<p>So a few months ago I remember reading a thread in this forum on what current Brown students don’t like about Brown and I noticed some of things that students complained about had been fixed like wireless access in the dorms, the completion of the biomed building, etc. Just to humor me, could some of the Brown students list some other things that you complained about in the past that have been resolved/fixed?</p>
<p>Also I was looking at this article BDH from 2004 and it listed the A to Z’s of orientation. Two things stuck out to me and I was wondering if some of the current students could tell me if you would still ‘define’ these two items the same way the BDH does: </p>
<p>OMAC: Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. Where you go to try to keep off the “freshman 15.” Your high school gym had more and better equipment. But the two new athletic facilities that are opening this year in Keeney and Emery halls will ease the crunch of overgrown athletes keeping you off machines in the OMAC.</p>
<p>OSL: The Office of Student Life bills itself as a “talented and compassionate group of professionals deeply committed to programs and services which support the education of Brown students.” Do not be fooled. When not actively trying to destroy beloved programs (residential counseling, BOLT), OSL runs its own version of Orwell’s “Room 101,” also known as the disciplinary system. Fortunately, regime change begins at home, and after last year’s top-to-bottom staff changes, students can hopefully look forward to an Office of Student Life that’s a little more student-friendly.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve never dealt with the OSL, but we’ve had satellites that are running in Keeney and Emery for quite some time which are fine for your basic stuff. The Bear’s Lair is also a great option.</p>
<p>every good, future-oriented school is constantly trying to improve itself. brown continues to make great strides and will close out a $1.4 billion dollar campaign this year, almost all dedicated towards financial aid, more professors, and new buildings.</p>
<p>The OSL has indeed changed for the better. One of these changes includes the establishment of a department for student labor, which regulates things like the number of hours a student can work, on campus minimum wages, and fair hiring practices. Before that, it varied greatly based on department, many people were getting paid below state minimum wage, and was a shady, shady mess. </p>
<p>I would like to see a more intelligent kind of student activism. You hardly ever see student protests, but when you do, count on most of the protesters knowing very little background info, and almost certainly only one side of the story. It gets old after a while, watching people kick up a fuss and then find out later that it was something completely blown out of proportion (or just wrong).</p>
<p>Ugh, agreed Rabo. It seems we only get up and care when we don’t know **** about a situation.</p>
<p>Well, it would help if when students came to UCS about something the first time, when something could still be done about it, they weren’t rejected as crazy worry-mongers just because they <em>might</em> be blowing something out of proportion.</p>
<p>It’s what happened with Banner, and I’m lucky that I was part of the second wave movement against it rather than the first wave. I got a unanimously-passed UCS resolution, I (together with others) managed to accidentally hijack two UCS meetings, I got two meetings with the dean of the college, one meeting with a whole mess of administrators, and a (wonderful) meeting with Ruth Simmons. All Alex Hellquist got for being the first one out of the gate was a whole lot of hate.</p>
<p>Wow, I accidentally just rhymed.</p>
<p>mgcsinc-- are you able to talk about the resolution and what happened at the meetings? Banner seems like a good thing to work on, as it is a bit confusing for us as first time users.</p>
<p>Ahh Banner. What fun…</p>
<p>me want student center :)</p>