Brown University - Liber Brunensis Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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7 N 5 ! , i f J ' T AT W m N6L ! HARVARD ABL Bamcoc g LA 0 85 wiwcox ,, Al ,-- P ERONT e g' JUNELE phis i Liber Brunensis 1980

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Why Brown

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NIRRT Y 20 l Before coming to Brown, we all knew that any university in existence since 1764 had to be tangled in tradition. You had only to look at the gnarled ivy grip- ping red brick to sense the continuity which outlasts every season, every fresh- man class. Though we might not have recognized the novelty of walking through the Van Wickle gates on our first day of classes, by the time we walked through those rarely opened gates on our last day as undergraduates, we knew that tradi- tion at Brown is much more than given rites and sites tradition at Brown also encompasses a process of learning and growth that has been challenged in the past few years. To reach the depths of Brunonian tradi- tion, you must first acknowledge its sur- face: those quirky attitudes and beha- viors which mark two centuries of folks with noses in books and spirits sometimes pointed toward the stars. Imagine: two hundered years of jokes about Provi- dence as the armpit of America; two hun- dred years of rain, thousands of buckets of rain; two hundred years of lost sleep gathered for a variety of academic and social reasons. Brown, yes, Brown, that odd place that makes its scholars toil over Christmas vacation and immerses them in study while they are still reckon- ing with New Year's hangovers. Brown, the place that gives you a unique spring vacation, unique as it often appears that Brown is the only school on break at that 'unique' time. Brown, where seniors are prepared for real world responsibilities by having to wake up at 8 a.m. on a Mon- day morning to graduate. Naturally, Brown has its local customs, customs which must be engaged in at least once: depending upon your person- ality, you do these things as a wide-eyed freshman or a wild-eyed senior. There is John Hay's nose to rub. There is the wood in the Admissions office to, er, um, visit. There are candles in University Hall to admire on Rhode lIsland Independence day. There is the bar mitzvah quartet that serenades Ratty-goers on Spring Week- end to enjoy. Everyone goes to their first and some- times their last college football game as a freshman. Hockey games against Cor- nell and anything against Harvard always promise fireworks. All college sutdents must frequent at least one tacky diner and dive bar before they graduate. You know where they are in Providence if not, shame on you. Regarding the reason that we are all here in theory, academics witnesses its own routines, many of which developed recently. With the new curriculum, there is the traditional lastminutebeforethemid- semester deadlinechange ofgradeoption afterhavingreceived disastrousmidterm examresults behavior. One cannot forget UOSIIAA Wilson