New school year brings paparazzi to Brown University

I love school supplies. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year because it means peruse the aisles of Staples or Office Max, picking out new notebooks and fountain pens. One thing that heading back to school should not involve, however, is paparazzi.

Unfortunately Brown University’s class of 2013 has exactly that to look forward to as they embark on their freshmen year at Rhode Island’s Ivy League college: so-called “journalists” prowling their campus, stalking out Harry Potter star Emma Watson. The photographers have already been snapping and posting photos of her and her new classmates all over the Internet — and this is just freshmen orientation! School hasn’t even started yet!

While this is their livelihood, stalking certain members of a college also affects the countless other students enrolled in the school. It’s likely that there are a few members of Brown’s freshmen class who actually enjoy the attention and a chance at their 15 minutes of fame, but not everyone wants their picture in the paper. Some students are just going to school to learn.

Watson, herself, probably won’t appreciate all the attention as she was quoted in The Daily Mail as saying, “I do hope that it will be only a short time before I am known as ‘Emma Watson, the student from the UK’ rather than ‘Emma Watson, who starred in those Harry Potter films.’”

She may not have revealed which school she would be attending until showing up at orientation in an attempt to ward off photographers, but according to The Boston Globe, Watson isn’t doing too great of a job masking her fame. The Globe reported that the actress was rumored to have arrived at Brown in a helicopter.

But stalking celebrities as they attend college isn’t a new concept. Last fall, an article was published in Columbia University’s student paper, The Spectator, about James Franco, who began taking classes at the college that semester. Apparently his classmates were stalking him to the point that he could barely study. One of these classmates, who claimed he was not stalking the actor, likened these students to, “a pack of starving vultures.” Franco told New York Magazine, “Everybody used to come up to me in the library. … Now I go to the quiet room.”

Whether it’s just innocent fans or paparazzi, no college student should have to deal with being followed around while they are trying to study and take part in extra curricular activities. While being famous in general must be irritating at times, trying to remain just another college student must be hard when you have photographers and excitable freshmen following you around.

Even worse than being the focus of all the attention is having to deal with it. Celebrities are familiar with be followed, but their classmates are less likely to have experience with stalkers and photographers and, unlike celebrities, these students are thrust into the limelight with no way to avoid it.

Under pressure, students might say the wrong thing to a tabloid reporter trying to get the scoop on their celebrity classmate and have their words twisted in print and on the Internet, affecting future chances at jobs. Also on a more superficial level, not everyone wants a photo of themselves on their way to class — especially if they’re not looking their best — spread across the pages of a magazine.

What’s confusing is why a college’s security guards would allow paparazzi onto their campus. Maybe the photographers following Watson were standing just in front of Brown’s security checkpoint or maybe Brown has an open campus, but you would think the school would try to keep paparazzi out.

Could it be that some schools believe in the phrase “all press is good press” and just wants their names in the tabloids? Or do they believe the paparazzi are invading their privacy and attempt to keep them from entering the school grounds?

Hopefully for Watson’s classmates, the press will grow bored of documenting her college escapades. Until then, Brown’s campus security should be keeping an eye out for anyone with cameras creeping around the area.