Columns - The Brown Daily Herald

Opinions

Pipatjarasgit '21: Enrollment as a part-time undergraduate student: An option that should be available to all

By Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit | February 1

In July 2020, shortly after Brown released its plan for conducting the academic year amidst the current pandemic, I sat at home weighing my options for how I would choose to navigate what I knew would be an atypical academic year. I worried that, in spite of the University’s best efforts, it would ...

Opinions

Pollard '21: This year’s commencement plans show complete disregard for student perspective

By Beth Pollard | February 1

Many of us in the class of 2021 many months ago resigned ourselves to the reality that we will be ending our college careers without many of the experiences we were expecting four years ago. I, for one, still expected to have the opportunity to be recognized by my family, supporters and community at ...

Opinions

Reed ’21: Biden’s uninspiring vaccine goal

By Andrew Reed | January 28

Following his inauguration last week, President Joe Biden released his “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness.” Part of the president’s plan calls for 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered within his first 100 days in office. 100 days, 100 million ...

Opinions

Wrenn GS: Sex, Smut and Streakers

By John Wrenn | January 27

“Brown University, by everyone’s definition is the Ivy League brothel,” once reported the Dartmouth Review in 1986. But does Brown really stack up to this lofty reputation? And, are our hallowed, time-honored traditions safe from the puritanical tyranny of University Hall? Respectively: yes and ...

Opinions

Bhaskar '21: When unity isn't in the cards

By Nidhi Bhaskar | January 25

As the contentious “battle for the soul of our nation” drew to a close, President Biden took the stage last Wednesday after being sworn in as the 46th president of America. Throughout the inaugural proceedings, the new administration’s front of political cohesion and concord was emphatic, from ...

Opinions

McGough '23: Biden may have only one shot — so radical change has to wait

By Jackson McGough | January 24

In the early months of 2009, three priorities dominated former President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda for fixing a broken America. The first, a “stunningly ambitious” stimulus package, glided through the Capitol amid the Great Recession. Known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ...

Opinions

Bayard '24: In 2020, Trump grew his support among voters of color. Could that be a good thing?

By Augustus Bayard | January 22

In the ebullience, anguish and delusion that has followed President Joseph R. Biden’s win in the 2020 general election, one statistic seems inexplicable: Greater percentages of voters of color cast their ballot for former President Donald Trump in 2020 than in 2016. The question is simply: Why? I ...

Opinions

Pipatjarasgit ’21: The Office of International Programs somehow made my study abroad worse

By Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit | January 21

In mid-October of 2020, I received an email from the Office of International Programs sent to all returned study abroad students, encouraging me to apply to work as a peer advisor. I laughed. Why would I ever want to work for OIP, or for that matter, interact with OIP ever again? Especially with the ...

Opinions

Apple '21: Republicans fall out of line

By Caleb Apple | January 20

With former President Donald Trump’s term as president finally at its end, many are now examining where the Republican Party, a party almost completely co-opted by Trump, can go from here. Republicans on Capitol Hill have discussed the need to move on from the Trump presidency, and Trump’s favorability ...

Opinions

Walsh '23: The savings disparity

By Matt Walsh | January 20

As joblessness claims have reached record highs during the pandemic, the ultra-rich have lined their pockets. By taking advantage of easy access to PPP loans, tax loopholes and the summer rebound in the stock market, the country’s billionaires have added more than $500 billion to their net worth. ...

Opinions

Shanmugam ’23: Building more schools alone won’t increase enrollment in low-income countries

By Arjun Shanmugam | January 19

In the world’s poorest countries, children who don’t attend school often have no choice but to become breadwinners — or even get married — before adulthood. For those who can stay in school, on the other hand, education is transformative. Just one additional year of schooling can boost future ...

Opinions

Pollard ’21: Brown can't make up for lost time but should support its students' futures

By Beth Pollard | November 23

As the University returns to COVID-19 Campus Activity Level 1, current students once again cannot access many of the campus resources that make a Brown education such an asset in the professional world. For those of us who never expected our last semesters at Brown to be taught remotely, entering the ...

Opinions

Apple '21: Dems, don’t back down on gun control

By Caleb Apple | November 22

Since the 2016 election, in which Trump overwhelmingly won rural white voters, a common question has been: How can Democrats win the white working-class and rural vote back? Traditionally the party of the working class, Democrats have become an increasingly urban and suburban party, and lost rural voters ...

Opinions

Shanmugam '23: Why the new administration's approach to China will make America safer, stronger and richer

By Arjun Shanmugam | November 22

In his tell-all book The Room Where It Happened, former National Security Advisor John Bolton reveals the chaos of the Trump administration’s inner circle. He also exposes an incoherent foreign policy towards China that conflicts with the narrative of hard-nosed toughness that the White House has ...

Science & Research

Schmidt '21: Distrusting COVID-19 science is a disease in itself

By Rachael Schmidt | November 18

The immediate and negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are innumerable: serious illness, worsening mental health, economic downturn and more. But one of the most disastrous effects of the pandemic must not be overlooked: it has exacerbated already prevalent distrust in science and research. Tracing ...

Opinions

Ruzicka '21: Debunking common misconceptions about removing Roman-style statues at Brown

By Emilia Ruzicka | November 18

Recently, there has been a strong movement to remove Roman-style statues from Brown University’s campus. In February 2020, the group Decolonization at Brown (DAB) began their advocacy against the Public Art Committee’s (PAC) proposal to repair the arm of the Caesar Augustus statue that currently ...

Opinions

Pipatjarasgit '21: The advising tips we’re not told

By Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit | November 15

At Brown, we are told to take a variety of classes. We have been encouraged to explore the Open Curriculum. Our advisors suggest that we should meet with our course instructors in office hours for assistance throughout the semester. This is all generally good advice. However, during my time at Brown, ...

Opinions

Walsh '23: Widespread support for Trump shows that democracy is at stake

By Matt Walsh | November 13

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last Tuesday with both a healthy electoral college margin and a significant popular vote majority. But the fact that more than 71 million voters chose Trump, the most anti-democratic president in American history, is more than enough proof that faith in our democratic ...

Opinions

Hong '24: The coronavirus has warped time. Here’s what you can do about it.

By Jaehyun Hong | November 11

Eight months have passed since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, but sometimes it feels like we never left March. Among fear, anxiety and mind-deadening boredom, the pandemic has upended our sense of time. Our lives are no longer punctuated by daily trips to work or memorable weekends. Now, our days ...

Opinions

Apple ’21: Lessons from the Senate

By Caleb Apple | November 10

2020 was supposed to be a banner year for Democrats. Not only were they predicted to defeat Trump, but they were favored to take the Senate and hold the House. For the first time since 2009, Democrats could have had a trifecta in the federal government, which would have given Joe Biden a mandate to ...