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Opinions

Opinions

Editorial: A better Banner

Banner's critics usually moan about its appearance and its restrictions on course signups. It's a tribute to Banner's effectiveness, or perhaps its unsightliness, that the most common complaints are aesthetic. These grievances are a little misdirected: Students have usually been able to find courses ...


Opinions

Jonah Fabricant '10: A retreat from pedantry

As shopping period ends and books are cracked open, most new members of the Brown community make an acquaintance they didn't encounter during orientation. This meeting is a veritable rite of passage: an introduction to the strange academic jargon that reverberates off the walls of every department and ...


Opinions

Editorial: Questions for Mr. Musharraf

Tonight's speech by former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is an opportunity. Musharraf, who came to power in a coup in 1999 and held on to power until his resignation amidst impeachment threats in 2008, is one of the most significant and controversial figures in contemporary international politics. ...


Opinions

Letter: In support of young activists

To the Editor:We were dismayed to see Mike Johnson '11 write on Friday that "the youth of this nation pat themselves on the back, sink back into the very apathy of which we're accused" ("The lost power of Barack Obama," Sept. 18). If he believes that youth activism is dead in the Age of Obama, he has ...


Opinions

Jeanne Jeong '12: Another column about swine flu

In case we don't get enough administrative e-mails at the beginning of the school year, swine flu warnings have infiltrated Brown inboxes this fall. At first, I skipped reading the messages. After all, schools across the U.S. went through the same scare last year, and in response, Brown chose to display ...


Opinions

Editorial: Chinua Achebe is not one book

Despite what your high school English teachers may have led you to believe, he's more than just "Things Fall Apart." He's a poet and an essayist, a national hero and a Man Booker Prize winner. More importantly, though, he's a teacher. In 1965, Chinua Achebe wrote an essay in which he outlines the relationship ...


Opinions

Anthony Badami '11: A forum for intellectual pugilism

Call me pugnacious, but I believe in argument for argument's sake. Sit me across from someone with a remotely interesting political opinion, and I will have to challenge it.National health care? "Necessary but not sufficient." Legalization of marijuana? "Not in our lifetime."  Israeli-Palestinian ...


Opinions

Mike Johnson '11: The lost power of Barack Obama

Look out!  Obama is everywhere. He stares at us from our computer screens every time we browse a news Web site. His name rings out from our televisions whenever we turn them on. The front corner of the Ratty is inundated with countless news reports of him and his shorts-wearing wife. Yet his poll ...


Opinions

Editorial: First-years first

The University has been planning a new residence hall since 2007, and administrators told The Herald this week that they plan to move forward with construction sometime in the next five years. Residential life at Brown is in great need of attention, and we are happy that the University has made housing ...


Opinions

Editorial: The other Watson

This fall, Michael Kennedy, formerly a sociology professor at the University of Michigan, takes over as the director of the Watson Institute for International Studies. The previous director, David Kennedy '76, resigned this summer after overseeing the Institute on an interim basis for just over a year. ...


Opinions

Letter: URL citations not the solution

To the Editor: Regarding Tuesday's op-ed ("Rethinking citations," Sept. 15): Dan Davidson's '11 point about hyperlinked citations is a good one but in a sense moot, since most citation style sheets I'm familiar with would require you to use a URL for any online source you cite anyway. I would take ...


Opinions

Will Wray '10: Fair by whose rules?

When you take a sip of coffee bought from Brown Dining Services, Blue State or the Bookstore, you may notice a unique flavor. The brew itself is unremarkable, mediocre or worse, but it's fair trade coffee. That pleasant aftertaste is entirely psychosomatic. You have just bought coffee with an injection ...


Opinions

Kate Fritzsche '10: The secret life of Catholics at Brown

I am a practicing Roman Catholic. I am also a practicing Brown student. These identities are not incompatible, despite what many students on College Hill might have you believe. However, my fellow students rarely make it easy for me to practice my faith on campus, nor do they even understand why I would ...


Opinions

Editorial: Seniority and its discontents

Last Friday, the East Providence School Committee declared that it would seek to replace its district's existing seniority-based salaries with a system that financially rewards high job performance; the details would be determined through negotiations between parents, teachers, administrators, union ...




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