in regard to today’s career landscape that it would be a moral ...
When Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders event in Arizona on July 18, I was annoyed. When it happened again three weeks later in Seattle, I was downright mad. Whatever you may think about Sanders, there’s no denying he has important things to say. He’s the only presidential ...
Who can forget the iconic image of the White House on June 26? Bathed in polychrome splendor, the building sent an unmistakable message to the rest of the country and the global community: “America is now officially gay-friendly, and you should be too.” The Supreme Court victory was a milestone ...
One night late in August, my brother and I were flipping through the channels on TV — an activity that speaks to how contentedly bored we were, too lazy to even turn on Netflix. We flipped to Fox News to see Bill O’Reilly lecturing about the insolence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and how it ...
Yet again, I am forced to mourn the passing of a beloved bookshop. I remember when there was a bookseller of some sort in every mall or square — they were as ubiquitous as the Starbucks on each corner. Now I find myself struggling to find a single new bookshop, even as my old favorites close down ...
Last week, a Duke University student made national news for refusing to read an assigned summer book, the graphic novel Fun Home, saying its theme of gay sexuality and risque illustrations may compromise his moral beliefs. This stance is the latest in what has been a stream of conflicts about political ...
I distinctly remember posing for my mother in my new suit at the end of May, looking like a little girl playing dress up in business attire. Her smartphone camera flashed a few times, and within moments the picture of her high-achieving daughter awaiting the first day of her summer internship was on ...
Few people, myself included, would recognize me as an athlete on campus. Really that is because I am not, or I am not any longer, but I played softball at Brown for one bittersweet year. I anachronistically participated during the competitive season in my second semester and the training season after ...
His announcement packed a punch. Few saw it coming. Now, two weeks after former R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 declared that he was forming an exploratory committee to examine a run for the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination and then announced his candidacy during an appearance ...
One late night sophomore year, I was up trying to finish a book for my African literature class in the morning when there was a knock at my suite door. I opened it, tentative; we didn’t usually have visitors at 3 a.m. “Are you Eli Okun?” asked one of the Department of Public Safety officers standing ...
Initially, when Andrea Petersen of the Wall Street Journal asked to interview me for her piece on transitioning to college with mental health issues, I was ambivalent. As president of Brown’s chapter of Active Minds, a nonprofit organization that strives to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness, ...
When I first walked into my first philosophy class, PHIL 1750: “Epistemology,” I didn’t know exactly what to expect. What is the study of knowledge and why should I care about it? I thought philosophy would offer an environment in which I could say and write anything without criticism. I saw philosophy ...
The first time I went to watch a movie alone, I tried to make it look like I was waiting for a friend during the entire movie. Of course now I realize that probably no one in that cinema even realized I was on my own, and I wasted a lot of mental energy when I could have been enjoying Wreck-It Ralph. ...
It has been almost 2,000 years since the destruction of Pompeii in 79 A.D. Yet when people wander through the rubble of the city, they can still come across ancient carvings etched onto its walls — age-old graffiti that has withstood the test of time. These markings have survived volcanic eruptions, ...
This will probably be the last column I write — graduation is rapidly approaching and The Herald doesn’t retain its columnists as alums. In preparation for this column, I wanted to think about what I would say to someone, maybe an incoming freshman, who asked for one piece of advice. What do I wish ...
One of the most jarring parts of the senior year career search was learning which jobs I wouldn’t be able to accept — not because I’m unqualified, but because I couldn’t afford them. Like many other Brown students from middle-class backgrounds, I took out a combination of federal and private ...
Solutions by The State News
