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On March 13, 2020, Brown students were sent home as the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the country. Roughly two years later, on March 14, 2022, the University announced that masks and testing would become optional. This week, we spoke with Senior Staff Writer Ashley Guo about her reporting on how the lives of students have changed in the last two years.

Millions of Ukranians have been displaced as a result of the Russian invasion and bombing of Ukraine. They have flooded the borders of neighboring countries, seeking refuge from the violence. The University announced that it plans to provide an academic home for Ukrainian scholars displaced by the conflict in a community-wide email Feb. 27. In this episode of The Bruno Brief, we learn more about t...

In March 2019, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs announced its plan to phase out three of its concentrations and replace them with one new undergraduate concentration. In place of International Relations, Public Policy and Development Studies would come International and Public Affairs, a flexible and customizable new program with space for five electives from departments a...

A surge in positive COVID-19 tests has sent hundreds of Brown students into isolation in the first month of a semester that was designed to include almost entirely in-person instruction. With 361 positive tests last week, how does it feel for students to be in isolation while the rest of campus continues as usual? We talked with section editors Will Kubzansky and Gabriella Vulakh about their cover...

Beginning next semester, Residential Peer Leaders will become a thing of the past. Community Coordinators will be a new student-staff position with nearly double the pay of an RPL. How will the new Community Coordinator role be different, and how do current RPLs feel about this shift? We spoke to Senior Staff Writer Emily Faulhaber ’24 about her reporting on this topic.

 Hospitals around the United States have been ravaged by the pandemic, and the Rhode Island hospitals near Brown University's campus are no exception. We spoke to Senior Staff Writer Neil Mehta ’25 about the additional strain that Brown student intoxication hospitalizations have put on these hospitals in recent months.

The Black Star Journal, Brown’s newest publication, aims to connect Black voices and highlight the joys of being a Black student at Brown. We spoke to Senior Staff Writer Kaitlyn Torres ’24 about the Journal and the students behind it.

In 2020, the University created a trimester plan that asked the incoming class to take classes during the spring and summer semester. Now, after almost a year of school with no more than a few weeks off, we talk with members of the class of ’24 about their struggles with mental health and burnout since coming to Brown.

Every year around Halloween, movie fans turn to horror for seasonal thrills. We spoke to Science and Research Editor Claire Liu ’23.5 about her reporting on the psychology behind horror movies, different film techniques and why being scared is sometimes a good thing.

Brown students poured onto the Main Green Oct. 21 to protest the working conditions of Brown Dining Services workers following Herald reporting bringing light to conditions inside the University’s dining halls. We spoke to Senior Staff Writers Peter Swope ’24 and Will Kubzansky ’24 about their coverage of the protest and initial story, respectively.

On this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief, producer Katy Pickens explores how the pandemic has impacted knowledge of traditions among students. She spoke to sophomores and first-years, many of whom still don’t feel connected to campus culture, and reflected on how her own knowledge of campus tradition has been shaped by the pandemic.

We took a long look at the campaign to end legacy admissions at Brown. The movement, led by the group Students for Educational Equity, is meant to increase enrollment of students from marginalized communities by ending consideration of legacy status in admissions. We heard from Kate Dario ’22.5, who reported this story in last week’s Herald, and Zoë Fuad ’23.5, co-president of SEE.

Live music returns to campus in this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief. Student group Sounds@Brown hosted its first in-person event Sept. 30, featuring four student performers. We spoke to performer Gus Benson ’24 about the return to live music and what it felt like to play for his peers.

We sat down with Chas Steinbrugge, the student behind the BrownUMemes Instagram account, which has attracted a spike in attention in recent weeks from students and parents alike for its humorous content and critiques of the University. Here’s what he had to say.

In the first episode of season two of The Bruno Brief, we go to a protest of Chase Bank staged by climate justice activists on Thayer Street. We talk to Senior Staff Writer Jasper Yeh, who was on the scene and spoke with protestors about their stance against the bank’s investments in fossil fuels.

In this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief, we peel back the curtain on Brown admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We talk to Senior Staff Writer Will Kubzansky, who spoke with two University admissions committees about how life has changed during a year of unprecedented applicant numbers and a public health crisis. 

In this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief, we talk to students and faculty about their reactions to the deadly shooting in Atlanta, Georgia March 16, which killed eight people, including six Asian women. We speak to Senior Staff Writer Victoria Yin, who heard from community members about how they coped with the tragedy and about the broader context of the shooting.

In this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief, we look into Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan, which contrasts from the previous plan by prioritizing occupation in expanding eligibility. We speak to Staff Writer Stella Olken-Hunt, who heard from Providence educators about how the new plan has impacted them.

This week, we look back on the weeks leading up to Brown’s announcement that campus would close down because of COVID-19, and the experiences that students had after that announcement. One year after Brown sent students home, we speak to University News Editor Livia Gimenes, who interviewed half a dozen students about how their lives changed after March 12, 2020.

This week, we hear about the civil lawsuit against two Providence police officers who were involved in a moped crash that left 24-year-old Jhamal Gonsalves in a coma last October. Senior Staff Writer Karlos Bautista spoke with Gonsalves' father and his attorney about the lawsuit, as well as several activists (including Brown students) who are speaking out against police misconduct and violenc...

In this week’s episode of The Bruno Brief, we hear from students studying remotely in Texas about their situations on the ground in light of the winter storm which hit the state hard two weeks ago. We talk to senior staff writer Liza Mullett ’22, who spoke to three students who grappled with online school while, in some cases, lacking electricity, heat and running water.

This week on The Bruno Brief, we hear from students who decided to take leaves of absence from Brown in light of the pandemic about the semesters they’ve created for themselves instead. We talk to contributing writer Kashif Ansari ’24, who spoke to these students currently spread across the globe.

Content Warning: This episode discusses topics that may be triggering to some listeners, including sexual violence.  This week on the Bruno Brief: two Brown students, Carter Woodruff '21.5 and Amelia Wycoff '22, put posters up around campus lambasting the University's handling of sexual assault on campus. Their posters read "Brown University has a sexual violence problem."...

This week on The Bruno Brief: Pawtucket is the only school district in Rhode Island to decide to keep all learning remote until September. We speak with reporter Sophie Butcher about the decision, and why community groups like Black Lives Matter Rhode Island are speaking out against it. All music from Blue Dot Sessions. The Bruno Brief is a partnership between The Brown Daily Herald and WBRU. 

In the first-ever episode of the Bruno Brief, we give you the details on the two rounds of federal stimulus money that Brown has been deemed eligible for-- one that it has accepted, and another with a much more unclear status.