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Mitra '18: Escaping the rat race

One of the things I love most about Brown is the sheer passion of the entire student body. Every day, I feel privileged to work with so many people who have ambitious dreams and are not afraid to strive for them. The enthusiasm I see around me has pushed me to try many unfamiliar activities and take ...


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Esemplare ’18: The argument against amateurism

Last week, I sat in MacMillan 117, listening to a lecture I’d heard before. It was much like any lecture at Brown, except the lecturer was an administrator, not a professor, and no one was taking notes. I was attending the annual compliance meeting for all of Brown’s student-athletes, an hour-long ...


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Maier '17: Place your bets

I woke up this morning to yet another incorrect weather report. Rhode Island has notoriously fickle weather, so it makes sense that the weatherman is wrong most of the time. It got me thinking, however, about the all-encompassing role that probability and prediction play in our lives. From the moment ...


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Simon '16: This side of Thayerdise

Unless you have been living under a slab of granite these past few weeks, I do not need to tell you about the fresh hell that opened its doors this fall to America’s gravy-train-riding darlings.  Having displaced many during construction and angered many more, 257 Thayer is a glittering new luxury ...


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Malik '18: What is possible?

I had such lofty plans for the summer. I was supposed to read 20 books and write several essays and short stories, but I only managed to read about seven books, and I wrote little. I returned to Brown feeling a bit disappointed and frustrated for not even coming close to the goals I had set for myself. Soon ...


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Kenyon GS: Carly Fiorina, Republican mother?

Last Wednesday, the CNN Republican Primary Debate showcased a parade of suited men, best differentiated by their accompanying ties — and in one case, hair — and one candidate in heels: former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Fiorina has quickly grown to become one of the most notable personalities ...


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Blumberg: Unproductive or productive harm?

Does a text written entirely in the interrogative merit a trigger warning? Is this is the sort of thing Ameer Malik ’18 was talking about when he talked about protecting students psychologically in his column in Wednesday’s Herald (“Don’t pull the trigger warning,” Sept. 17)? Perhaps you know ...


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Malik '18: Don’t pull the trigger warning

In their article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” featured in the September 2015 issue of The Atlantic, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt write that they believe certain student actions illustrate a general trend toward students protecting themselves from “words, ideas and subjects that might ...


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Sundlee '16: A house divided

At the beginning of this summer, I found myself in a very peculiar situation. I was to be sharing a house with a band of men in Georgetown. But these men were not just any men — these were bona fide, socially conservative, entitlement-hating, Bush-apologist, Republican men. I noted with a wrinkled ...


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Montoya '16: A fatal simplification

In the never-ending battle against the diseases that plague humanity, genetic markers are an increasingly common weapon on the scientific front. Since the first sequencing of the human genome in 2003, geneticists have tirelessly searched for evidence linking gene mutations with diseases. In recent years, ...


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Maier '17: Brown’s oppressed minority

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 ...


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Lennon '18: Concentration complications

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 ...


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Blake '17: Maybe coddled isn’t so bad

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 ...


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Simon '16: Open curriculum for whom?

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 ...


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Sundlee '16: The borders of gay marriage

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 ...


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Asker '17: Don’t blame black culture

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 ...


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Mitra '18: Where have all the bookshops gone?

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 ...


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