Editorials

Editorial: We shouldn’t have to live in Wellness to live well

By Editorial Page Board | October 3

The Wellness Center dorm certainly sets a promising tone for future expansions of University housing, and its mission of promoting well-being is admirable. At the same time, the building’s almost luxurious design highlights existing inequities in the Brown residential experience, setting a worrying ...

Editorial: Hungry for change

By Editorial Page Board | October 1

With students once again flooding into the Ratty, clamoring for sandwiches at the Blue Room and foraging for a late-night snack at Jo’s, Brown dining is back — but for many, it is not back to where it needs to be.

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Editorial: How can we identify with public art we don’t understand?

September 27

One of the values of public art on campus, according to Brown, is that it “contributes to a sense of place, and inspires identification with this institution, its history and its values.” But the “Large Concretised Monument to the Twentieth Century” on the Main Green, installed May 14, is achieving ...

Editorial: On loss and tradition

By Editorial Page Board | September 17

Vartan Gregorian Quad has been called “New Dorm” by Brown students since the days when it was actually new. But over the past year, as an incoming class of students entered onto a mostly empty campus, a new name for the residence hall emerged: “Greg.” This change, while amusing, was also alarming. ...

Editors’ Note: This fall, The Herald will print three times a week and publish online daily

By 131st Editorial Board | September 2

After an unprecedented summer of publishing online daily during Brown’s first-ever summer term, The Herald will print three times a week this fall semester on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — up from the once-per-week frequency implemented in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue ...

Editorial: Accessibility in a post-pandemic world

By Editorial Page Board | April 6

As vaccines become much more widespread, we’re all ready to leave the horrors of the pandemic behind us. But there have been some silver linings. Looking forward as an institution, we ought to preserve the culture of understanding and accommodation that we were forced to develop in the face of the ...

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Opinions

Editorial: UCS, an unnecessarily complicated system

By Editorial Page Board | March 18

It’s that time of year again: The weather’s improving, student government campaigns have begun and the student body, as usual, appears indifferent. This is not a new phenomenon. In 2013, the editorial page board wrote that “a strong culture of apathy undeniably exists” among students with respect ...

Opinions

Editorial: Brown, be kind

By Editorial Page Board | March 5

As we approach COVID-19’s anniversary on College Hill, the University is better equipped than ever before to handle a pandemic. From the automated COVID-19 test reminders to the plexiglass dividers in the dining halls, Brown has created its own “new normal” to keep members of the campus community ...

Opinions

Editorial: If Brown cares, where are the CARES Act funds?

By Editorial Page Board | February 19

Brown undergraduates have long opined on the costs associated with attending this institution, rightfully raising concerns over where tuition dollars go, how University funds are leveraged and the experience students receive in return. Perhaps never before in Brown’s recent history have such concerns ...

Opinions

Editorial: A Letter to the Class of 2024 in the Time of COVID-19

By Editorial Page Board | November 19

To incoming first-years: As you prepare to join our campus ranks in a semester like no other, we write to share words of wisdom (we hope) that may help guide you through the months ahead. When you were completing your applications last fall, we imagine none of you envisioned spending your first semester ...

Opinions

Editorial: Voices Still Unheard

By Editorial Page Board | November 2

In late June, Voices of Brown launched among a wave of similar accounts sharing anonymous submissions from sexual assault survivors. The purpose of the account is to serve as “a safe and dependable space for survivors within the Brown community to be heard and validated.” Today, more than 100 horrific ...

Opinions

Editorial: It’s time for better COVID-19 guidelines

By Editorial Page Board | October 8

As students have adjusted to a new normal of mask-wearing and social distancing on College Hill, the University has done well keeping student COVID-19 cases in check, boasting a remarkably low positivity rate. More students have been invited back to campus, and as we enter level two of campus activity, ...

Opinions

Brown, update the Open Curriculum; DIAP shouldn’t be optional

By Editorial Page Board | July 31

On June 15, President Christina Paxson P'19 announced a series of measures to address racial injustice through the University's institutional power and resources. The measures include a new task force, funding for research on policy and awareness projects related to structural racism, a reaffirmed commitment ...

Opinions

Editorial: Reflecting on Brown's financial responsibilities to students, employees and Providence

By Editorial Page Board | April 13

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the University has closed down for an indefinite period of time and sent most of its students home. As students and professors alike learn to navigate the complications of “virtual learning,” the pandemic also has introduced a multitude of financial concerns ...

Opinions

Editorial: To our administration: we ask for clear, caring communication regarding grading policy change

By Editorial Page Board | April 5

On Monday, March 30, the undergraduate community received an email from Dean of the College Rashid Zia ‘01 outlining the University’s updated grading policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s sweeping academic consequences this semester. According to this email, students would be able to change ...

Opinions

Editorial: Brown must address students’ long-term COVID-19 concerns

By Editorial Page Board | March 11

In response to the spread of COVID-19 and the ever-heightening accompanying international concern, the University has announced and implemented a number of public health measures. All events with over 100 attendees must be “postponed, canceled or offered virtually;” this includes admissions tours ...

Opinions

Editorial: When the editorial page board speaks, what does it mean?

By Editorial Page Board | February 11

As the editorial page board, we know that The Brown Daily Herald gives us a platform that can allow our voice to resonate within the University community. And we are incredibly grateful for the chance to contribute to community conversation. But over the years, community members and Heralders alike ...

Opinions

Brigham ’20: Spoiling the 2020 campaign

By Greer Brigham | November 24

It was one of the great nightmares of the Democratic Party: On the night of Nov. 7th, 2000, the Presidential Election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was a toss-up, with the final result dependent on the outcome in Florida. The final tally? Bush won the state, and therefore the presidency, by a margin ...

Opinions

Editorial: University must improve actual, perceived sense of student safety

By Editorial Page Board | November 24

Recently as part of The Herald’s Fall 2019 poll, students were asked how safe they feel both on and off campus after dark. The results indicated that while a vast majority of students feel safe on campus after dark, about 40 percent of undergraduates — including a disproportionate number of women ...

Opinions

Editorial: How RailRoad gets it wrong, and how RailRoad gets it right

By Editorial Page Board | November 22

RailRoad, a student activist organization at Brown which seeks “a world where the Prison Industrial Complex has been destroyed,” presented to the Undergraduate Council of Students last month and hosted a public teach-in this month, highlighting its proposal that the University adopt a “fair chance ...