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 Herald's fall 2011 undergraduate survey

Every semester, The Herald conducts a survey of the undergraduate student body on a number of issues. Some questions, such as approval of Ruth Simmons and UCS, frequently appear on the poll, while many of the others change each semester. This semester’s poll asked:

• Whether or not students would consider joining an ROTC program, at Brown or another school
• How many sexual partners students have had so far this semester
• What students think of their class sizes
• What students think of the number of admissions spots that are reserved for athletic recruits
• How well students think Ruth Simmons and UCS are doing their jobs
• How satisfied or dissatisfied students are with academic advising
• How students see their families’ wealth compared to that of the “average Brown student”
• How confident students are in getting a desirable job after graduation
• What electronic devices students own

Check out the article with the full results here! (Disclaimer: I wrote the article.)

Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be publishing a series of articles, each of which goes into depth about one specific poll question. More reasons to read The Herald every day!

Don’t even deny that half of that all-nighter at the FriSC was spent on freetetris.org. Some of us are pretty good, some of us suck, but Eric Caruso ’14 is on a completely different level. He is a Tetris Grand Master, one of the highest ranks a player can reach in the online Tetris community. BlogDailyHerald asked him some questions on his mad skills.  Read the interview after the jump!  [Read more →]