In her annual Sunday morning Parents Weekend session, President Ruth Simmons discussed ongoing developments in the Plan for Academic Enrichment and answered questions on topics including financial aid, the engineering program and the accessibility of the campus to students with disabilities.
Simmons addressed a packed crowd of parents, students and faculty members in a tent set up on the Main Green Sunday at 11 a.m.
During the question-and-answer session, Simmons first addressed a question about accessibility on and around campus. Many of Brown's older buildings are not equipped to accommodate students with disabilities.
"This is expensive and hard to do, but we aim to bring all buildings into compliance," Simmons said. "With newer buildings it's much easier."
Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning, said the University has implemented a plan to effect these changes within the next six years. "There ought to be improvements every year," he told The Herald after the session. The project has already cost in excess of $1 million and will cost many millions more to complete, he said.
One parent inquired about the scarcity of Latino faculty members. Simmons said the University is pushing to attract more culturally diverse scholars, especially Latinos, and cited the help of Marta Tienda, a member of the Brown Board of Trustees.
"We're working very hard," Simmons said. "Whenever we get an opportunity, we go after these people aggressively."
Another parent asked about expanding economic diversity to represent students from lower-income families to a greater degree. "Our goal is to identify students of extraordinary intellectual capacity. Period," she said. "A child born into this world in poverty should not have his intellectual capacity stigmatized by the contents of his purse." Simmons also referred to Sidney Frank's recent $100 million donation, which will fund scholarships to eliminate student loans for certain low-income students.
Another parent discussed his qualms about the restrictions imposed on engineering concentrators. Simmons defended Brown's program. Having crafted an engineering program at Smith College, where she served as president, she said she realizes that there are "particular mandates in the field of engineering that require a certain curriculum." In addition, she said that "most universities are boxed in," due to constraints established by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the national engineering accreditation organization. Brown satisfies ABET requirements and allows students to "combine pure engineering with liberal learning." As far as a loosening of those restrictions goes, "ABET is reluctant to reduce the requirements," she said.
Provost Robert Zimmer fielded a question from a parent who recounted a memory of hearing Christopher Reeve P'02 deliver a powerful Parents Weekend keynote lecture three years ago and asked about Brown's involvement with stem cell research.
Zimmer said Brown faculty members are not currently performing research specifically related to stem cells. "It's not a centrally driven agenda," he said. "We're actively engaged, but we're following the faculty."
In her 20-minute speech, Simmons discussed ongoing developments in the Plan for Academic Enrichment and reiterated Brown's continuing commitment to foster risk-taking and "help students learn to see through the haze."
In the spirit of intellectual contention she outlined three years ago in her first convocation address, Simmons issued a similar injunction to students, saying that in her eyes, they have a duty as members of the Brown community to not "merely study," but to "invest their humanity" - this, she said, "is the heart of our academic experience."
Simmons highlighted the diversity of the student body, faculty and opportunities at Brown, even extending into the realm of fashion with the "stunning variety of clothing styles" on campus.
She alluded to the myriad of research projects Brown students and faculty are heavily involved with, such as Louella Hill '04, food systems coordinator for Brown Dining Services, who turned her senior thesis into a movement to introduce locally-grown food to Brown dining. Simmons cited Hill's work as a primary influence on the increase in students on meal plan this year.
Other accomplishments Simmons discussed were renowned poet and Professor of English C.D. Wright's recent distinction as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Neuroscience department chair John Donoghue's Discover Magazine Innovation Award for his work on Braingate, a neuroprosthetic device that allows the paralyzed to control a computer using brain commands - the ultimate goal being the restoration of full independence to the paralyzed.
When asked what her "biggest worries and challenges" are, Simmons replied by discussing her relationship with the students. "I feel very much like a parent to all of my students," she said. "I want to make sure that all students get the maximum benefit of their time here. So I worry about that unexpected thing, what we can't foresee or predict, and I'm constantly nagging my associates to plan for it."
In the future, she said, she hopes students will make a difference but that they will do it with more than their emotions.
"We need to mend the differences between people," she said. "Brown needs to hold onto the prominence and preeminence of reason in everything instead of letting emotion take over."
