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Friedman '19: Self-doubt at the ‘chill’ Ivy

I found myself in the Sciences Library last Tuesday night staging an all-too-familiar last-ditch effort to complete my differential equations problem set the night before it was due. I was staring at code in Python, a program in which I still feel incompetent, feeling resigned to the possibility that ...


Opinions

Meyer '17: Protest Trump, don’t protest vote

One of the most pervasive frameworks for discussing the presidential election is as a choice between two bad options. “Roughly four-in-ten voters say it is difficult to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because neither would make a good president — as high as at any point since 2000,” ...


Opinions

Mitra '18: Get off the hill

I’m unabashedly in love with Brown’s campus. College Hill is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the country for a number of reasons: It has boatloads of history, eclectic but quaint architecture and world-class coffee shops. In short, it has all I need to survive and then some. But there are times ...


Opinions

Zeng '20: It’s time to talk about homelessness

It’s basic Providence street culture: Keep your head up, shoulders back, walk quickly and avoid eye contact with the people who ask for money. Bottle up the guilt and keep your eyes fixed on your phone. Every day, I follow this routine while walking down Thayer Street, and every day I regret it a ...


Opinions

Savello '18: Bad romance: defending long distance

The summer before my first year at Brown, I remember people in the Class of 2018 Facebook group creating a long-distance relationship support page. It was called “Love Shows no Bounds” or “Miles of Love” or something equally cheesy. The comments section included a wide range of opinions from ...


Opinions

Papendorp ’17: A laptop policy for everyone

My sophomore year, I took BIOL 0530: “Principles of Immunology” in Friedman Auditorium. Every week, as lecture started, I noticed one student take out his laptop, navigate to www.flashgames247.com and begin an 80-minute Brick Breaker marathon. Eventually, I realized that I was dedicating so much ...


Opinions

Malik '18: Time shouldn’t equal credit

We have all probably noticed a new feature on most course syllabi this semester: the inclusion of estimated completion times for assignments and readings. When I first saw these, I was intrigued. I hadn’t seen them before, and I wondered why they were listed. I have never believed that the amount ...


Opinions

Esemplare '18: The line between romanticism and pragmatism

This past Wednesday I read Anuj Krishnamurthy’s ’19 column (“Making a living,” Sept. 21) with interest. The article puts forth fascinating claims and accurately highlights the many issues inherent in tying an individual’s societal worth to one’s employment status. I strongly agree with Krishnamurthy’s ...


Opinions

Vilsan '19: Fame, fortune and feminism

Feminism is central to today’s pop culture. Growing up, I was taught that the feminist movement was about abandoning stereotypical gender roles and enjoying the right to choose. Women from Gloria Steinem to Hillary Clinton broke glass ceilings, inspiring many women to reject their status as second-class ...


STEM

Liang '19: STEM courseloads betray the open curriculum

“Shakespeare is stupid.” This came out of the mouth of a good friend of mine, an applied math concentrator, over lunch one day. Having just survived shopping period, everyone at the table was comparing class schedules. Between the humanities and science, technology, engineering and math concentrators, ...

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Opinions

Johnson '19: Pets should be for everyone

One way that I have tried to adjust to college living is through creating a home-like ambience in my small dorm room. I have twinkle lights, an aroma diffuser, soft rugs and blankets. But the portraits of different cats on my walls don’t quite compare to a real living cat. I can only dream of the ...


Opinions

Silvert ’20: Why a fear of commitments is good

Whether we are conscious of it or not, we all fear the act of committing, which often means deciding to stick with something before truly understanding what it holds. If you are not aware of this aversion in yourself, then you can at least recognize it in people around you. This internal struggle paralyzes ...


Opinions

Mitra ’18: Why you should take creative writing

Like many other Brown students, I’ve developed a specific routine for pre-registration days: I wake up at 7:30 a.m. and spend a good 20 minutes with my cursor hovering over the “Register Cart” button, hoping to get into a section of ENGL 0930: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction.” The famed ...

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Opinions

Krishnamurthy '19: Making a living

I’ve always been disturbed by the phrase “making a living.” Those three words connote the age-old virtues of work and wage-earning, but their larger implications are decidedly less innocuous. They suggest that your life is made meaningful and your existence completely justified only when you get ...


Opinions

Kumar '17: Don’t look away

Like me, you may have seen Monday that another unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, was shot and killed by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thanks to cameras in a police helicopter and on the dashboard of a patrol car, the fatal incident was captured in a video that diffused rapidly by way of traditional ...


Opinions

Reynolds '17: Do it yourself

Brown students like to complain. Sometimes this can be a really good thing, as bringing attention to otherwise silenced issues is step one toward fixing them. Unfortunately, as a community, we often complain about things without trying to fix them. Instead, we expect others to make the change. This ...


Opinions

O'Shea '19: Standing up for liberal education

Aug. 24, the American University of Afghanistan was attacked by suspected Taliban militants. I believe the AUAF is the only institution in Afghanistan to operate under the liberal education model. Ambitious young students came to AUAF in search of freedom from the oppressions of violence and censorship. ...




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