Welcome to the Brown Policy Review’s Spring 2008 Edition! The Brown Policy Review is published by Brown University’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, the nation’s first student-run policy think tank. The articles in this issue address a wide breadth of public policy questions, from affordable housing in cities to the ethicality of screening embryos for fatal genetic disorders. The papers you will find in this publication are policy abstracts, and readers who are interested in finding out more about the topics covered can visit our online edition (http://www.brownpolicyreview.org/spring08) to read the full-length versions of the articles. We hope you will enjoy the scope of local, national, and international issues that students have explored in their papers.
The mission of the Roosevelt Institution is to provide a non-partisan forum for student policy ideas, with the belief that students can make valuable contributions to the most pressing issues facing the United States. With that in mind, Brown’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institution actively seeks out the best work Brown students have written for classes in the fields of economic, education, environmental, foreign, health, and legal policy.
This semester Roosevelt at Brown has continued to increase its profile on campus. We held several lively policy discussions about issues such as Iraq withdrawal strategies, social security, and climate change. In addition, from April 14 to April 15 we hosted a conference on the intersection of sport and human rights, a timely event given the controversies surrounding the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. At the conference we brought together scholars, athletes, and Brown students to explore the contributions that sport can make to community-building, international development, conflict resolution, and human rights. Next semester it is our plan to sponsor another conference, this time about urban development in Providence.
We would like to extend our thanks to the Undergraduate Finance Board for their continued funding, as well as Dean Bergeron for her thoughtful and helpful suggestions for our publication. We are also grateful to the many professors who have been supportive of our efforts to recognize high-quality student work over the years. We would also like to commend the Brown Policy Review’s policy editors for tirelessly working to put this publication together. In addition, we send our thanks to the general body members of Roosevelt at Brown for promoting the discussion of public policy on Brown’s campus. And, last but not least, we would like to recognize the graduating seniors for their dedication, enthusiasm, and guidance. You will be missed!
We hope you enjoy the issue!
Camilla Hawthorne ’09 – Editor-in-Chief
Daniel Feinglos ’09 – Managing Editor
William Martin ’10 – Managing Editor
Read the print edition here.