Last week, a Duke University student made national news for refusing to read an assigned summer book, the graphic novel Fun Home, saying its theme of gay sexuality and risque illustrations may compromise his moral beliefs. This stance is the latest in what has been a stream of conflicts about political ...
I distinctly remember posing for my mother in my new suit at the end of May, looking like a little girl playing dress up in business attire. Her smartphone camera flashed a few times, and within moments the picture of her high-achieving daughter awaiting the first day of her summer internship was on ...
Few people, myself included, would recognize me as an athlete on campus. Really that is because I am not, or I am not any longer, but I played softball at Brown for one bittersweet year. I anachronistically participated during the competitive season in my second semester and the training season after ...
His announcement packed a punch. Few saw it coming. Now, two weeks after former R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 declared that he was forming an exploratory committee to examine a run for the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination and then announced his candidacy during an appearance ...
One late night sophomore year, I was up trying to finish a book for my African literature class in the morning when there was a knock at my suite door. I opened it, tentative; we didn’t usually have visitors at 3 a.m. “Are you Eli Okun?” asked one of the Department of Public Safety officers standing ...
Initially, when Andrea Petersen of the Wall Street Journal asked to interview me for her piece on transitioning to college with mental health issues, I was ambivalent. As president of Brown’s chapter of Active Minds, a nonprofit organization that strives to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness, ...
When I first walked into my first philosophy class, PHIL 1750: “Epistemology,” I didn’t know exactly what to expect. What is the study of knowledge and why should I care about it? I thought philosophy would offer an environment in which I could say and write anything without criticism. I saw philosophy ...
The first time I went to watch a movie alone, I tried to make it look like I was waiting for a friend during the entire movie. Of course now I realize that probably no one in that cinema even realized I was on my own, and I wasted a lot of mental energy when I could have been enjoying Wreck-It Ralph. ...
It has been almost 2,000 years since the destruction of Pompeii in 79 A.D. Yet when people wander through the rubble of the city, they can still come across ancient carvings etched onto its walls — age-old graffiti that has withstood the test of time. These markings have survived volcanic eruptions, ...
This will probably be the last column I write — graduation is rapidly approaching and The Herald doesn’t retain its columnists as alums. In preparation for this column, I wanted to think about what I would say to someone, maybe an incoming freshman, who asked for one piece of advice. What do I wish ...
One of the most jarring parts of the senior year career search was learning which jobs I wouldn’t be able to accept — not because I’m unqualified, but because I couldn’t afford them. Like many other Brown students from middle-class backgrounds, I took out a combination of federal and private ...
As the sun slowly begins to shine and the birds test out their vocal chords, spring becomes more of an everyday reality. Besides shorts-wearing weather and Main Green lounging, spring also signals the beginning of the summer concert season. With big-name festivals, touring artists and our very own Spring ...
As we are all aware, Hyoun Ju Sohn GS killed himself on campus March 31. It was a tragic loss for our community and has affected many of its members. Yes, this has been discussed often both in print and elsewhere. Some may believe that we must move past this. But there are two reasons preventing me ...
As graduation day inches closer, I increasingly feel waves of uncontrollable emotions ebbing and flowing through me. While sometimes I’m excited to be done with classes or sad to think of saying goodbye to Brown, I mostly feeling no sense of urgency anymore. Throughout the last four years at Brown, ...
The University of Michigan made a big mistake last week that led to a firestorm of controversy. The case highlights how easy it is for universities to shape their students’ beliefs by exposing them to one particular viewpoint under the guise of promoting free speech. Universities, to be consistent ...
This spring, many student climate activists are turning up the heat. On campuses across the country, student activists have turned to sit-ins to pressure their schools to divest from fossil fuels. At Swarthmore College, where a student divestment proposal was rejected at 2013, students have been sitting-in ...
While Tinder seems to be occupying the minds of students these days, as spring fever begins to take hold, there are other ways to get matched. Today, April 14, our football team will host Brown’s 6th annual Be the Match bone marrow testing drive. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., members of the team will be ...
Recently, Indiana Governor Mike Pence started a national media firestorm by signing a religious freedom law, which would allow businesses to refuse service to gay and lesbian individuals on religious grounds. Many politicians and writers condemned the law, arguing that it would inevitably lead to the ...
When the University sent decision letters to applicants to the class of 2019 last week, not every future Brown student received a response. The future members of the transfer classes of 2018 and 2018.5 won’t find out about their application until the middle of May. The process that transfer students ...
While the media is currently focused on the prelude to the 2016 elections, Rhode Island has the chance to make history by passing a statewide price on carbon. With the “Energize Rhode Island: Clean Energy Investment and Carbon Pricing Act of 2015,” the Ocean State can address the impacts of global ...
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