Brown University

Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and the seventh-oldest in the United States. It is a member of the Ivy League. Brown merged with nearby Pembroke College, its sister school, in 1971.

Brown was the first college in the nation to accept students of all religious affiliations. The University is home to the only undergraduate Egyptology department in the United States, founded by Richard Anthony Parker in 1948. The school also has one of the oldest undergraduate engineering programs in the Ivy League (1847) and the only History of Mathematics department in the world (housed in the same building as Egyptology). Brown was also one of the first institutions to emphasize computer science as well as media studies, with its department of Modern Culture and Media, where students study film production, film criticism, and critical theory.

The Brown "New Curriculum," instituted in 1969, eliminates distribution requirements and mandatory A/B/C grades (allowing any course to be taken on a "satisfactory/no credit" basis). Moreover, there are no pluses (+) or minuses (-) in the grading system.

Since 2001, Brown's current and 18th president is Ruth J. Simmons, the first African American president, and second female president, of an Ivy League institution, as well as the first permanent female president of Brown.

The school colors are seal brown, cardinal red, and white. Brown's mascot is the bear and the sports teams are called the Brown Bears. The costumed bear mascot named "Bruno" makes appearances at athletic games. The use of a bear as the University's mascot dates back to 1904. People associated with the University are known as Brunonians.

Academics

Admission to Brown is extremely competitive, with an overall admissions rate of 13.8%.^[2] The regular decision acceptance rate for the Class of 2010 was 12.6%.^[3] More than one-third of the members of the Class of 2010 scored above 750 on the verbal or math sections of the SAT I: Reasoning Test.^[4] Approximately 15 percent of the students in the Class of 2010 graduated number one or number two in their high school classes. Students come from all 50 states, as well as 65 countries.^[5] Brown's financial aid program awards approximately $70 million each year in the form of scholarships, jobs, and loans. Over 50% of students receive some form of financial aid.

In the 2006 and 2007 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Brown ranked fifteenth.

According to a 2006 Princeton Review survey of colleges, Brown is the fourth most selective college in America, and its students are the happiest.

History

The founding of Brown

In 1763, James Manning, a Baptist minister, was sent to Rhode Island by the Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches in order to found a college. At the same time, local Congregationalists, led by Ezra Stiles, were working toward a similar end. On March 3, 1764, a charter was filed to create Rhode Island College in Warren, Rhode Island, reflecting the work of both Stiles and Manning.

The charter had more than 60 signatories, including John and Nicholas Brown of the Brown family, who would give the College its present day name. The college's mission, the charter stated, was to prepare students "for discharging the Offices of Life" by providing instruction "in the Vernacular Learned Languages, and in the liberal Arts and Sciences."^[6] The charter's language has long been interpreted by the university as discouraging the founding of a business school or law school. Brown continues to be one of only two Ivy League colleges with neither a business school nor a law school (the other being Princeton).

The charter required that the makeup of the board of thirty-six trustees include twenty-two Baptists, five Friends, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians, and by twelve Fellows, of whom eight, including the President, should be Baptists "and the rest indifferently of any or all denominations." It specified that "into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests, but on the contrary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience." The Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition remarks that "At the time it was framed the charter was considered extraordinarily liberal" and that "the government has always been largely non-sectarian in spirit."^[7]

James Manning, the minister sent to Rhode Island by the Baptists, was sworn in as the College's first president in 1765. Rhode Island College moved to its present location on College Hill, in the East Side of Providence, in 1770 and construction of the first building, The College Edifice, began. This building was renamed University Hall in 1823. The Brown family — Nicholas, John, Joseph and Moses — were instrumental in the move to Providence, funding and organizing much of the construction of the new buildings. The family's connection with the college was strong: Joseph Brown became a professor of Physics at the University and John Brown, served as treasurer from 1775 to 1796. In 1804, a year after John Brown's death, the University was renamed Brown University in honor of John's nephew, Nicholas Brown, Jr., who was a member of the class of 1786 and contributed $5,000 (which, adjusted for inflation, is approximately $61,000 in 2005, though it was 1,000 times the roughly $5 tuition) toward an endowed professorship. In 1904, the John Carter Brown Library was opened as an independent historical and cultural research center based around the libraries of John Carter Brown and John Nicholas Brown.

The Brown family was involved in various business ventures in Rhode Island, including the slave trade; the family itself was divided on the issue. John Brown had unapologetically defended slavery, while Moses Brown and Nicholas Brown Jr. were fervent abolitionists. In recognition of this history, the University established the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in 2003.^[8]

Brown began to admit women when it established a Women's College in 1891, which was later named Pembroke College. "The College" (the undergraduate school) merged with Pembroke College in 1971 and became co-educational.

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The New Curriculum

Brown adopted the New Curriculum in 1969, marking a major change in the University's institutional history. The curriculum was the result of a paper written by Ira Magaziner and Elliot Maxwell, "Draft of a Working Paper for Education at Brown University." The paper came out of a year-long Group Independent Studies Project (GISP) involving 80 students and 15 professors. The group was inspired by student-initiated experimental schools, especially San Francisco State College, and sought ways to improve education for students at Brown. The philosophy they formed was based on the principle that "the individual who is being educated is the center of the educational process." In 1850, Brown President Francis Wayland wrote: "The various courses should be so arranged that, insofar as practicable, every student might study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose."

The paper made a number of suggestions for improving education at Brown, including a new kind of interdisciplinary freshman course that would introduce new modes of inquiry and bring faculty from different fields together. Their goal was to transform the survey course, which traditionally sought to cover a large amount of basic material, into specialized courses that would introduce the important modes of inquiry used in different disciplines.

The New Curriculum that came out of the working paper was significantly different from the paper itself. Its key features were:

• Modes of Thought courses aimed at first-year students
• Interdisciplinary University courses
• Students could elect to take any course Satisfactory/No Credit
• Distribution requirements were dropped
• The University simplified grades to ABC/No Credit, eliminating pluses, minuses and D's. Furthermore, "No Credit" would not appear on external transcripts.

Except for the Modes of Thought courses, a key component of the reforms which have been discontinued, these elements of the New Curriculum are still in place.

Additionally, due to the school's proximity and close partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Brown students have the ability to take up to four courses at RISD and have the credit count towards a Brown degree. Likewise, RISD students can also take courses at Brown. Since the two campuses are effectively adjacent to each other, the two institutions often partner to provide both student bodies with services (such as the local Brown/RISD after-hours and downtown transportation shuttles).

Recently, there has been some debate on reintroducing plus/minus grading to the curriculum. Advocates argue that adding pluses and minuses would reduce grade inflation and allow professors to give more specific grades, while critics say that this plan would have no effect on grade inflation while increasing unnecessary competition among students and violating the principle of the New Curriculum.

The University is currently in the process of broadening and expanding its curricular offerings as part of the "Plan for Academic Enrichment." The number of faculty has been greatly expanded. Seminars aimed at freshmen have begun to be offered widely by most departments.

The Ivy League and slavery

In 2003, 18th Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons^[9] appointed the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice^[10], which included faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students and University administrators. The Steering Committee^[11] produced the first ever internally produced Ivy League^[12] report regarding the commercial ties between the origins of one of the Ivy League institutions and the Triangular Trade in slavery. The Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice is a historic first for the Ivy League which is comprised of several member universities whose currently unexamined initial financial endowments were financed in some measure by wealth accumulated through the Triangular Trade. The carefully researched report offers several recommendations for Brown. It also offers a wealth of historical records and teaching materials^[13] available to the public worldwide regarding an important aspect of pre-Revolutionary New England.

Recent developments

In the fall of 2004, billionaire Sidney Frank, who could only afford to attend Brown for one year in his youth, donated an additional $100 million exclusively for financial aid—the largest gift in the university's history. Earlier that year, Frank had given $20 million for the construction of Sidney Frank Hall, the future home of Brown's fast-growing Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences. However, in late May 2006, it was announced that these funds would be repurposed for in progress projects and the almost completed Life Sciences Building would be renamed in honor of the recently deceased Sidney Frank. Planning for the now-unnamed Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences building is still underway, with the assumption that a new donor or donors will emerge in the near future. In September 2005, Frank made yet another donation of $5 million to aid Brown in providing free tuition for New Orleans students whose colleges had been rendered unusable by Hurricane Katrina just weeks earlier. His donations are one part of Brown's new capital campaign, dubbed "Boldly Brown," to raise $1.4 billion over the next three years, $600 million of which will go towards expanding the school's endowment. Brown parents also serve as large donors, and in 2004 gave more than any other group of non-alumni parents in the Ivy League and the second-most in the country (behind Duke University).

Organization

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The College and Graduate School

The College and the Graduate School are by far the largest parts of the school, spanning 100 undergraduate concentrations (majors), over 50 graduate school programs, and offering around 2,000 courses each year. The most popular undergraduate concentrations are Biology, History, and International Relations.^[14] Brown is one of the few schools in the United States with a major in Egyptology available and the only school in the world with a History of Math major. Undergraduates can also design an independent concentration if the existing standard programs do not fit their interests.

The Warren Alpert Medical School

Main article: Brown Medical School

The University's medical program started in 1811, but the school was suspended by President Wayland in 1827 after the program's faculty declined to live on campus (a new requirement under Wayland). In 1975, the first M.D. degrees from the new Program in Medicine were awarded to a graduating class of 58 students. In 1984, Brown endorsed an eight-year medical program called the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). The majority of openings for the first-year medical school class are reserved for PLME students. Each year, approximately 60 students matriculate into the PLME out of an applicant pool of about 1,600. In 1991, the school was officially renamed the Brown University School of Medicine, then renamed once more as simply "Brown Medical School" in October 2000.^[15]

In addition, Brown offered a joint program with Dartmouth Medical School called the Brown-Dartmouth Medical Program. Approximately 15 students at Dartmouth Medical School enrolled in the program annually, spending the first two basic medical science years at Dartmouth and the next two years in clinical education at Brown, where they received their M.D. degree. The Brown-Dartmouth program accepted its final class in the fall of 2006, their respective deans stating that the institutions desired to move in their own directions.

Several other admission pathways exist. The Early Identification Program (EIP) encourages Rhode Island residents to pursue careers in medicine by recruiting sophomores from Providence College, Rhode Island College, the University of Rhode Island, and Tougaloo College to BMS. In 2004, the school once again began to accept applications via the "standard route", from pre-medical students at any college or university. For the Class of 2009, nine students were accepted via this route.

Combined degree programs leading to the M.D./Ph.D. or M.D./M.P.H. degrees are also offered.

In January 2007, self-made entrepreneur Warren Alpert, having made previous contributions to Harvard Medical School and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, donated the sum of $100 million to Brown Medical School on behalf of the Warren Alpert Foundation, tying Sidney Frank for the largest single monetary contribution ever made to the University. In recognition of the gift, the faculty of Brown University approved changing the name of the Brown Medical School to The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. The funds are expected to contribute to the construction of a new, exclusive medical school building, medical student scholarships (through the Warren Alpert Scholars Program), support for biomedical research and faculty recruitment, and new endowed professorships.^[16]

Presidents of Brown University

Campus

Brown is the largest institutional landowner in Providence with property in the East Side and the Jewelry District. Brown's main campus is located atop College Hill, in the East Side, across the Providence River from downtown Providence. The main campus consists of 235 buildings and covers 143 acres. The East Side is home to the largest remaining collection of historic colonial homes in the country. The College Hill Historic District is designated on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, six of Brown's buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Corliss-Brackett House, Gardner House, Hoppin House, Ladd Observatory, Nightingale-Brown House, and University Hall which was at least partially built by slave labor.^[23] The last two are also designated as National Historic Landmarks. Adjacent to Brown's main campus, and further down the Hill to the west by the Providence River, is the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design. Thayer Street, which runs through Brown's campus, is a commercial district that hosts many restaurants and shops popular with students and faculty from Brown and RISD. Also on the Hill, but further to the south and away from the main campus area, is Wickenden Street, another commercial district offering restaurants and shops. Brown Stadium, built in 1925 and home to the football team, is located approximately a mile to the northeast of the main campus. More recently, Brown has expanded into the Jewelry District, located in southern downtown Providence, by acquiring and renovating five buildings to serve as administrative and research facilities. Outside of Providence, Brown also owns a 376-acre property, the Mount Hope Grant, in Bristol, which is the setting of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

Student life

Atmosphere

Princeton Review ranks Brown first among all American colleges for "happiest students."^[24] Brown was recently named "the most fashionable school in the Ivy League" by the fashion trade journal Women's Wear Daily on the basis that students on campus seem to have the strongest sense of personal style.^[25]

Nightlife

Brown is home to an active on-campus nightlife. A wide array of parties take place on the weekends, most of them in dorms and off-campus houses. Greek life is restricted to a fraction of the Brown student body, though it does take the spotlight during the annual Spring Weekend. Some parties, such as SexPowerGod and Starf*ck, are annual occurrences. Both parties had to be massively scaled back, however, after Bill O'Reilly sent a clothed cameraman into SexPowerGod in Fall 2005 and aired footage of the party on his show, The O'Reilly Factor.

Athletics

Brown is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Ivy League athletic conference. It sponsors 37 varsity intercollegiate teams. Its athletics program has been featured in the College Sports Honor Roll as one of the top 20 athletic programs in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. Brown Women's Rowing Team has won 4 national titles in the last 10 years and Brown Football won the 2005 Ivy League Championships. Brown's Men's Soccer program is consistently ranked in the top 25, has won 18 Ivy League titles overall, and 8 of the last 12. Brown's Varsity Equestrian team won the Ivy League Championships for the past two years in a row, and has consistently performed extremely well within the team's zone and region.^[26] Brown also features several competitive intercollegiate club sports, including its nationally ranked sailing, Taekwondo and Ultimate teams. In 2005, the men's ultimate team, Brownian Motion, won the national championship, and the football team won its first-ever outright Ivy League title. Brown's table tennis team finished in first place and were undefeated in the New England division of National College Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) in the 2006-2007 season and earned a spot in the National competition.

Student groups

There are approximately 240 registered student organizations on campus with diverse interests. The Student Activities Fair, during the orientation program, is an opportunity for first-years to become acquainted with the wide range of clubs.

Residential / Greek

12.7% of Brown students are in fraternities or sororities. There are eleven residential Greek houses: six all-male fraternities (Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Tau, Delta Phi, Theta Delta Chi, Sigma Chi, and Phi Kappa Psi), two sororities (Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta), one co-ed literary fraternity (St. Anthony Hall), one co-ed fraternity (Zeta Delta Xi), and one co-ed literary society (Alpha Delta Phi). All recognized Greek letter organizations live on-campus in University-owned dorm housing. Ten of the houses are overseen by the Greek Council and are located on Wriston Quadrangle. St. Anthony Hall, a co-ed fraternity that does not participate in Greek Council, is located in King House.

An alternative to fraternity life at Brown are the program houses, which are organized around various themes. As with Greek houses, the existing residents of each house take applications from students, usually at the start of the Spring semester. Examples of program houses include: Buxton International House, the Machado French/Spanish House, Art House, Technology House, Harambee House, Culinary Arts (Cooking) House, West House and Interfaith House.

Currently, there are three student cooperative houses at Brown. Two of the houses, Watermyn and Finlandia on Waterman Street, are owned by the Brown Association for Cooperative Housing (BACH), an independent non-profit corporation owned and operated by house members. The third co-op, West House, is located in a Brown-owned house on Brown Street. All three houses also run a vegetarian food co-op for residents and non-residents.

Secret societies

As at most other Ivies, secret societies have existed at Brown since the mid-18th century. They originated as literary clubs and organized disputes among their members, a forensic tradition that continues today in the Brown Debating Union. The first known literary society was Athenian at Queen's, founded in 1776, but this group disbanded by the mid-1780's.^{[citation needed]} The Philermenian Society (founded as the Misokosmian Society) arose in 1794.^[27] In reaction to the Federalist Philermenians, a Democratic-Republican society called the United Brothers Society was formed in 1806.^[28] In 1824 a third society, the Franklin Society, was formally recognized by the university president, and counted as honorary members Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay.^[29] The Franklin Society was later renamed Pacifica House.^[30] All of these societies had libraries and meeting rooms on the top floor of Hope College, and few written documents were preserved in order to protect against inter-society espionage. However, by the mid-19th century, these organizations had diminished on account of the growth in the number of Greek letter fraternities.^[31]

Traditions

Though the early history of Brown's traditions as a men's school includes a number of unusual hazing traditions, the University's present-day traditions tend to be non-violent while maintaining the spirit of zaniness.^[32]

Van Wickle Gates

The Van Wickle Gates, dedicated on June 18, 1901, have a pair of center gates and a smaller gate on each side. The side gates remain open throughout the year, while the center gates remain closed except for two occasions each year. At the beginning of the academic year, the center gates open inward to admit students during Convocation. At the end of the second semester, the gates open outward for the Commencement Day procession.^[33] A traditional superstition is that students who pass through the gates for a second time before graduation do not graduate. Undergraduate members of the Brown Band who must pass through the gates during the Commencement ceremonies walk through it backwards. Formerly, the graduation superstition only applied to male students, as female students had their own fear of never marrying. Similar superstitions apply to the Pembroke seal on the stone steps leading to the Pembroke quad from Meeting Street, a holdover from when Pembroke College was a separate college for women. Another traditional superstition is that students rub the nose of the statue of John Hay in the John Hay Library for good luck on exams, a superstition that has been in effect since around 1910, resulting in a very shiny nose.^[34]

Josiah S. Carberry

Main article: Josiah S. Carberry

One of Brown's most notable traditions is keeping alive the spirit and accomplishments of Josiah S. Carberry, the fictional Professor of Psychoceramics (the equally fictional study of cracked pots), who was born on a University Hall billboard in 1929. He is the namesake of "Josiah's", a University-run snackbar. "Josiah" is also the name of the University's electronic library catalog.

According to Encyclopedia Brunoniana, "on Friday, May 13, 1955, an anonymous gift of $101.01 was received by the University from Professor Carberry to establish the Josiah S. Carberry Fund in memory of his 'future late wife.' A condition of the gift was that, henceforth, every Friday the 13th would be designated 'Carberry Day,' and on that day friends of the University would deposit their loose change in brown jugs to augment the fund, which is used to purchase 'such books as Professor Carberry might or might not approve of.'" Students have followed this tradition ever since, and the fund currently has over $10,000 in it.^[35]

"Professor Carberry has been the subject of articles in a number of periodicals, including the New York Times, which proclaimed him 'The World’s Greatest Traveler' on the front page of its Sunday travel section in 1974, and in Yankee magazine, where he was 'The Absent-Bodied Professor' in 1975. A recent honor which came to Professor Carberry was the award to him of an Ig Noble Prize at the First Annual Ig Noble Prize Ceremony in 1991. At this event sponsored by M.I.T. and the Journal of Irreproducible Results, Carberry, the 1991 Ig Nobel Interdisciplinary Research Prize laureate, was cited as 'bold explorer and eclectic seeker of knowledge, for his pioneering work in the field of psychoceramics, the study of cracked pots.'"^[36]

Spring Weekend

Starting in 1950, Brown replaced the traditional Junior Week and Junior Prom, which were discontinued during World War II, with Spring Weekend, which featured athletic contests and dances. Concerts featuring invited performers began in 1960.^[37] In the past, it has brought in acts such as Ray Charles (1962, 1970), The Isley Brothers (1963), Bob Dylan (1964, 1997), The Coasters (1964), Ella Fitzgerald (1965), Bo Diddley (1965, 1997), The Shirelles (1965), The (Young) Rascals (1967), The Yardbirds (1968), Dizzy Gillespie (1968), James Brown (1968), Smokey Robinson (1969), Janis Joplin (1969), Bonnie Raitt (1972, 1978), Ike and Tina Turner (1972), Blue Öyster Cult (1972), Phil Ochs (1974), Bruce Springsteen (1974), Charles Mingus (1977), U2 (1983), R.E.M. (1985), Afrika Bambaata (1985), Elvis Costello (1987), A Tribe Called Quest (1992), De La Soul (1992), Violent Femmes (1994, 2001), Buddy Guy (1994), George Clinton (1996), Coolio (1996), The Fugees (1996), Rakim (1998), Sonic Youth (1998), Yo La Tengo (1998), Busta Rhymes (1999), and Wyclef Jean (2000). Recent acts include They Might Be Giants (2001), Ben Harper (2001), Jurassic 5 (2001, 2004), The Get Up Kids (2002), The Roots (2002), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (2003), The Wallflowers (2003), Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (2004), Ben Folds (2005), Howie Day (2005), The Shins (2005), and Talib Kweli (2005).^[38] The Spring Weekend 2006 lineup included headliners Wilco and Common, as well as openers Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, OK Go, Yerba Buena, and Edan.^[39]

The musical acts for Spring Weekend 2007 will be The Roots, The Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, and Soulive.

Modern campus traditions

Naked donut run

At the end of each semester, towards the end of the Reading Period that precedes exams, various student groups walk naked through student libraries such as the Rock, the SciLi, and the CIT and offer donuts to students who are studying.^[40][41]

Naked party

Every fall, the Brown Association for Cooperative Housing (BACH) throws an invitation-only "naked party" where all guests remove their clothes upon entry. The hosts aim to create a comfortable setting where people of all body types can celebrate the naked human body. In contrast to the sexually suggestive dancing that can be found at many college parties, dancing at a "naked party" is paradoxically much more tame and devoid of physical contact.^[42][43]

SexPowerGod

SexPowerGod is an annual Fall party, thrown by the Brown Queer Alliance in the university's Sayles Hall, though in 2006 the venue changed to Alumnae Hall. The party is well-known for debauchery, sexual liberation, and the "costumes" that many attendants wear.

SexPowerGod, while drawing a large segment of Brown and RISD's heterosexual population, also draws a large gay crowd from a number of other New England universities.

The event is promoted across campus with an often controversial poster and flyer campaign. The posters took on a more graphic feel in 2004, depicting sex acts and BDSM. Publicity featured actual Brown students for the first time the next year.^[44] Tickets are sold for about $10; however, the event usually sells out, leading to resale among students for as much as $100. The first set of tickets for 2005 was sold out in ten minutes, a line of nearly 200 people remaining. Admittance to the event is limited by the 590-person capacity of Sayles Hall. Tickets come as temporary tattoos that may be applied anywhere on the body. In 2005, some clever students gained admittance to the party with fake tickets, made from scanned tattoos printed on mailing labels. Since the 2005 debacle, the tickets have been replaced by a guest list to avoid fake tickets and resale of tickets.

One source of SexPowerGod's fame and notoriety is its unique use of multimedia. Traditionally, partiers have been provided with identifying numbers upon entry, and a large projector screen publicly relays messages by number, typically comments on costumes and propositions for sex. This system has been absent since 2004.

On November 14, 2005, SexPowerGod was featured on Bill O'Reilly's nationally televised, Fox News show The O'Reilly Factor. Jesse Watters, a producer of the show, gained admission to the November 12 party and shot footage of the attendees.The following day, O'Reilly talked about the party on his radio show, The Radio Factor, saying, "You would have been safer in Baghdad than on the campus of Brown University," and calling Brown president Ruth Simmons and other university leaders "pinheads." On campus, student reaction to the broadcast was generally marked by outrage mingled with pride.^[45]

Brown songs

Alma Mater

The "Alma Mater" was written by James Andrews DeWolf (Class of 1861) in 1860, who named it "Old Brown" and set it to the tune of "Araby's Daughter" (which was later known as "The Old Oaken Bucket"). The song was renamed "Alma Mater", after the incipit, in 1869.^[46] It is sung and played after varsity athletic victories and at formal events such as Convocation and Commencement.

Alma Mater! we hail thee with loyal devotion,

And bring to thine altar our off'ring of praise;

Our hearts swell within us, with joyful emotion,

As the name of old Brown in loud chorus we raise.

The happiest moments of youth's fleeting hours,

We've passed, 'neath the shade of these time-honored walls,

And sorrows as transient as April's brief showers

Have clouded our life in Brunonia's halls.

And when we depart from thy friendly protection,

And boldly launch out upon life's stormy main,

We'll oft look behind us, with grateful affection,

And live our bright college days over again.

When from youth we have journeyed to manhood's high station,

And hopeful young scions around us have grown,

We'll send them, with love and deep veneration,

As pilgrims devout, to the shrine of Old Brown.

And when life's golden autumn with winter is blending,

And brows, now so radiant, are furrowed by care;

When the blightings of age on our heads are descending.

With no early friends all our sorrows to share; -

Oh! then, as in memory backward we wander,

And roam the long vista of past years adown,

On the scenes of our student life often we'll ponder,

And smile, as we murmur the name of Old Brown.

Ever True To Brown

Brown's official fight song "Ever True To Brown" was written by Donald Jackson (Class of 1909). The song is played by the Brown Band at varsity athletic events. The unofficial version is alternately played by the Band as well.

Computing projects

Several projects of note involving hypertext and other forms of electronic text have been developed at Brown, including:

• FRESS
• Brown University Interactive Language (BRUIN)
• Hypertext Editing System
• Women Writers Project

In addition, the Computer Science department at Brown is home to The CAVE, part of the Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Center for Information Technology. This project is a complete virtual reality room, one of few in the world, and is used for everything from three-dimensional drawing classes to tours of the circulatory system for medical students.

Notable alumni, faculty and honoris causa laureates

Main article: List of Brown University people

Trivia

• Brown University was extensively featured in The O.C. Seasons 3 and 4, as Seth and Summer both attempted to get enrolled in Brown. Later, Summer is accepted at Brown, but she is suspended because her friend Che frames her for illegal acts.
• The John Hay library contains three books bound in human skin; other large university libraries also have such volumes, and a rare book cataloger says that while the idea of making leather from human skin seems bizarre and cruel today, it was not uncommon in centuries past.^[47]
• In 2000, a group of students from the university's Technology House converted the south side of the Sciences Library into a giant video display which allowed bystanders to play Tetris, the largest of its kind ever in the Western Hemisphere. Constructed from eleven custom-built circuit boards, a twelve-story data network, a personal computer running Linux, a radio-frequency video game controller, and over 10,000 Christmas lights, the project was named La Bastille and could be seen for several miles.^[48]
• Brian Griffin, a fictional character from television's Family Guy, attended Brown University, but did not graduate. He went back to finish his degree, but failed.
• In the episode of The Simpsons Lisa Gets an "A", Lisa Simpson dreams of a visit by the president of Harvard University, who informs her that she is no longer eligible after earning a 0 grade, but her file would be passed along to Brown. Lisa is horrified by this as this is much lower than her expectations, and this is exacerbated as the dream ends with the revelation that Otto the school bus driver also attended Brown.
• Andrea Sachs, the main character of the novel The Devil Wears Prada, and her best friend, Lily, both attended Brown.^[49]
• The narrator's deceased great-uncle in HP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu was a professor of Semitic Languages at Brown University. His position led him to acquire the artifacts that served as the catalyst for the narrator's part in the rest of the story.^[50]
• The wall paper in the old Pembroke dinning room is Zuber's Vue de l'Amérique du Nord woodblock print, also found in the Diplomatic Reception Room in the White House.
• Briget Vreeland from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants attends Brown.
• Linda and Andrew from Anger Management attended Brown.

References