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Meyer '17: Bad and worse

Tuesday night brought me closer to the alienation and anxiety that some on this campus and so many off it have coped with for generations. It is a visceral phenomenon to feel estranged and hated by much of America. Hated is not too strong a word. Institutions like Brown and places like my home, Washington, ...


Opinions

Silvert '20: An evolving opinion on networking

After reading Cindy Zeng’s ’20 recent column on networking (“Zeng ’20: The net wrong with networking,” Nov. 1), I felt relieved to hear someone else voice dissatisfaction with contrived networking events. I had never attributed my ambivalence toward networking to its insincerity and ineffectiveness, ...


Opinions

Krishnamurthy ’19: A republic of hope

At moments like these — on a campus simmering with the heartache of young liberals and those who simply yearned for decency in their president — it’s hard to feel proud as an American. Donald  Trump, a man whose displays of toxic bravado, wealth and cavalier racism catapulted him to prominence, ...


Opinions

Vilsan '19: The opportunity cost of study abroad

As an international student who has had the privilege of studying and living abroad, I completely understand the allure of the study abroad options at Brown. Especially for students who haven’t left the United States, the novelty of a semester in glamorous Paris or sleek Stockholm seems like a once-in-a-lifetime ...


Opinions

Malik '18: Term limits might fix our broken government

The never-ending nightmare that has been the 2016 presidential election might seem like it is finally drawing to a close tomorrow. But as much as it frustrates me to say this, I am not counting on the state of U.S. politics to get any better.  I thought the debt ceiling crisis a few years ago was the ...


Opinions

Johnson ’19: Harvard, please do better

At the end of last month, a file written by the Harvard men’s soccer team in 2012 was found on the Internet. Called a “scouting report,” the document described incoming recruits on the women’s soccer team by giving them a numerical rating for attractiveness, assigning them a sex position and ...


Opinions

Kumar '17: Reviewing Brown’s changing goals

How should Brown evolve? This question — easy to pose, maddening to answer — sits at the center of the financial plan for the University as detailed by Provost Richard Locke P’17 Oct. 4. The plan calls for limiting the undergraduate population to 1,650 admitted students per year and correspondingly ...


Opinions

Friedman '19: Comedy shows do not an informed voter make

Few comedy shows are more popular right now than John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” which airs weekly on HBO to an average of 4.7 million viewers. The show’s success isn’t surprising since episodes are relatively short, funny and informative, and John Oliver is brutally — and often satisfyingly ...


Opinions

Steinman '19: The Internet democratizes college admissions

A recent article in the Atlantic delves into the messy world of online college applications, focusing on the dramatic growth of the Common Application. The article particularly resonated with me because Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of the day that I — along with many of my classmates — ...


Opinions

Zeng '20: Break away from being busy

On Saturday, I spent a whole afternoon doing nothing in my room. I justified this period of indulgence with the thought that I had just finished three midterms and was running on seven hours of sleep over the span of two days. This was supposed to be a time of recuperation, relaxation and self-care, ...


Opinions

Liang '19: Dining halls, food and cultural appropriation

Last year, Oberlin College students cried foul at what they called the “rampant cultural appropriation” of their campus dining services. Their proof? A soggy, wet pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw that was labeled banh mi. Disgusting. Thankfully, our banh mi served at Andrews is a little bit better, ...


Opinions

Mitra '18: The off-campus housing headache

As the fall semester comes to a close, many sophomores and juniors are now scrambling to navigate through one of the greatest mazes of the undergraduate experience: the challenge of finding off-campus housing. Given the sheer number of housing options available on College Hill, you would think that ...


Opinions

Meyer '17: A Trump loss won’t change Republicans

The next 11 days can’t pass quickly enough. After a miserable, too-long election cycle, the specter of President Donald Trump will (hopefully) be vanquished. We will finally be able to exhale. But the relief won’t last for long. After the end of this miserable contest, all we have to look forward ...


Opinions

Papendorp '17: True mentorship can’t be forced

It’s been a while since I’ve been on a college tour, but I’m guessing one of the few topics to come up as much as the treachery of walking backwards is academic advising. Brown is always sure to highlight the Meiklejohn Peer Advising Program, which pairs each first-year student with an older student ...


Opinions

Ahmed MD'17: Vote Jeff Johnson for Congress

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, won Rhode Island’s Democratic Primary with 55 percent of the vote Apr. 26. Hillary Clinton trailed with 43.3 percent. Yet, in July, at the Democratic National Convention, U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-RI, cast his superdelegate vote for Clinton. Effectively, Bernie won ...


Opinions

Savello '18: Benefits to early graduation restrictions

When I was a senior in high school, I attended an information session at Brown where several students asked outlandish questions — many of which illustrated an overzealousness to excel academically. One particularly over-eager student asked whether or not it is possible to graduate early, to which ...


Opinions

Johnson '19: Hiding homesickness

What do I miss most about home? I miss the blue of the water and the pinks of the sky. I miss the gulps of air standing on a bluff, the midnight dips under the Big Dipper and the view of city lights through a beach fire’s haze. I miss tracing my toe on the lake’s surface while paddling along the ...


Opinions

Esemplare '18: Reading in the smartphone era

My whole life, I’ve been a reader. From a young age I would get lost in books, reading for hours on end with no interruption. Without the incentive of essays or pop quizzes, I enjoyed reading for its own sake, favoring the escape of a good book over many more tangible pursuits. And while the purity ...


Opinions

Vilsan '19: News with a punch line

It is virtually impossible for today’s college students to escape political discourse and accompanying impassioned political debate on social media platforms. Peers proudly display their party loyalties on their profile pages and share articles that affirm their views, whether conservative or liberal. ...


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