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Enriquez '16: Avoidance is not the answer

On Sept. 22, 2011, I thought I killed someone. We were hiking in a group in an extremely rural part of India’s northern border. We were supposed to stop to camp. I strongly advocated that we continue. Eventually, I convinced our daily leaders of the merits of continuing. One person never made it ...


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Lloyd: Free inquiry, not conformity, is our mission

Prior to the Ray Kelly incident, Zach Ingber ’15 expressed his concern that the Brown community does not adequately take “conservative” ideas seriously. He claimed that the campus makes it difficult for conservatives to express opinions without immediately being cut down by liberal dogmatists, ...


Opinions

Enzerink GS: Have a merry, racist holiday

I’ve always fancied a certain similarity between my new home of Rhode Island and my old home, the Netherlands. The founding stories of both certainly emphasize a tolerance that was far ahead of their times: Just as the Netherlands offered refuge to the persecuted pilgrims and Huguenots who would later ...


Opinions

Upadhyay '15: Divest Coal: Learning to respect boundaries

Last weekend, President Christina Paxson sent an email to the Brown community informing us that the University would not divest from coal. This was a setback for Brown Divest Coal, a group that has been working to convince administrators to remove the University’s endowment assets in various utilities ...


Opinions

Powers '15: Defend free inquiry at Brown

A few weeks ago, Zach Ingber ’15 wrote a column lamenting the prevalence of “intolerance for certain political perspectives” (“Free speech at Brown?” Oct. 20). Ironically, much of the student body received his plea for free inquiry with the exact type of intolerance that he described. And ...


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Gordon '14: Kelly protesters empowered the voiceless

It is telling that of all the reflections on last Tuesday’s events circulating on Facebook, The Herald and other media, those that only superficially engage the concept of “free speech” as an abstract principle and couch their arguments in the rhetoric of respect and civility bewail the protesters’ ...


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Warren '09: Brown can still be a leader on climate change

On Feb. 25, 2006, I gathered with more than 40 students on a cold Saturday morning on the then-Faunce House steps, urging the Corporation to divest Brown’s assets from foreign companies aiding the Sudanese government’s genocidal campaign in Darfur. At the conclusion of the rally, which was the pinnacle ...


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Firn ’16: Jump on the beardwagon

  Back in March, rhetoric surrounding the upcoming 2013 MLB season was uncharacteristically pessimistic in Boston. Coming off their worst season since 1965, the Red Sox had slashed $33 million in payroll during the offseason and seemed poised for a second consecutive year in the cellar of baseball’s ...


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Miller '70 P'02: Fascism and the open campus

I went to scores of seminars and talks during my four years as an undergraduate at Brown, but the one I will never forget took place on the evening of Nov. 30, 1966. The speaker, a Brown alum, had been invited by the Faunce House Board of Governors to take part in its fall lecture series. But once his ...


Opinions

Hare '14: Solidarity against Kelly undermines U.’s credibility

Just before his speech was canceled by the relentless interruptions of protesters, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, “I thought this was the academy … where we’re supposed to have free speech.” So did I. But at Brown’s most recent demonstration of its inability to foster healthy ...


Opinions

Katz '14: Tea Party on the left

In 2012, 55 percent of those stopped and frisked were black, 32 percent were Hispanic and only 10 percent were white. In the same year, 89 percent of stops and frisks involved citizens not guilty of any crime. It would take significant convincing to demonstrate to me that this type of policy does not ...


Opinions

Ho ’14: Reframing the divestment decision

  Within half an hour after President Christina Paxson announced the Corporation’s decision not to divest from coal on Sunday, my Facebook News Feed was overrun with criticisms of Paxson’s letter. Despite rallying alongside more than 100 other student activists last Friday in support of divestment, ...


Opinions

Fong ’14, Kwon ’14, Li ’14, Rajan ’15, Furuyama ’15: Freedom of speech or freedom to silence?

In light of the Taubman Center of Public Policy and American Institutions’ decision to host Ray Kelly, police commissioner of the city of New York and creator of the controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy, members of the Brown and Providence communities have come together to demand his lecture ...


Opinions

Moraff '14: Ditch the Corporation

“Work with us” is the mantra of the modern university administrator. Collaborate. Compromise. Be polite and considerate, and you will be heard. You have a voice. We will listen. Brown Divest Coal did everything right. Its members collected petitions. They held peaceful and nondisruptive rallies. ...





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