Heated rhetoric. Pack mentalities. Buzzwords. Embarrassing gulfs between words and actions. Sound like Washington? According to a new study, it’s just you.

UCLA researchers, in a survey of college freshmen across the United States, found that all that squawking on behalf of liberal causes is actually just part of a trend indicating all talk, no walk… sigh. Among other findings reported in the Chronicle of Higher Ed,  71 percent of freshmen are in favor of same-sex marriage and almost half advocate marijuana legalization. In the realm of substantive activity, however, the freshmen falter. A paltry 6 percent planned to participate in political protests on campus. Moreover, results revealed a roughly 5 percent drop in student participation in campaigns at any level of government from previous years. Rather than spur political activity, the fictional travails of Leslie Knope and the Pawnee Parks Department have apparently only encouraged us to draw sophisticated parallels between Ron Swanson and an actual libertarian named Ron. Comments on the study’s significance after the jump. [Read more →]

The Black Under Armour Aero-Locker Sackpack

Reslife tells us that a backpack/bookbag is “probably the most useful thing [we’ll] own” as students at Brown. I, however, will agree to disagree with that statement. Backpacks are very good at their one purpose: holding things. But if Food Network’s Alton Brown taught me one thing, it’s that “unitaskers” are never as good as multitaskers. That’s why the Under Armour Aero-Locker Sackpack is a frosh-cessity.

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Yes, Facebook’s 26 year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg already has a movie coming out about his life…and yes, it’s directed by the guy who brought us Fight Club…and yes, the Kanye West-infused trailer is the best trailer-music match since “Wake Up” and Where the Wild Things Are—but all of this cannot change the simple truth: I am a lowly freshman and my Facebook is my temple.

The first week at Brown University has brought an inevitable landslide of Facebook activity ranging from event invitations, friend requests (little confidence boosters in the form of a little red number) and tags (little confidence boosters in the form of digital photos). With all the social networking going on, here are five tips for freshman looking for a way to work through it all:

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University Hall

Welcome to the third and final installment of our serialization of Post- Magazine‘s Brown A-Z.  In here we have some vital terms for freshmen defined such as S/NC, UCS, and most importantly sexile (sex+exile=sexile).  Once again, if anyone can think of any terms we missed, or any corrections to our list (we aren’t perfect), just post them in the comment section.  Enjoy!

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Bears can dress up too yo...

Todays installment of Brown A-Z features some more useful tidbits of information for those of amongst us who are new to the PVD.  On the food front we have The Gate (essential for Pembrookites), Jo’s (essential for Perkinites), Loui’s (essential for every person on this campus), and the super delicious Magic Bars at the Ratty.  Today’s list also features Lincoln Field, the site of the September 18th Big Boi extravaganza.  Enjoy!

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As an incoming freshman last year, I found it incredibly difficult to learn all of the names and terms used to refer to everything in Brunonia, and often found myself wondering who Dave Binder was or why naked people were handing me doughnuts.  Thankfully, our friends at Post- Magazine compiled an essential list of terms necessary for any Brown student to know to survive.  As we enter into our first weekend of the school year, we figured we would post the A-Z list in three parts, A-F today, G-O tomorrow, and P-Z on Sunday.  If any one can think of any terms we left off, please feel free to add them in the comments.  So enjoy, because this is likely the only list of terms you will be given without a subsequent test.

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