Columns

Moraff '14: Fund the MBTA

It's really that simple.

Rosenthal '16: Doing our part for two states

Four years ago, many of us watched in horror as Israel began a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Fast forward to these past few weeks, and violence has once again flared up in Gaza. Though the ceasefire brokered after a week of rockets and airstrikes has held, we are once again left with the question: ...

Gianotti '13: What makes a Brown student?

The Brunonian ethos is grounded in a sense of individuality. Our education both in and out of the classroom is very much our own prerogative. We choose our courses from a plethora of options, restricted by nothing except the occasional capped course. The same goes for the student activities and organizations ...

Drechsler '15: Is money a form of free speech?

Those who argue that the spending of money should not be protected as free speech often begin by highlighting the insane amount of money spent on campaigns and the constant bombardment of political ads on the airwaves of swing states. While I, as a New Yorker, am gladly free from such promotion, I cannot ...

Tennis' Rebuttal

Alex Drechsler '15 writes that limiting monetary donations in political campaigns contradicts American principles. But keeping campaigns open to donor funding violates principles of democracy and equal opportunity, and actually manipulates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Drechsler's Rebuttal

Maggie Tennis '14 conflates two issues: that political donations are a form of free speech and that corporations have "personhood" and are protected by the Constitution. These do not necessarily coexist.

Tennis '14: Is money a form of free speech?

Economics 101: Money is an object with value. Larger amounts of money have a higher value. When people spend money, they wield purchasing power. In politics, when contributors give money to campaigns, they gain clout - directly or indirectly - over the policy platform of the politician or party that ...

Hauptman '14.5: Actual universal suffrage: Give felons the franchise

In the months before the election, a swath of criticism arose in response to voter identification laws that would disproportionately restrict low-income and minority citizens from voting. In reading the tirades against these restrictions, which were seen as being enacted primarily in swing states to ...

Corvese '15: Saving face

In their post-Election Day release, Bloomberg Businessweek attempted to envision the United States four years from now with a shocking image: President Obama's face edited to make him appear aged. His hair is gray and his wrinkles are defined. His expression is not valiant, but rather it is that of ...

Norris-LeBlanc '13: Rape happens here, too

Lattanzi-Silveus '14: The monopolization of economics

Economics as it is taught today makes for a very odd social science. In political science, international relations and sociology one studies many different schools of thought. Economics is unique among the social sciences in that it has only one theoretical framework, only one way of understanding how ...

BIRC and BSJP: The real unsavory alliance

Last month, Zach Ingber '15 criticized the collaboration between two student groups on campus over an Immigration Week "fence" installation ("An unsavory alliance," Oct. 31). Ingber argued that the alliance between Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition and Brown Students for Justice in Palestine was detrimental ...

Drechsler '15: Think of the children!

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie teamed up with President Obama to manage the crisis wrought by Superstorm Sandy on New Jersey's shoreline, it was heralded as a prime example of bipartisanship. Indeed, it seems "bipartisanship" has become the buzzword of the day, associated with a pragmatic and commendable ...

Carty '15: Men, manliness and manumission

For centuries and millennia of American and world history, women were commanded by constructs of patriarchy and concepts of femininity that were as oppressive as they were built on bullshit. In the 19th century, the tide began to turn as feminists asserted the belief, long held, that the content of ...

Brundage '15: Brown's bigger elitist problem

Earlier this month, Adam Asher '15 suggested that a sign on Pembroke campus addressed to construction workers is indicative of our condescending attitude toward the working class and that this is a big part of Brown's elitist problem ("Brown's elitist problem," Nov. 7). Among other rules, the sign states: ...

Rosenbloom '13: In defense of affirmative action

Independently of the legal issues at stake in the Supreme Court's affirmative action case, we must examine the benefits that Brown gains from race-based affirmative action. Brown is a private university, and so it will always have more freedom to implement race-based admissions policies than do public ...

Hudson '14: To my outraged readers

Last week, I wrote a column about universal suffrage that provoked campus-wide outrage ("Universal suffrage is immoral," Nov. 13). I have not read enough of the comments to determine if more people believe I am Mussolini or Stalin - Hitler was thrown in a few times for good measure. Some responses from ...

Ingber '15: Rebuttal

Sola '14: America should stop supporting Israel

Sola '14: Rebuttal