Last Wednesday, in a surprise decision, a regional division of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern University football players seeking to unionize were employees of the university. While Northwestern will certainly appeal the decision, the implications, if the decision holds, ...
Throughout all the recent debates concerning the value of a liberal arts education versus a sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, we’ve tended to ignore a critical fact. Not all STEM subjects are equal regarding employment prospect and national need, and in several of ...
If Ivy League schools come with characters, Brown’s is certainly established as one of progressivity and one that challenges established perspectives. Regardless of one’s personal views — or how one perceives the general culture at the University — the general consensus is that the political ...
Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that there exists a gender gap in scholarship in which women, on average, produce less scholarship than men in academia. The article built upon a new Pew Research Center study about college enrollment rates, which revealed that women’s enrollment ...
Ever since massive open online courses were created, debate has ensued over their effectiveness and value. Proponents and those with financial stakes in the burgeoning MOOC industry argue, as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman does, that MOOCs can “unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s ...
Last week, the College Board announced changes to the structure of the SAT designed to narrow America’s education gap by addressing ways that wealthier students manipulate the standardized test. An email sent out to members of the College Board stated that the organization will begin redesigning "the ...
Immigration reform needs to happen; that much is clear. However, the debate between Republicans and Democrats has not only stalled, but also been primarily driven by ideology and party identification rather than empirical evidence. A much more effective and rational solution would be to seriously look ...
On Feb. 12, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston and Providence, and Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, introduced a bill that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. If the bill is passed, Rhode Island will become the third state to legalize marijuana in the United ...
As the student loan debt burden continues to grow, we must search for options that can help students. One such proposal — announced last week by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at an event held by the nonprofit Generation Progress — would permit students with federal loans to refinance at 3.86 percent ...
Once again, Rhode Island legislators have introduced legislation to the General Assembly that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The bill would allow the sale of marijuana to individuals 21 years of age or older. The New England National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...
Last week, a New York Times column by Suzanne Mettler brought attention to the evolution of college from a mediator of equality to one of inequality, categorizing the current system of higher education as a caste system. Mettler contends that the astronomically large cost of college has become too much ...
Recently, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative aimed at helping young men of color attend college. The White House has been active in its efforts to make higher education more accessible since the beginning of Obama’s presidency. We are heartened by the president’s newest ...
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed suit against ITT Educational Services, a for-profit chain of colleges accused of enticing vulnerable students to take out significant debt for degrees of suspect value. Thirty-two state attorneys general are investigating ITT and similar companies ...
As of February 20, there have been 45 drug overdose deaths in the state of Rhode Island since the start of 2014. This amounts to nearly one death a day — approximately double the number seen at this time in 2012. Though its 2010 rate was the highest in the Northeast, Rhode Island is not alone in these ...
This week, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof penned a column that has already created a great deal of controversy. Kristof called out modern academics for being too insular, incomprehensible and inaccessible to the general public, contending that the culture of academia has evolved to become ...
The University is making a measured attempt to recruit students from rural areas, beyond the major cities from which many Brown students hail. “There are wildly talented students all over the country, and it’s our responsibility to make Brown accessible,” Dean of Admission ’73 recently told ...
Last week, faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago participated in a walkout to protest the poor conditions of the school’s adjunct professors. The tenuous status and unfair treatment of adjunct professors have been well documented but rarely have tenured or tenure-track faculty taken ...
As has happened in similar contests around the country, the Republican primary for governor in Rhode Island is pushing candidates to positions outside the mainstream of Rhode Island voters. Both Republicans in the race, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and Barrington resident Ken Block, have already begun ...
In response to a recent Herald opinions column by Cara Dorris ’15 (“Why we won’t talk about class,” Feb. 12), let’s talk about class. Dorris acutely points out those uncomfortable first-year moments when we begin to draw informal class lines. The University has little to no control over some ...
The Office of International Programs requires that students pay Brown tuition when they spend a semester abroad, regardless of whether the program is Brown-sponsored or not. While we can imagine justifications for such a policy, it still should not cost as much to study abroad as it currently does. Student ...
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