To the Editor: I was outraged to read a recent article about the Brown University 250th anniversary cake in the Providence Journal. If Brown has the financial resources to commission a celebratory cake on the scale of royal weddings and fireworks from the roof of University buildings, perhaps that ...
To the Editor: In a letter in last Monday’s Herald, Dr. Bruno Harris writes of the benefits of physical libraries as opposed to electronic sources, at least with respect to the current status and availability of e-books. I must admit that at first, I idly read through and thought to myself how inconceivable ...
In January 2011, then-President Ruth Simmons organized a committee to explore the possibility of reorganizing a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit on the Brown campus. It was a response to the repeal of the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation and a challenge by President Obama ...
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 ...
This weekend, the University began the 250th celebration of the College’s founding. At the center of the celebration, a 3 percent replica of University Hall stood poised to feed 1,400 attendees. There were speakers, pyrotechnics, buttons, bands and little spigots that filled cups with hot chocolate. ...
A diamond to Katherine Gordon, managing director of the Technology Ventures Office, who said, “I kind of view the process as the planting seeds for the future.” That’s why we froze our eggs. Coal to Michael Fine, director of the R.I. Department of Health, who said, “I’d love to see ...
To the Editor: The article in Thursday’s Herald about the State of Brown (“U.’s next decade surveyed in State of Brown,” March 6) does not accurately capture the University’s plans in the area of online education. In fact, online educational technology will play a large role in Brown’s ...
Smuggling. Labor abuses. Environmental degradation. Money hoarding. These words bring to mind images of the struggling nation. But in reality, these terms perfectly describe the situation in places outside of national borders — international space, the final bastion of lawlessness. There is a widespread ...
Education is a gift and a blessing regardless of the medium through which it is received. Some people benefit from college educations, while others do better with education in technical institutions or outside the realm of universities, in particular through careers or professions. But the common trait ...
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 ...
Throughout 2010, 14 employees of a factory owned by Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company, committed suicide. As usual, American media sensationalized the incidents and called for improved treatment of workers. Following investigations by the factory’s customers, including Apple and ...
I spent winter break at a retirement community in Florida. It was equal parts boring and fascinating. One day, an old man approached me in the gym and struck up a conversation. After briefly exchanging pleasantries, he asked me point-blank, “So, are you a Democrat or a Republican?” I was completely ...
Here at liberal Brown in liberal Rhode Island, we often feel immune from the nationwide struggle with social politics. Personally, I watch the news and feel relieved to live in a place that is — relatively — socially progressive. Like last week, when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed SB 1062, a ...
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 ...
The stereotypical Brown student enjoys talking about hegemony almost as much as explaining that gender is a spectrum, not a binary. And when this stereotypical student talks about hegemony, it is not in positive terms. This student is wary of anyone, or anything, exerting hegemony. He or she knows that ...
Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, once said, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” While Andrew Powers ’15 claimed in a recent Herald opinions column that policy evaluation should be based in ethics (“Powers ...
To the Editor: I very much agree with the article in Thursday’s Herald on e-book difficulties. As books are moved from the library into high-density storage outside of Providence (stored just by size!), the traditional activity of browsing is eliminated. Browsing means that one looks perhaps ...
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 ...
Most of us consider social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook our greatest sources of procrastination. In general, our professors request that we avoid perusing these websites in class so that we remain engaged with the material. At the same time, a new trend is emerging: Educators are asking their ...
Solutions by The State News
