Reader Responses to In Our Own Words

The BAM hit the jackpot when it turned the April-May issue over to students to shape, create, and write. When I was a student, the University’s major strength was its sharp focus on undergraduate education. That focus has been diluted over the years, for the most part intentionally; but my interest has always remained with students, and I have been on campus over 100 times to work as a volunteer to help many generations of students at WBRU. I read, or at least glance through, most of the BAM every month, finding it interesting but something of a public relations piece, created by professionals who want to make the University look good by promoting the accomplishments of the institution and a few students and alumni who have achieved notoriety. In contrast, the issue produced by students told me not about the top 1 percent but rather the other 99 percent. I learned what they think, what they like, what worries them, what they hope for in their future life, and how today’s financial and social environments both facilitate and create barriers to achievement of their aspirations. In other words, I learned more from this issue about the people whose lives the University is shaping than I have in over a half century of reading professionally produced issues. Moreover, the articles were clear and well written. Please repeat the student performance by making it at least an annual event.

Seeing this issue at a time when our universities are under assault from the federal executive branch is strangely out of touch with reality.

What a super edition! (Jan.-Mar. ’25) I have longed for a bicycle to pedal for powering TV, so reading about the campus cardio machines that generate electricity was thrilling. Nalini Nadkarni’s treetop research and Tony Coles’ art are inspiring. I am impressed by what is done at my alma mater. Thanks.

Just seeing this issue at a time when our universities are under assault from the federal executive branch is strangely out of touch with reality. My husband who reads BAM more than I do comes to me and says why this issue is something BU would publish. And I said to myself, are you kidding me? Write articles with substance. These are important times to be advocating for the preservation of our educational system. Write about the zoom meeting we just participated in with regard to the rewriting of Brown’s mission statement—that is a story. These are unprecedented times.

WOW! I love this “special issue”! It tackles so many front-of-mind challenges… in this hypercharged moment, I am eager to read how Brown is grappling with the push toward preprofessionalism (and, presumably, the impacts of AI), the unmentionableness of gender, etc. We GenXers are grateful to our GenZ siblings for pushing BAM into this highly relevant territory!

The “editorial” [by the student editors] in April-May 2025 issue is a whiny, self-indulging diatribe that gives us little context and less meaning. To suggest that “our country is nose-diving into chaos at alarming speed” is simply wrong, and I suspect it reflects the board’s concentration on only the views of the liberal fear-mongers who take every opportunity to directly or indirectly slander the president and his policies. Moreover, it evinces a lack of historical context or even justification for such a statement after less than three months into this presidency. When I am confronted by “editorials” like this last one in BAM, I am constrained to implore my friends and family to “please give him some time!” Finally, have the editors of BAM majored in political science? History? That might be revealing.