In an oversized bold font, at the top of Brown’s Spiritual and Religious Life website, it is affirmed, “A nonsectarian institution, Brown embraces all spiritual traditions and celebrates the diversity of religious identity on campus.” Considering this forthright affirmation of religious neutrality, ...
Imagine you are earning a handsome salary, attending soirees in the most exciting cities and gracing television screens and newspapers regularly. The best part is that you do not need to apply an established skill set or engage in rigorous thought, as your assistants do most of the preparation and analysis ...
The Department of English initiated a curricular review in coordination with several other departments in March 2010. Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’12, who was professor of English and department chair in 2010, said at the time the restructuring would not be “a revolutionary change,” ...
To the Editor: In his recent column, Ian Eppler ’13 is not so much defending inflated grades as he is defending the circumstances he believes naturally led to them (“In defense of grade inflation,” Jan. 31). What is missing is a discussion of whether inflation itself is problematic. Universities ...
In the aftermath of a multiple-victim shooting, there often sounds a call to take up arms. Well, perhaps it’s more of a call to take away arms. Whenever the media sensationalizes these tragedies, the phrase “common-sense gun control” is tossed around to marginalize dissenters as no more than heartless ...
In my time at Brown, I have sometimes noticed a culture in which athletes are perceived in an unflattering light. In The Herald I’ve read stories about “the jock stereotype” (“Athletes struggle against ‘dumb jock’ stereotype,” April 24, 2012) and claims that athletics are overfunded or ...
To the Editor: As a student and alum of Brown University, I am disappointed by the Office of Institutional Diversity’s decision to invite Bernice King to give the Jan. 30 Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture under the title of “Advancing the ‘Dream’: Addressing Social Equity Issues to Eliminate ...
Dreschler '15: Yes Every year around this time, students descend into applications for that three-syllable word that makes most of us shutter with dread: internships. For many, that means brushing the dust off resumes, updating cover letters with over-exaggerated examples of leadership and calling ...
Under current policy, international, transfer and Resumed Undergraduate Education students are admitted on a need-aware basis, in which ability to pay is considered in deciding whether students should be admitted. While financial aid is a familiar issue, as President Christina Paxson begins to shape ...
On January 7, Austin-based talk radio host Alex Jones excitedly claimed, “1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms,” during his appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight. While this comment was certainly entertaining — I highly recommend watching the entire clip on YouTube — what struck ...
Everyone seems to understand grade inflation to be real and to be a problem. Websites are devoted to tracking the average grade point averages at colleges and universities and shaming the universities that the sites’ owners consider to be the worst offenders. Last year, the Brown Conversation devoted ...
In 1644, eight years after Roger Williams founded the colony of Providence Plantations, he composed an essay titled “A Plea for Religious Liberty” in his great opus The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace. “All civil states,” ...
There is an insidious form of institutionalized discrimination written into our Constitution, and it affects virtually every student at the University. Young people under the age of 35 — nearly half of the citizens in the United States — do not enjoy the full benefits of enfranchisement: We are ...
The tragedy of the Sandy Hook massacre not only opened American eyes to policy and social issues affecting our nation, but it also illuminated some of the shoddy inner workings of the mechanism that shared this information with us in the first place: the media. Through news websites, Twitter, Facebook ...
When innocent people are killed in a burst of gun violence, gun control rhetoric can never be far behind. It is only natural then, that the latest mass shooting in America’s sordid history — the Sandy Hook massacre — has prompted some of the most heated debate over gun legislation in recent memory. ...
A lot can change in the matter of a month. Here I was, preparing to invite the New York Knicks to the big boy club after rattling off multiple impressive victories over playoff-caliber teams, when their 20-point beat down of the reigning champ Miami Heat (that’s an incredibly ugly four words) signaled ...
As an alum of Gap Year University and a current humble first-year at Brown, I have experienced two wildly different years since I graduated from high school. Last year was full of real world experiences like job applications, fifty-hour workweeks, Craigslist roommate searches, grocery runs and rental ...
The recession’s effects on student attitudes toward higher education are clear. In a survey of 283 four-year colleges and universities published by the University of California at Los Angeles, a record high 88 percent of freshmen said “ability to get a better job” was a “very important” motivation ...
In ancient times, a natural disaster was often thought of as a collective punishment from the gods. Whether that punishment was just was irrelevant. It was served. Mankind today is an Olympian force of 6.9 billion strong and growing. Climate scientists tell us we are the cause of massive changes in ...
Last summer, famous comedian Daniel Tosh performed at a Los Angeles nightclub and reportedly began his stand-up set with a joke about rape. Tosh said, “Rape jokes are always funny. … How can a rape joke not be funny?” A female audience member yelled back, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!” ...
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