By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Brown University President Christina Paxson is welcoming an editorial in the student newspaper, apologizing to Malia Obama, after some students posted pictures of the first daughter at a campus party during a recent campus visit.
Tuesday’s editorial in the Brown Daily Herald applauded a post by the Daily Dot, an online news service in an article entitled: “Brown University had no chill when Malia Obama came to visit”.
The campus paper said, “it’s a shame Malia was unable to visit Brown and enjoy herself at a party without several news headlines coming out about it the next day,” adding, “few of us would enjoy having strangers take pictures of us while we were unaware and post them on the Internet”. Brown President Paxson agreed.
“I was actually glad to see the apology. I thought it was nice, and, you know, people when they come deserve privacy. So, I think people were very excited to have her on campus and if they weren’t as ‘chill’ as they might have been, it just reflected their enthusiasm and excitement.”
In addition to Brown, Malia Obama has toured a number of colleges. Among them are five other Ivy League universities, including her parent’s alma maters, Columbia, where President Barack Obama graduated, and Princeton, which her mother, Michelle Obama attended, and Harvard, where both of her parents attended law school.
Paxson noted that Brown has hosted prominent students and children of celebrities in the past, and is well equipped to handle high-profile students.
“We certainly can, but it’s all about the individual student and whether we offer the kind of education that he or she wants.”
She would not give any hints about where Malia Obama might stand in Brown’s admissions acceptance process.
“If this is a great match for Malia and we think she’s a great match for us, we think it would be terrific to have her,” Paxson said.
