On the night of Nov. 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, the first black American to hold that position in the nation’s history, overcoming the obstacles that limited the ambitions and successes of people of color to occupy this nation’s highest office. Everywhere, ...
Present in any discipline is an overarching goal that drives the research and application of the field. In some specialties, these goals are generally uncontroversial. But in others, societal effects have far-reaching ethical implications. A paradigmatic example of this is biological weapons research, ...
I value marriage. I do not believe it is for everyone, I think too many people blindly accept it as a way of life, and I don’t think it is the only sort of relationship that the government should recognize, but I still value it. I say this because over the last month in particular, we have seen just ...
Recently, same-sex marriage has made news headlines. In March, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges California’s heterosexual definition of marriage, and United States v. Windsor, which challenges the Defense of Marriage Act’s restriction of federal ...
I do not agree with John Stuart Mill on everything, but he is far and away the best thinker I’ve ever read on the topic of freedom of speech. The second chapter of his “On Liberty” is filled with philosophical gems, but here’s my favorite quote of all: “The steady habit of correcting and completing ...
Professor Josiah S. Carberry, As your assistant and personal amanuensis Truman Grayson recently shared with me prior to his encounter with a most audacious and agitated affenpinscher, you are currently not planning to make an appearance on campus for an entire academic year. Whether that decision is ...
When New York State Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling ’75 overturned New York City’s ban on large sugary drinks, I am sure Mayor Michael Bloomberg and countless other New Yorkers were frustrated. But I was very pleased with the ruling. Bloomberg certainly had the best intentions when proposing ...
We’re currently in the midst of arguably the two greatest sports days of the year. With 32 games in 36 hours, from noon ‘til midnight on both Thursday and Friday, the first round of the NCAA tournament promises dramatic upsets, frantic comebacks, epic collapses and Gus Johnson seizure-inducing buzzer ...
Dorothy Lutz '13: Yes In 2011, then-President Ruth Simmons upheld the 1972 decision to ban the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Program on campus. I urge President Christina Paxson to reconsider this decision and re-establish ROTC at Brown. The University’s ban on ROTC denies students the freedom ...
Stop for a moment and think about your typical day. When you wake up, what do you do first? Do you check your email on your phone? Do you usually skip breakfast or grab a Pop Tart on your way out the door? What about lunch or dinner? I know sometimes I bring my meal with my work and eat in the library. ...
Beginning April 1 — just in time for Spring Weekend and 4/20, coincidentally — possession of up to an ounce of cannabis will no longer be a misdemeanor in Rhode Island. Instead of receiving a year in jail and a $500 fine, offenders can expect to get no more than a $150 fine, akin to an expensive ...
The world’s next great leader may be named Francis. He is a man of the people. He rides the bus, dresses in ordinary priest robes, lives in an austere apartment with a roommate and is the first modern pope to hail from Latin America. The last point is especially salient because Latin America is home ...
There is no denying that tuitions of elite private institutions such as Brown have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels over the past few years. College is expensive, undoubtedly, and many students and their families struggle to afford tuition. But we should not let that cost taint our view of the true ...
At a couple hundred universities, the Divest Coal movement has inspired students. The movement wants universities to divest investments in the 15 “of the largest, dirtiest coal companies in the (United States).” According to We Are Power Shift, an umbrella Divest Coal organization, universities ...
When I was a student at Brown, I was constantly challenged by my classmates, encouraged to secure my beliefs and passions, pushed to make sure I pursued a life that was meaningful and fought for justice. Everyone at Brown had a cause that motivated him or her. For me, that cause was the Israeli-Palestinian ...
Recently, Oliver Hudson ’14 argued that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment (“The $9.00 minimum wage: A policy to increase unemployment,” March 7). His claim is empirically unfounded. A 1994 paper by Princeton economists David Card and Alan Krueger found no employment impact of ...
This week, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg released her book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” Geared toward a female audience, Sandberg’s first literary work encourages women, particularly those of the professional set, to cultivate their ambitions and behave ...
Jared Moffat '13: Yes In 2012, a mere 16 percent of Brown’s incoming class reported it intended to concentrate in the humanities, two percent less than the class of 2014 two years prior. The same trend is clear in our recent national history: Since the late 1960s, the proportion of four-year college ...
Are you kidding me Wes Welker?! Okay, now that everyone’s gotten that out of their systems, it’s really not such a shocker. To any Patriots fans blaming Welker for leaving the Empire to join the Rebel cause in Denver, you’re an idiot. New England essentially gave Wes the big ol’ bird, and as ...
I can fortunately say that as a Jew on Brown’s campus, I never feel unwelcome or ostracized. Of course, there are subtle, everyday ways in which I am different: I call my roommate’s Christmas lights “holiday” lights, I avoid eating bread around Passover and I say the word “schlep” more often ...
Solutions by The State News
