As a new graduate student at Brown, I was disappointed that protesters managed to shut down the recent talk by New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly. A poll published in The Herald Nov. 6 (“Poll shows mixed opinions on Ray Kelly, coal divestment”) suggests that a large majority ...
I appreciate Provost Mark Schlissel’s P’15 illuminations captured in The Herald’s article, “U. deficit could constrain budget planning” (Nov. 8) — that “the University would die” if it did not use its resources to expand really sheds some discerning light on why yearly tuition hikes, ...
Reports of the death of the university in general — and these days, the University, specifically — are greatly exaggerated. We often read predictions of higher education’s decline — hyperbolic prophecies of a future dominated by massive online open courses, flipped classrooms and distance-based ...
As a child, I fell in love with science the first time I peered through a thin glass case at a Blue Morpho butterfly. Unabashedly iridescent and delicate, the butterfly shined in equal parts mystery and beauty. As I continued to explore as a teenager, science explained my visual world and provided a ...
At this time last year, I was a naive first-year and thought I would get a place in each of the classes in my Banner shopping cart. I figured that if something went wrong and I wasn’t able to register for a course, I would definitely be able to take it the following year. No problem. It was with ...
The tattooed, scrappy and enigmatic beardsmen of the Boston Red Sox glided through the streets of Boston aboard the city’s unique amphibious vehicles known as duck boats last Saturday, leaving in their wake a trail of confetti, popped corks and delirious fans. It’s a scene and feeling that Boston ...
The month of October saw events that shook Brown to its core. Between the Corporation’s decision to not divest the endowment from holdings in major coal companies to the protests against New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s lecture, the Brown community grew polarized, and beliefs from ...
This week, Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 announced the launch of an Environmental Change Task Force at Brown. He described the group as “charged with recommending actions that members of the Brown community might take, beyond campus-based sustainability efforts and discussion of divestiture, ...
You know what really grinds my gears? Brown Dining Services. I’ve been a little tense about how food services around here are run for a while now, but when a friend of mine talked to me about what food is like at Boston University, it pushed me over the edge. In comparison to BU, Brown University ...
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 ...
This past week, The Herald has run a four-part series — “Launching a Legacy?” — exploring the influences shaping President Christina Paxson’s recently approved strategic plan and how the plan, entitled “Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown,” will affect the University’s trajectory ...
I just received a letter from President Christina Paxson. I understand that as an administrator tasked with the orderly functioning of the University, Paxson disagrees with the tactics used by the protesters at the New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly lecture. However, I’m disappointed because this ...
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, ...
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 ...
Students at Brown are quick to support a cause, and their plea for coal divestment is no exception. On Oct. 27, President Christina Paxson wrote an email informing the Brown community that the Corporation would not divest the University’s endowment from major coal companies. “The existence of social ...
I understand the harms coal creates. I support moving away from coal as an energy source. But I cannot support Brown Divest Coal. The letter the campaign submitted to The Herald on Monday (“An open letter to President Paxson and the Corporation,” Nov. 4) felt melodramatic, hair-brained and all-around ...
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 ...
This past week showed an excitement and vitality that arguably hasn’t existed on Brown’s campus since the struggle for need-blind admission in the 90s. Despite highs and lows and victories and frustrations, the feeling that something important is happening on this campus is undeniable. This feeling ...
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 ...
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’ ...
Solutions by The State News
