As rainy weather greeted admitted students arriving for A Day on College Hill, University officials showered prospective first-years - many of whom are weighing Brown against other college options - with glowing praise for Brown's unique culture and curriculum.
Speaking in Salomon 101, President Ruth Simmons, Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73 and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75, - now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Relations - welcomed students to the University's two-day program for accepted members of the class of 2011. Miller had earlier spoken to parents at a separate event.
Miller told the parents in Sayles Hall about the "culture of kindness" Brown fosters in its community.
"We take students from various backgrounds, and abilities, and experiences and families, and we bring them here and we bring them all together ... and we say get along. Get along with each other," Miller said.
In her speech to the prospective students, Simmons said that sense of community makes Brown students so happy. Rather than get caught up in competition, which she said can happen at many other institutions, Brown students form closer bonds through the work and effort they do at the University.
"Miraculously at Brown, students feel part of a shared experience - they feel part of a community. And they feel they should grow together. And that's one of those deeply satisfying things at Brown," Simmons said.
"You come not simply to take from what is here, but you also come to give, you come to share with other people who you are, and where you come from. You come to explain something about who you are to the rest of the world. That's what makes a community," Simmons continued. "It isn't just that you paid your way in. It isn't just that you earned your way here. It's that every day that you're here, you earn the right to continue to be here by being the human being that is part of a community."
Cynthia Reed P'11, a parent of a prospective student who has decided to enroll at Brown next year, said she felt reassured by Brown's focus on community and its student body.
"When I heard about the philosophy of Brown, and how personal the school is, and how much attention they pay to each kid, and to each kid as they go through, I really thought my daughter had made a good choice," Reed said.
After discussing the importance of community at Brown, Simmons, becoming more somber in tone, said that the tragic events of the previous day - a mass shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 students, faculty and staff murdered - has made her think about the importance of caring.
"Your future is assured. You are bright enough, you are capable enough that you are sure to do great things in your lives. But, what I want to say to you, is that wherever you go to college, your life really should be about caring," she said. "If you are one of those people who does everything right, in the sense of achievement - wonderful, wonderful writers, and some competitive accomplishments - and you fail to do the things that I've described, you will have fallen short of being what you can be."
Miller said in the admission process it is important to choose students who care. The Admission Office, he said, considered not only academic achievements and extra-curriculars but also "character and personality."
Chafee told the prospective students that Brown - and Providence in general - provides students with many opportunities and much excitement.
Miller ended his speech by assuring students that the admission officers care about them all and that he personally "voted for every one of you."
Prospective students said they enjoyed the welcome.
"I really liked Ruth Simmons' speech," said Julia Larmore '11. "What she said about it not just being about what you achieve on tests and what you prove on your academic record, but how if you come to Brown but you don't live up to the standards of being a good human being, then you have somehow fallen short of what is expected - it really sunk in. And it really made me - I'd already decided to come to Brown - but it made me really happy that I ?had."
