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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 this program and the organizations the University is partnering with to support Ukrainian scholars.

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 across the University. Three years later, IAPA has been fully implemented as a concentration. In this episode of the Bruno Brief, we find out how these first years have gone, and what the future of IAPA looks like for undergraduates.

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 coverage of this story. 

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.