Today is the second night of the infamous and dreaded housing lottery. Those students who were smart enough to seek out Program Housing will circumvent the process. In years past, one lucky person and his/her group would win the right to first pick in the lottery by entering him/herself in a raffle; this year, however, the raffle was done away with. Regardless, winning the first pick awards the winner and his/her group the coveted opportunity to have the first choice from any housing unit on campus.

However, in ancient times (i.e. as late as spring 2010), winning the first pick in the housing lottery used to be less simple than choosing a silly raffle ticket out of a box. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), many students don’t know about the previous way one could win the first pick: a video competition. This year’s seniors are the last people to have experienced said competition.

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So we’re changing some stuff up.

Since we started back in 2009, the “Time-waster of the day” and “Free food digest” columns have been daily staples on the site. We share the time-wasters with all of you as a means of giving you entertaining breaks from your studies, and we provide a roundup of free food around campus to further enable your collective Nice Slice/Kabob and Curry/Meeting Street Cookies addictions and give you a well-deserved break from the tedium of meal plan.

We love these columns, but our staff has recently decided to stop publishing them on our site. Instead, we will continue to publish both columns daily on our Facebook page! Don’t worry: you’ll still be able to eat free (or dine trying) and waste time.

We feel that this will a) allow both columns to better serve their intended purposes for members of the Brown community, and b) make the feed on our site less cluttered. If you’re a fan of either (or both!) of these columns and would still like to make them part of your daily reading routine, we would encourage you to “like” our page. Additionally, if you’re interested in the occasional polar bear pic among other relevant links, you should hit up the page more often.

We really think this will be great and we can’t wait for the next steps. Raise your free Kabob and Curry and let’s make a toast: Here’s to wasted time, free food and a happy and healthy spring. Cheers.

A new semester means new classes, new faces, and newly frost-bitten appendages; for us, it means bigger and better content and an all-new editorial board. It’s like All That‘s “Know Your Stars,” but without Jamie Lynn Spears (…and her baby) and with the names you’ve seen in our bylines.

After just one semester on our staff chowing down at Brown, Aaron Fitzenry-worshipping California native Georgia Tollin ’15 joins our editorial board as one of our new deputy managing editors. Score one more for the West Coast on the edit board: Connor McKlimermanGuigan ’15 will join the editorial ranks from the comfort of his crib. Let’s hope he doesn’t start a campus-wide uproar by hitting “reply-all” on the new, prettier version of Morning Mail. Rounding out the deputy managing editor squad is Cara Newlon ’14.5, who will be adding her drunk, sober, and/or high wisdom to the team. You really should take her to your formal. Also, Jason Hu ’15 will stay on as Don Draper creative director. He can help you figure out whether or not to drop that class and plan for the apocalypse. All this while still in space! [Read more →]

I can only imagine the riot that ensued at Jo’s. Brown Morning Mail, that beloved signal that you only have an hour left to grab a Spicy With (or Spicies With?) and chief indicator that you’re no longer turning in early for the night, got a serious facelift last night. The email is now super pretty and easy to read. You know, you can actually tell where one announcement ends and another begins, all that good stuff. Anyway, it makes our job a lot easier in putting out Free Food Digest every day.

According to one of the Morning Mail announcements—the powers that be clearly wanted the whole student body to read it—the changes came from a group of UCS members who realized the process could be streamlined. You see that? We read Morning Mail. No word yet as to how the changes will affect readership, but having an aesthetically pleasing end to your night can only be a good thing. Now go read Morning Mail and check out the changes for yourself.

Looks like Tedeschi has closed its doors a bit earlier than it had planned—earlier in the week, signs on the door said it would be closing on Tuesday. Yes, there are actually four signs that say “We Are Closed” on the door, as if to quadruple our sadness.

Many former Keeney residents were shocked when they returned to campus to find that the building received a major facelift. But this summer’s changes hardly end there.

Today’s Herald featured a spread that breaks down all of this and next summer’s housing changes, which aim to create a more uniform progression of housing from freshman to senior year. Since we’ve already given you a photo tour of the new Keeney, we now bring you inside some of the other renovated dorms.

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This changes everything.

Living in Keeney has been known to have its advantages and disadvantages. For a long time, Keeney Quadrangle has been defined as a hub of activity due to its large concentration of freshmen first-years (+).  Keeney was also defined by the condition of its interior: not so great (-). The furniture was old, the bathrooms were gross, and kitchen and lounge space was scarce.

As part of a larger plan for dorm renovations, Keeney is being renovated in two phases. The first phase, which occurred this summer, overhauled and reconfigured student rooms and created new “magnet lounges” (with fancy kitchens!) on the top floors. Next summer, the bathrooms and hallways will be renovated, elevator installation will be completed, and the building will be split into three separate sections. Check out BlogDailyHerald’s tour of the new and improved Keeney after the jump.

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July 1, 2012 marks the end of one era and the beginning of another in Brunonia. Although we were informed of Ruth’s departure last September, and were subsequently presented with finger sandwiches, fancy water cooler things, and Paxson’s amazing yellow scarf back in early March, things just got real: Today, President Ruth Simmons’ eleven-year term officially drew to a close, and President Christina Paxson‘s term officially began.

Yet as we bid a final farewell to our beloved Prez Ruth Simmons, her charisma, and her overall awesomeness, we take comfort in knowing that she will be immortalized as we plan to enjoy future Fall Concerts, Mande finals, and Campus Dances on Ruth’s Quad.  We’ve finally come to terms with Ruth’s departure after a baccalaureate address, a carnival, and several tear-jerking montages and tributes; now, we can’t wait to discover what Chris has in store for us (and yes, we’ll gladly “feel free” to be some of the people who call her Chris).

Pax Brunonia starts now!

Images by Emily Gilbert ’14 and Rachel Kaplan ’14.

We’ve returned all of our library books to the stacks (on stacks on stacks); we’ve left our shining city on a hill for (slightly) more pre-professional pursuits; and the class of 2012 has walked through Van Wickle Gates. Reality sets in: Summer is now upon us. And while BlogDH may not be able to provide you with time-wasters for procrastinating at your summer job (we need to look good, too!), don’t go too far — we will post periodically throughout the summer to satisfy all your cravings for life in Brunonia and the glorious PVD.

We offer heartfelt congratulations to all of the graduating seniors on our staff, and to our current editor-in-chief and current deputy managing editor, Jenny Bloom ’12 and Talia Kagan ’12, respectively. Not to worry — we have succession plans lined up.

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http://youtu.be/TqmtnRuURRQ

A new semester means new friends, new classes, and, sadly, a reminder of the harsh reality of capitalism. Some businesses, no matter how close they may be to our hearts, must fail. Our winter break has given us three changes to the Thayer street food scene, all of which will have to prove their worth to Brown students in the near future:

To almost no one’s many students’ complete lack of surprise, Toledo (or its brief successor Thayer Pita Pockets) has closed its doors. Though I only once got to enjoy one of their infamous “pizza cones” – albeit in their brief second life as “pita pockets” – Thayer street will surely miss this unique delicacy and I will miss the classic challenge of preventing cheese from oozing out the bottom of the cone. Indeed, it’s tough being the 3rd pizza restaurant in a 2-pizzeria market. Expect (only slightly) longer lines at Antonio’s and Nice Slice. [Read more →]