Students at the New School withstood pepper spray attacks by police last week while trying to force the ouster of their controversial president, continuing the tradition of a year of occupations as part of a national campaign for accessible education. The beleaguered administrators they target could almost be forgiven for thinking that the goals of student power movements end where they begin — on campus.

A recent New York Times article highlighted one of the ways that states, burdened with massive budget shortfalls, are filling their coffers. In Florida, Georgia, Michigan and elsewhere, state judicial systems are cracking down on people who owe fees and fines to the courts.

But since faculty turnover can proceed even more slowly than a UCS meeting, here are two proposals that could improve undergraduate academics at Brown in the meantime.  Brown, like all colleges, likes to cite numbers on average class size.

In a few weeks, about a quarter of our population will process out of the Van Wickle Gates and into the real world.

For 1,700 poor elementary school students in Washington, D.C., the best chance for a quality education ended last week. Despite entreaties from Education Secretary Arne Duncan and even President Barack Obama himself, the Senate used the omnibus spending bill to eliminate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program by the 2009-10 school year.

This past Tuesday night, some underclassmen went to Wayland Arch and turned in their bid cards, thereby taking the first step towards becoming a Greek brother or sister. Although Greek life at Brown is noticeably less prominent than at many other schools, Brown does have somewhat of a Greek presence with fraternities, sororities and co-ed houses, also known as frarorities.

Last Thursday, the Janus Forum hosted a lecture around the question: “Are there universal human rights?” As is usual for Janus Forum lectures, the talk involved two speakers with opposing views.

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day! It’s one of the most commercial and seemingly ubiquitous holidays of the year, with every store from Whole Foods to CVS decorating its shelves with pink and red hearts. It’s also a remarkable day because it affects almost everyone – some people will spend a romantic evening with their significant other, others will stay home with a tub of ice cream and a pile of DVDs and still others will spend the evening in a totally normal way, apparently unaware of the holiday… at least until they wake up the next day to an angry boyfriend or girlfriend!

Ahhh, New Year’s! The transition to a new year seems, as it always does, like the perfect opportunity to kick the bad habits we’ve been meaning to shed for some time. The first of January is that liberating day when we just start afresh, kind of like the reboot button on a computer.