Brown University - Liber Brunensis Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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TO CO-ORDINATE public relations, alumni relations, and fund-raising ac- tivities; these are the primary responsibilities of a man who, although new at Brown, has already imbued it with a growing sense of his truly dynamic personal- ity. Armed with the firm friendship of President Keency and a belief in the greatness of Brown, past, present, and future, Dr. John Van G. Elmendorf suc- ceeded Thomas B. Appleget in the post of Vice-President last May. Dr. Elmendorf returns to this country from Mexico, where he has spent the last ten vears as linguist and college administrator. A native of South Orange, New Jersey, he re- ceived the A.B., M.A., and the Ph.D. degrees in comparative linguistics from the University of North Carolina. After serving with the 35th Infantry Division in Europe during the Second World War, he was named to head the Mexican- American Cultural Institute. In 1953 he joined the staff of Mexico City College, and in 1955 became Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty. Among the more tangible results of such a background is a house full of Mexican art works and relics, and a wealth of proverbs in several languages to suit every situation and purpose. CE.g.-El diablo es mas diablo por se viejo que por se diablo; The devil is more devilish for being old than for being the devil! Perhaps his most out- standing accomplishment since coming to Brown was Dr. Elmendorf's organiza- tion of last summer's Alumni Leadership Conference. This conference, whose purpose was to demonstrate to alumni those attributes of Brown which qualified it as a recipient of a Ford Foundation challenge gift, and to study the program which has been developed to meet that challenge, was adjudged by all to be a success. The result of President Keeney's appointment, then, is certainly a brighter future for Brown; day by day in the long corridors of University Hall the question, But whom should I see about this?, has been answered by Vice-President Elmendorf, of course!

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Administration ONE OF Dean Watts' current interests is the abrupt transition between secondary school and college. Al- though secondary schools make a genuine effort to liberalize the student, they often fail to prepare him well enough for college. To help gear the late high school years with the early period in college, Dean Watts supports a plan by which students may be per- mitted to enter college when they are ready, and not when they have simply fulfilled certain minimum re- quirements for college entrance. As their secondary education improves, according to Dean Watts, students entering Brown will improve in caliber, though he ad- mits he is impressed by the growing percentage of excellent students at Brown. The students today, he feels, have a greater ambition to learn through their own efforts, without any prodding by a fatherly ad- ministration and faculty. The university must provide a full range of intellectual opportunity and excitement for such ambitious students, while it must also assume a passive role in advising and admonishing them, and thereby encourage them to seek their education ac- tivelv, Dean Watts feels the University's attitude of aca- demic and social non-intervention is one of its most important policies, for it forces the student to experience the pain of making the same value judgments in college that he will be making for the rest of his life.

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DEAN ROBERT EDWARD HILL was appointed Assistant Dean of Students at Brown in 1960. In this position he took on additional duties in the counscling of undergraduates, while retaining his posts as Manager of Men's Residences and supervisor of University rental properties. Joining the Brown administration in 1951 as assistant to the controller, he was named Assistant Manager of Men's Residences in 1954 and Manager in 1957 From 1958 to 1960 he also served as an assistant to Edward R. Durgin, Dean of Students. Entering Yale University in 1943, Mr. Hill received his commission in the Navy with his Bachelor of Arts degree, three years later. He sub sequently served with the Navy during World War Il and the Korean conflict as well as acting as a United Nations observer in Israel for six months in 1948. He is currently a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Personal interest, as well as a desire to aid the undergratute, motivate Mr. Hill to attend all major student activities. Speaking to an undergraduate he stated: CMy . . . only reason for being here is for you folks . . . If I can get to know people, then I can be more effective in my job. s AS DISCIPLINARIAN Dean Durgin is known by the greater part of the Brown student body. Most students see him only as frequently as they break the attendance rules. But this truant-officership is not the most im- portant of the Dean's functions; by virtue of his daily contact with the stu- dent body, and his membership on the Committee on Academic Standing, Dean Durgin acts as a link and a buffer between the University and the undergraduate body. As the University expands in size and complexity, and attendance regulations are loosened, this aspect of the Dean's responsibilities predominates all the more. Dean Durgin feels that his four vears at Brown as Professor of Naval Science, which immediately preceded his appointment as Dean of Students, afforded a valuable period of transition in which to adjust to the conditions of civilian and academic life. His duties as both naval officer and Dean of Students are essentially those of resolving personal, human problems. It is the human factor, with its variety and unpredictability, which Dean Durgin considers the most rewarding aspect of an often vexing position. Dean Dur- gin's activities at Brown followed a distinguished career in the regular navy. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academyv in 1922, he saw submarine duty on both coasts and served as assistant Naval attache to the American Em- bassy in Berlin from 1937 to 1940. During World War II he rose from commander of a destrover to become, in the later years of the war, member of the staff of the Commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He holds numerous militarv decorations of honor, and honorary degrees from Franklin and Marshall College and Brown. At present Dean Durgin is uncertain as to whether this will be his final yvear at Brown. Whatever the decision, he does not contemplate full retirement. And any spare time he may have will be easily occupied by his continued interest in the game of checkers. :