Letters To The Editor

Letter: John Nicholas Brown Center changes should have more transparency

March 7

In recent weeks, I have followed news of changes to the John Nicholas Brown Center with a combination of alarm and curiosity. Despite coming across several announcements regarding its renaming and restructuring, I have yet to see a fully satisfactory explanation for these developments.

Letter: The CS Department has supported TAs, and will continue to regardless of unionization

March 1

"We are happy to work with a union representing our UTAs, if one is approved by the election. UTAs have been an important part of our program for many decades, and we fully expect them to continue to be."

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Letter: Noise enforcement can take many forms

By John Wilner | November 10

We at the Providence Noise Project greatly appreciated the op-ed by Juliet Fang ’26, “We need to reduce noise pollution,” which we thought did an excellent job covering the sources and detrimental impacts of excessive noise in Providence and elsewhere. Unnecessary ...

Letter: Brown’s response to antisemitism is lacking

By Willis J. Goldsmith | November 2

he note containing “several expletives and violent threats against Jewish people” discovered Sunday at Brown RISD Hillel and the “swastikas carved into surfaces” around campus over the summer are incidents of antisemitism — nothing more, nothing less. By broadly linking such events to “incidents ...

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Letter: End the use of pigs in medical training now

By Shalin Gala | October 20

The ongoing use of pigs for operation training in the University's emergency medicine residency program reflects poorly on the University and provides inferior training to residents who deserve the best. It's time Brown joined the right side of history and ended this cruel, outdated practice. ...

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Letter: Reflections on one year leading ResLife

By Brenda Ice | October 7

As I reflect on my first year at Brown as senior associate dean and senior director of residential life, including the changes I have been able to enact, I am comforted ...

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Opinions

Letter: Brown has a long-established commitment to freedom of expression

By Russell Carey | September 19

I deeply appreciate and agree with many of the views expressed in the Sept. 14 op-ed by Sean Fischer ’23, “Brown must embrace contentious conversations to discourage a persistent culture of self-censorship.” I welcome its clear articulation of the value of confronting viewpoints that are different ...

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Opinions

Letter: All populations want to live in peace

By Boaz Munro | September 9

Seventeen years ago, as a freshman at Brown, I wrote an op-ed for The Herald responding to the vandalism and destruction of synagogues and Jewish-built

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Opinions

Letter: Students should apply to fewer colleges to reduce admissions selectivity

By Rick Fleeter | April 11

Reviewing the data as best I could, the total number of students enrolling as college undergraduates is down from its most recent peak in 2010. But Brown has a target enrollment of 1,700 students this year, a greater than 10% increase from its actual enrollment of 1,504 students in 2010. The number ...

Opinions

Letter: The case for studying literature at Brown

By Arnold Weinstein | April 8

One of the few virtues of being old is having a personal sense of history. If I look back in time, it jumps out at me that no one needed to make the case for literature in the past because it was self-evident that literature was alive and well in the Brown curriculum: lots of enrollments, lots of ...

Opinions

Letter: Now is the time pedestrianize the streets of Brown

By Peter Mackie | March 2

To the Editor: The Feb. 14 column by Gabriel Sender ’25 calling for the pedestrianization of Brown and Thayer streets is an ambitious and important proposal from a number of perspectives. The elimination of personal vehicles in and around campus is an idea that has been bandied about for ...

Opinions

Letter: Cutting cars from Thayer will cut out the community

By Deborah Moxham | February 23

The myopic, albeit well-intentioned, view of Gabe Sender ’25 in his Feb. 14 column on closing Thayer and Brown streets to vehicular traffic touched a nerve. Local homeowners in Providence have long used Thayer Street to visit restaurants, the Avon Cinema, the post office, FedEx and more. For those ...

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Opinions

Letter: Gail from the Ratty says goodbye

By Gail McCarthy | February 4

I now sadly must say goodbye to all the students whom I call friends, to everyone in the Brown community whom I have had the pleasure to meet and especially to my coworkers from Dining Services. They worked tirelessly beside me. We were a team and, most of all, a family. I will miss all of you very ...

Opinions

Letter: The PTP is committed to intellectual discourse

By Daniel Shemano | February 2

To the Editor:

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Opinions

Letter: Art can survive the introduction of AI

By Jonah Saitz | November 11

I’ve read numerous articles that decry the application of artificial intelligence to areas such as self-driving cars and jury selections. These arguments can typically be traced to an underlying fear: a distrust of machines making decisions for humans. The recent argument ...

Opinions

Letter: The South Water Street bike lane is ill-advised

By Barbara Beeton | November 10

I am happy that bicycles are more popular now, and am generally in favor of measures to improve bike accessibility. However, the new bike path on South Water Street is an exception.

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Opinions

Letter: Rhode Island’s history of refugee mutual aid continues

By Bill Twaddell | October 18

I commend Alissa Simon ’25 and The Herald for the Oct. 6 column concerning the expected arrival of Afghans in Rhode Island.

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Opinions

Letter: Response to SAT-optional proponents: Listen to the data

By Alexander Pralea | March 4

To the Editor: Concerns about equity in the college admissions process are always well-founded and necessary. However, a recent op-ed by Zoë Fuad ’23 calling for Brown to become standardized test-optional is misguided. It fails to acknowledge that well-intentioned efforts to exclude the SAT or ACT ...

Opinions

Letter: A plea to reinstate Dr. Rick Bungiro

By David Litt | November 8

To The Editor: I recently heard about the resignation of Dr. Rick Bungiro from the Division of Biology and Medicine and his subsequent request for reinstatement. I took two classes with Dr. Bungiro in the Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2012, BIOL0530 (Principles of Immunology) and BIOL1550 (Biology of ...

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Opinions

Letter: A Goodbye from Dr. Meek

By Will Meek | November 2

Dear Brown Students, I wanted to send you all a thank-you note as I depart the University. I've been the director of Counseling and Psychological Services for 3.5 years, and during that time our center has gone through a major transformation, in no small part thanks to you. When I arrived on College ...