President Ruth Simmons officially opened the 243rd academic year yesterday, welcoming the 1,504 new undergraduates assembled on the Main Green to the Brown community with a message emphasizing social responsibility.
Simmons assured students they are beginning a valuable endeavor, saying, "What you do here is life-affirming, life-preserving and life-determining ... your best here is what is needed today."
University Chaplain Janet Cooper-Nelson opened Convocation with a prayer, reminding the assembled students of their good fortune to be among the newest members of the Brown family.
Simmons reiterated the message she delivered at Convocation last year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, telling students they are already beginning to fulfill their obligation to better society by studying at Brown.
"You all embody the intelligence, hope and determination necessary to shape our society's future - and shape it you must," Simmons said.
Invoking a speech author Ray Bradbury delivered at Brown urging students to jump off a metaphorical cliff and build their wings on the way down, Simmons told students, "There will never in your lifetimes - never - be a time so conducive to ... laying everything on the line in pursuit of learning."
Students also heard from newly appointed Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who received a lighthearted introduction from Simmons.
Listing Bergeron's accomplishments in the academic realm, Simmons said she could "hardly wait to get" the new dean's "engaging study of Gregorian chant." Citing Bergeron's experience performing the court music of Central Java, Simmons joked, "We are all familiar with that."
Simmons also expressed high praise for Bergeron, calling her "just the thing we need in a dean of the College."
After acknowledging that new students had probably "heard more than you ever wanted to hear about what you can and should do here at Brown," Bergeron delivered a speech that she said was "less about doing than being."
Beginning with a bit of her own educational history, Bergeron called the open curriculum she faced as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University "a constant reminder of all that I would never know."
Bergeron offered advice to new students in the form of a poem about "the idea of commitment, of making up your mind to do something, rain or shine." Bergeron discussed the idea of "loving school" - the title of her talk, which she told students "doesn't require that you know what you are doing." This was probably a reassurance for some new students overwhelmed by the beginning of the semester. But some - perhaps tired from a long day of shopping classes - appeared to disengage when Bergeron began reading the poem.
Bergeron concluded by expressing her hope that "the most important step you take be the one you take before you start."
Following the speeches, Bergeron led the crowd in not one but two renditions of "Alma Mater" after Simmons determined the first attempt needed improvement. The audience of first-years, who were largely unfamiliar with the song, complied, though many seemed just as lost the second time through.
Simmons concluded the event by encouraging students once again to "remember how truly lucky we are."
