Earlier this month, 65 returning varsity athletes on the Men’s Track & Field and Men’s Cross Country teams were able to show the administration that their decision was ill informed; their team was reinstated. To those 65 men, we say congratulations. However, 97 athletes still remain wronged. ...
Following the University's decision to cut 11 teams as part of the Excellence in Brown Athletics initiative, The Herald invited 100-word submissions from individuals impacted by the decision. The opinions team selected and lightly edited 10 blurbs from former varsity student-athletes and alums on the ...
To the Editor: It is highly ironic that contributor Peter Mackie ’59 extolled former President Ruth Simmons when it was her abject decade-long failure to support Brown athletics that has led to President Christina Paxson P’19’s necessary and reasoned initiative. Simmons slashed admissions slots ...
To the Editor: Thank you for your recent coverage of the University’s recent athletics decisions, as well as many reactions described in published opinion pieces. However, I wish that you had pushed President Christina Paxson P’19 just a little bit more in your interview with her for your recent ...
As alumnae of the Brown Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams, we are writing in solidarity with current teammates on the Brown Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams whose collegiate athletic careers were abruptly terminated May 28, as announced in a community-wide email about ...
As many may now know, on May 28 Brown University ended the athletic careers of 84 men and 65 women on a roughly six-minute Zoom call. The decision was swift, brutal and incontestable. By removing the varsity status of 11 sports teams without warning, Brown University has abandoned 149 students, including ...
The May 28 announcement arrived without warning — a thunderbolt from above, striking the hearts of legions within the University athletic community. The hand-picked Committee on Excellence in Athletics, composed of seven alumni and trustees chosen in part because of their “capacity to make very ...
To the Brown Community: I’m sure by now many of you are consumed by what’s been happening here in the United States. For those of you who are in a particularly difficult place because of the racial killings, I’m writing to you. Honestly, I’m writing to me too. I want to start by saying that ...
Who We Are We are two of five rising juniors on the Brown Women’s Varsity Squash team. We spent upwards of 10 years training with hopes of playing squash at a collegiate level. We have dedicated 20 hours a week for 25 weeks a year to train, travel and compete. At the same time, we are dedicated students ...
Last Thursday, Brown University announced its decision to cut 11 varsity teams as part of the “Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative.” This change, guided by the advice of consultants, means former varsity teams will lose all recruiting spots, trainers, athletic department tutors and coaches ...
Dear Allies, My brother and I went to a protest in Dallas last Friday night to demand that the police and agents of white supremacy be held accountable for the murders of George Floyd and countless other Black lives. While we were on the streets, clamoring for justice, I realized that we weren’t ...
On May 28, Brown University revealed that it will cut 11 varsity athletics teams and transition them to club status, effective immediately. The decision, which was made without the knowledge of the University’s head coaches and student-athletes, has been dubbed the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative. The ...
Last week, the Brown Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams were completely blindsided and told that, effective immediately, we must “cease training, competition, and related operations at the varsity level” as part of an “Excellence Initiative” — an insulting description for a plan ...
The first time I went swing dancing, I simply followed the music. It was a snowy February night, and I was walking home from a late shift at The Herald when the soft notes of Ella Fitzgerald found me on the sidewalk behind Sayles. I wandered up the steps for a peek in the window, and found myself dancing ...
Dear Class of 2020, I hope you are embracing your graduation as a moment of tremendous accomplishment and celebration. And my greatest hope for all of you is that the difficult months of this pandemic prove to be a footnote to a life full of meaning and joy. I know it may not feel like it today, ...
Last fall, I attended a workshop hosted by legendary public-speaking professor Barbara Tannenbaum. In the warm comfort of her home that evening, a small group of 30 students sat around her cozy living room. Besides the home-cooked pizza that she had prepared for us, each of us came in search of the ...
Following Brown’s closure due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, 16 Brown student organizations called on the Undergraduate Finance Board to donate unused funds from these organizations’ annual budgets to mutual aid efforts to support members of both the Brown and Rhode Island communities. On May ...
Over the past four years, my professors taught me about the history of museums, how to read like a writer and to question who has the right to tell what stories. But after I finished my readings, submitted my essays on Canvas and closed my laptop; when I grabbed a meal at the Ratty or went to the basement ...
A couple days before classes started last fall, I learned that my grandmother was dying. She was the oldest member of my family, but we did not expect such a rapid decline in her health. With one phone call, my family suddenly faced the daunting task of transplanting ourselves in under 24 hours from ...
Anticlimactic. That is the descriptor most used when discussing graduation for the class of 2020. Some of us may be fortunate enough to enjoy a double commencement, while others unable to attend will miss two ceremonies instead of one. We’ve lost the final revels of Spring Weekend, the mornings at ...
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