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Editorials

Opinions

Editorial: The trouble with the double degree

As seniors settle into their last semester, many are double-checking their requirements to make sure that, come May, they will graduate with a bachelor's degree in hand. While some expect to receive degrees from multiple departments, a small contingent will earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree ...


Opinions

Editorial: Step up for equality

Since its founding nearly 250 years ago, Brown has had a close relationship with Rhode Island, a unique affinity that transcends the happenstance of geography. Together, the University and the state have led the fight together for principles of universal rights and justice, often long before others ...


Opinions

Editorial: Brown's response to Egypt

Since the political situation in Egypt reached its tipping point these past couple of weeks, we have been impressed with the University's response. Last Monday's panel discussion at the Watson Institute for International Studies on the protests in the Middle East was put together extremely quickly to ...


Opinions

Editorial: Reconsidering ROTC

Following the passage last year of legislation beginning the process of ending the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, many universities are now reconsidering their stance on the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. In his State of the Union address, President Obama said, "I call on all our college ...


Opinions

Editorial: Paper cuts

Brown's independent bookstore has long been a point of pride among members of the community. Most other Ivy League schools' official bookstores are actually specialized outposts of Barnes & Noble.


Opinions

Editorial: Does college actually teach us anything?

Last week, sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa made national news with a provocative op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled "Are Undergraduates Actually Learning Anything?" The article previewed their book documenting some unsettling studies on undergraduate education. In ...


Opinions

Editorial: Mental health on campus after Tucson

The tragic events that took place just a few weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz. — where 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on a crowd, killing six and injuring 14 — raise questions about how colleges deal with mental health issues. Records at Pima Community College show that school officials ...


Opinions

Welcome back, and don't mind the snow!

The world rang in the new year nearly a month ago, and now we ring in a new semester. For some of us it will be our last at Brown, a bittersweet moment at the intersection of reflection on the past and anticipation for the future. To them we say welcome back, and take some time to enjoy your last weeks ...


Opinions

Editorial: Greatest hits

Over the course of a semester, the editorial page board sometimes starts to feel like the complaint department. Each day, we try to make a suggestion to improve our school, the surrounding community or higher education broadly. For instance, this fall we've called for:


Opinions

Editorial: Thankful for a break

Each semester, there is one time in particular when professors should avoid making assignments due. During the spring semester, it's the first few days after Spring Weekend. As we wrote last April, professors who assign work due the following Monday or Tuesday aren't just being unkind to their students ...


Opinions

Editorial: Take it easy

Leaked footage of a professor at Cornell losing his temper over a student's yawning has recently gone viral, drawing attention to the sometimes excessive reactions professors have to students' misbehavior.


Opinions

Editorial: Loco 4 Loko

A new wave of hysteria is sweeping the nation. The target this time: Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages like it. According to a Web page set up by Brown Health Services, one Four Loko contains as much alcohol as a six-pack of beer and as much caffeine as four sodas. Unlike these other ...


Opinions

From the editors: What we're thankful for

Alice … our staff, who amaze us every day … our business staff, who pay for us every day …  our parents, for everything … our understanding roommates and siblings … Officer Chuck … boxes of donuts, drawers of candy and cabinets filled with cookies … ...


Opinions

Editorial: Metcalf Auditorium, R.I.P.

Most of the classrooms at Brown are quite good. MacMillan 115 and Smith-Buonanno 106 in particular are very nice places to watch a professor lecture, and the two auditoriums in the Salomon Center definitely get the job done. The same cannot be said of what used to be the Metcalf Chemistry Lab auditorium. ...


Opinions

Editorial: Letter of recommendation

It's pretty much inevitable that we will all have to get letters of recommendation at some point during our time at Brown. Whether we're applying for jobs, internships, grants, study abroad programs or graduate schools, the time will invariably come to confront this rite of passage.  


Opinions

Editorial: Walk away

An editorial in the Providence Journal recently called out students at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design for being careless when crossing streets and riding bicycles. The Journal brings up a good point — one that we already made in an editorial last March. We asked students to take greater ...


Opinions

Editorial: Apply yourself

In May, The Herald reported that the Admission Office saw a nearly 21 percent spike in applicants for the class of 2014. The record number of 30,135 applicants was cited by the New York Times in a recent article on a nationwide push by many universities for more applications without a corresponding ...


Opinions

Editorial: Main course

There is a class at Harvard — Science of the Physical Universe 27: "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science" — where students, instructed by math and physics professors as well as professional chefs, apply scientific principles to the culinary arts. As much as we hate ...




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