After The Herald reported recent Office of Institutional Research data regarding the grade distribution at Brown last week, our grading system has come to the forefront of campus conversation. With over half of all students receiving As, our skewed distribution of grades indicates inflationary trends, ...
The University’s greatest resource is its students. We learn a tremendous amount from professors, but the most profound development comes from engaging with each other and forming meaningful friendships. Campus space should serve that purpose, and to that end, the Leung Family Gallery should not be ...
Last winter, I learned that no fewer than four of my close friends had contemplated suicide during high school or their freshman years of college. Their motivations for considering ending their lives were tangled webs of depression, anxiety, family problems, self-image issues and academic pressures. I ...
The purpose of college is often questioned. Is college meant to train someone to be a competitive job applicant? Maybe the point of college truly is just to expand your horizons and to experience intellectual growth. What if the point of college is just to meet the person you will spend the rest of ...
Many years ago, the elders of education sat down and revolutionized modern teaching. They came up with an invention that taught students to think critically, synthesize data and open our minds to the wonders of science. Indeed, without this development in education, students would be hopelessly adrift ...
According to the FBI, a criminal enterprise is “a group of individuals with an identified hierarchy, or comparable structure, engaged in significant criminal activity.” Last November, SAC Capital Advisors L.P., the hedge fund of Steven A. Cohen P’08 P’16, was fined a staggering $1.8 billion ...
Members of top-tier universities like Brown often cite grade inflation as a major problem. But diagnosing grade inflation as the problem is an archaic way to approach college academics. Grade inflation is not the problem — grades are. In actuality, grade inflation is a part of the solution. It reduces ...
In preparation for Spring Weekend, student entrepreneurs are marketing a colorful array of festive tank tops. Most make reference to the headlining artists slated to perform in April. There is one, however, that has seemingly caught everyone’s attention. Its plain white background sports a bright ...
Brown has a requirement that undergraduates spend at least six semesters living on campus. There are exceptions for Resumed Undergraduate Education students, married students, students with special needs and students who live close enough to campus to commute. There are also several dozen juniors who ...
As an avid reader and lover of books, I find the evolution of the physical book both fascinating and unnerving. The slow and gradual shift from reading print to reading on a screen is changing how we relate to what we read and why we read. From the appearance of Google Books to the creation of the Kindle ...
I am not a fan of the spring semester. Sure, it brings sunshine, designated days of revelry with Spring Weekend and podgy squirrels that are sights to behold as they scour campus for Ratty leftovers. But spring semester is also when the real world begins to loom large for juniors as they embark on their ...
Nominations are evil. I am sure I am going to get one or two just for writing this op-ed. I have already received one. In this new age, the modern definition of a “nomination,” at least as long as the fad lasts, has absolutely nothing to do with politics or prestige — it’s more about infamy. ...
Human rights, in the legal framework established by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are absolute and inviolable. The Declaration considers it essential that “human rights should be protected by the rule of law.” In this spirit, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was ...
Several things logically and immediately come to mind as key themes stemming from the conflict in Ukraine. Some of the obvious ones: Don’t mess with Russia, the Cold War is about to reblossom and I’m seeing a little Berlin reenactment here. Though these are all quite pivotal for the international ...
Not a week goes by when I don’t read or hear a criticism of the Corporation, President Christina Paxson or her administration. Student-run publications are often filled with commentary about our leaders’ purported detachment from undergraduate needs, exorbitant spending and general lack of direction ...
At the end of January, I wrote in a column that the departure of Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 is an opportunity to hire a new provost who genuinely understands the aspects of Brown that make it strong and unique (“A new provost, a new opportunity,” Jan. 30). Significant among these is the centrality ...
On a recent trip down the obstacle course known as Point and Wickenden streets, I couldn’t help but wonder why the Taveras administration has not prioritized the maintenance of the city’s roads. Without question, Providence possesses some of the worst roads that I have ever seen. Every drive is ...
In January 2011, then-President Ruth Simmons organized a committee to explore the possibility of reorganizing a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit on the Brown campus. It was a response to the repeal of the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation and a challenge by President Obama ...
This weekend, the University began the 250th celebration of the College’s founding. At the center of the celebration, a 3 percent replica of University Hall stood poised to feed 1,400 attendees. There were speakers, pyrotechnics, buttons, bands and little spigots that filled cups with hot chocolate. ...
Smuggling. Labor abuses. Environmental degradation. Money hoarding. These words bring to mind images of the struggling nation. But in reality, these terms perfectly describe the situation in places outside of national borders — international space, the final bastion of lawlessness. There is a widespread ...
Solutions by The State News
