Get Herald RSSSome people follow politics, other people track statistics of their favorite sports teams. For Sean-Michael Green, an author doing research on campus this month, it is the prestigious eight schools known as the Ivy League that he considers a hobby.
"I've kind of chosen the Ivy League as my team," Green said, adding that he goes as far as to keep track of the weather in the cities where the universities are located.
Green, who has been enrolled at some time in five of the eight schools, is on campus this month to research a book he is writing tentatively titled "What I Learned In College: A Year With the Ivy League."
Green will spend a month at each campus, observing student life and generally trying to get a feel for life at each Ivy League school, which will then result in an eight-chapter book based on his observations and experiences.
Green said he "almost failed out of high school" before joining the military because he wasn't interested in college. After his time there, he took classes at a community college and realized how much the college atmosphere appealed to him. Green then went on to the University of Pittsburgh for undergraduate studies and various Ivy Leagues for graduate degrees. He has written other books, including one on the military and the college admissions process.
Before arriving last week, Green had only spent an hour at Brown. "I'm just trying to get a feel for the campus," he said. "I want to see everything. I want to meet everybody."
But the University is hesitant to let him do that. Green sent a letter to the first four schools he was to visit before his visits started, informing them of the project and asking for a place to stay and access to campus facilities such as dining halls, dorms, and student centers. The response from Brown, Green said, has been somewhat challenging.
Green received an e-mail from Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service, informing him that the University would not be able to provide him with access to dorms, "dining halls, classrooms and other aspects of student life at the University," according to the e-mail.
While this response made Green think that Brown would be one of the more challenging schools on the list, Nickel said the University is neutral on the project. "I don't think the University has taken a position on his project," Nickel said. "We just couldn't help him with his request for access."
Nickel said the University regards dormitories as personal space and to grant Green the access he requested would be an intrusion of that space. "I would imagine students would not appreciate strangers moving in and taking notes on their conversations," Nickel said.
Brown's housing policy presented an unanticipated logistical problem, according to Green. "I didn't realize everybody would be living on campus," he said. Currently, he is camping out "in the woods nearby" and staying in hotels.
Green said the lack of classroom access will change the way he conducts his time at the university. "They tell me to stay out of classes, I stay out of classes," he said, adding he hopes it will not alter the quality of the book's chapter on Brown.
But according to Nickel, Green's classroom access is up to individual professors. "Access to classrooms and classes is something the faculty is in charge of and is not something the University is willing to give," Nickel said.
As for the actual research, Green said it has been somewhat slow-going, mostly because he has not met many people yet and feels slightly uncomfortable approaching strangers to interview them. "If anyone knows who I am here, they're probably in the book," Green said.
When considering stereotypes of the various schools, Green said he came to campus expecting to find "granola-munching, pseudo-hippie type of people" with "more Frisbees and hackey sacks than footballs."
"For somebody walking across campus just looking, I found exactly what I was expecting," he said.
But after the first few days of worrying about logistics and taking in the environment of the school, Green said, "it just started hitting me about the academics here and how amazing that is."
As for his time here, Green wants to do "everything that students do." He has gotten a lot of information from the Daily Jolt - "I guarantee I spend way more time on it than any of you," he laughed - and is planning to attend meetings of various student groups. He was even considering going to a frat party Saturday.
But he thinks that the best way to learn about the school is to talk to people. "What I really need is I need students to talk to me," he said. "I want someone to throw the Frisbee to me."
Green will be on campus until Oct. 20.
