Editorials
Opinions
Editorial: Greatest hits
By Brown Daily Herald | December 1Over 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 30Each 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 29Leaked 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 28A 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 21Alice … 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.
By Brown Daily Herald | November 17Most 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 16It'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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 15An 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 14In 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
By Brown Daily Herald | November 10There 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 ...
Opinions
Editorial: A good start
By Brown Daily Herald | November 9Earlier this month, the Office of the Dean of the College unveiled Focal Point, a new concentration-mapping tool. As usual, we're glad to see the University continue to improve its Internet resources. We like the idea of a tool that allows students to explore different majors. However, we think the ...
Opinions
Editorial: A small profile in courage
By Brown Daily Herald | November 8Anyone who takes a realistic look at our nation's fiscal situation will see that both spending cuts and tax increases are necessary to get the federal budget back on a sustainable path. For those who disagree, we direct you to an excellent editorial in Monday's Washington Post, which lays out just how ...
Opinions
Editorial: Little Rhody's long name
By Brown Daily Herald | November 7Last Tuesday, when Rhode Islanders headed to the polls to vote on leaders and bond issues, they were also asked whether they wanted to change the state's name from "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" to the simpler "Rhode Island." The full and rather unwieldy name is almost never used, ...
Opinions
Editorial: Enforce the academic code
By Brown Daily Herald | November 3Only 41 undergraduate students were cited for potential academic violations last year, The Herald reported last week. Out of a total undergraduate population of around 6,000 students, that number represents less than 1 percent of the student body.
Opinions
Editorial: Privacy in giving
By Brown Daily Herald | November 2Brown students consistently rank among the happiest in the nation, so it's no surprise that when the senior class gift campaign rolls around, many soon-to-be graduates are glad to donate. But things aren't so nice and simple at some of Brown's peer institutions — a few of last year's seniors at ...
Opinions
Editorial: Get out the youth vote
By Brown Daily Herald | November 1Most of the upperclassmen can remember a chilly but clear November night in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. We watched, full of anticipation, as the votes were tallied and the historic win was announced. Many of us celebrated together, cheering on the Main Green and ...
Opinions
Dan Davidson '11.5: Ballot questions shouldn't be overlooked
By Dan Davidson | October 31On Tuesday, Rhode Islanders will go to the polls and make some important decisions regarding the state's future. A new governor will be elected, along with General Assembly members and other statewide officials. But further down the ballot there will be a set of questions also under consideration.
Opinions
Editorial: A tax on renters
By Brown Daily Herald | October 31Earlier this year, the Providence City Council eliminated a provision for rental homes in the city's budget that allowed owners to exempt the first 33 percent of the homes' value from the city's property tax. The change is expected to raise approximately $20 million from the roughly 12,000 rental properties ...
Opinions
Editorial: Our courses
By Brown Daily Herald | October 27MyCourses is on its way out, The Herald reported last week. The current version of the system will no longer be available beyond 2013 and Brown will either have to upgrade to the newer version or find a new platform all together.
