Commencement 2011: Editor's note
By The 120th Editorial Board | May 28Graduation is a time for cliches, and in this moment of finality, we have decided to embrace it. And indeed, oh, the places we'll go!
Graduation is a time for cliches, and in this moment of finality, we have decided to embrace it. And indeed, oh, the places we'll go!
For the last four years, I have had the privilege of telling friends and family back home that I went to school with the happiest students in America. Of the many things that have been great about Brown, that has been by far the best, and I think it's something we take for granted. We're beyond lucky ...
To the rain gods: Why? When the Class of 2011 had gotten used to warm, blue-skied Providence springtimes, why bid us farewell with a chilly, rain-soaked April and an even more depressing May? — More depressing, that is, because we were even more painfully aware of what we were missing.
Economics uses a term called utility to refer to an individual's satisfaction or happiness at a given point in time. An individual's utility is expressed by a model or function that demonstrates how and from where a person derives their happiness. An individual actively "maximizes" the variables of ...
Brown's motto, "In Deo Speramus," is a vestige of the time of the University's founding, when our collected scientific knowledge often failed to protect us from nature's vicissitudes, whether they came in the form of plagues, floods, earthquakes or whatever else. In that era, it made sense for us to ...
In a recent opinions column ("In the drug war, keep your eyes on the real killer," April 22), Hunter Fast '12 was incensed by the suggestion that Brown students should be mindful of their participation in the illegal drug market. According to Fast, we should be proud to exercise our right to smoke marijuana, ...
To the Editor:
In her recent column, Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa '11 castigated Brown marijuana users, arguing that their consumption funds gang violence in Mexico ("4/20 and the drug war," April 18). Her column incited a strong backlash from readers because no one wants to hear that the Brown community has a hand in gang ...
Much like a cancer, the University's growths, initiated in the name of profit and prestige, threaten its health.
To the Editor:
As reading period approaches, we are all looking for ways to avoid studying for finals, and seniors especially may find the best tactic to be nostalgia. Reflecting over the last year, we have seen Brown evolve in many areas, and we are proud to see most of these changes have been for the better.
Swarms of prospective students descended on campus this past week. Walking between classes, I found myself doubling back to get around groups of 50 or more high schoolers, parents in tow, listening attentively to a hoarse Brown student yelling ineffectively at the top of his lungs.
Last week, the Athletics Review Committee presented a set of proposals for review by President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation. Among its recommended policy changes, the committee suggested cutting four athletic teams — men's wrestling, women's skiing and men and women's fencing — and increasing ...
My four years at Brown have been a welcome experience of maturation, and like fine wine and deliciously stinky cheese, the school only improves with age. From the moment wide-eyed first-years walk up the impossibly steep College Street and through the gaping Van Wickle Gates, there is something about ...
On April 21, the University released its Athletics Review Committee's report, which outlined a variety of proposals for the Department of Athletics. The committee recommended that the wrestling, women's skiing, and men's and women's fencing teams be eliminated. The 17-page report outlines the committee's ...
Enough with fake reasonableness. The idea that the position in the center is always the right one and the one we should always take is as pervasive as it is wrong. The mediocrity of the middle pervades in news, politics and everyday life. It is bad enough when we are discussing value judgments — ...
Last Thursday, The Herald reported that the University is moving to establish "professionally oriented master's programs" by fall 2012. According to Karen Sibley, dean of continuing education, most of the instruction will be done online save for "intensive periods" of actual class time at the very beginning ...
To the Editor:
To the Editor:
Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa '11 recently opined in The Herald that the breakdown of the rule of law in Mexico at the hands of vicious drug cartels can be blamed unequivocally on common cannabis users like the ones who appeared Wednesday on the Main Green ("4/20 and the drug war," April 18). While a subsequent ...