Brown University Quotes
In 1897 one of the most contentious political issues in America was that of “free silver”—allowing silver to back American currency as well as gold. The country’s economy could not grow because more currency could not be issued for want of gold to back it. Meanwhile, the U. S. had a great deal of silver. William Jennings Bryant {640992} and the Democrats {591769} advocated free silver, and the Republicans fought to maintain the gold standard. The president of the very conservative Brown University advocated free silver to the shock of the trustees. They sent Andrews a letter asking him not to speak publicly on the subject as it would jeopardize donations and endowments. Andrews resigned. The incident caused a national furor about academic freedom with the public and most of the alumni siding with Andrews. He rescinded his resignation but was pushed out the following year. Later, the trustees named a building after him.
She was dealing with a serious campus situation where an invited speaker, Chief of Police Kelly of New York City was prevented from giving his p resentation on the controversial “Stop and Frisk” rules by student protesters who opposed the practice. Brown’s tradition of hearing anyone on the campus regardless of point of view had been broken to the distress of most students, faculty and alumni.
In 1775 Brown University decided to forgo the usual public Commencement and celebration due to:
The President with Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, and several members of Congress, came to Brown to get ideas of how colleges should operate as there were very few colleges in America, and more were needed. Note the classic language of political flattery. Washington was really polished as “retail” politician as this quotation demonstrates.
The college did not open again until 1782.
This is a particularly memorable quotation for several reasons. First the address was given by a young senior student who would later be a member of Congress, a effective abolitionist, and the author of various pieces of legislation that vexed the South. What is even more memorable is that the oration was given at an Ivy League College Official Graduation. The Ivy league schools, despite their reputation for intellectual freedom, generally were very adverse to any discussion about the slavery issue as it would cause too much passionate contention. See {621346} for an example at Harvard. In addition, Brown University was in Providence RI, where the economy depended in substantial part on slavery. The Co-Founder of Brown was himself a slave trader {622028}. This was one of the early American anti-slavery orations.
In 1771 the Brown University Corporation started construction on a new university building in Providence, Rhode Island. Many were distressed with the seeming waste of resources.
The returning GIs were entitled to have their tuition paid under the GI Bill of Rights. American educators were faced with a different population than what they were used to. These students were older and much more mature than the 17-19 year old regular students entering college. And they had been fighting a war since their high school education and their academic skills were rusty. With the Federal payment of tuition, the veteran students had a much more diverse socioeconomic background, and many did not have a very strong high school education to begin with. For a school like Brown, most of the veterans could not meet the usual entrance requirements. Brown and a few other schools created a special program where the veterans could refresh their high school work and take preparatory courses so that they could meet the school’s regular program requirements. It was called the “Veterans’ College”, and was designed for 2 years of study and then the veterans would enter regular college. The program and the others like it were very successful. The veterans worked much harder than the regular younger students. At Brown, of the 486 students attending Veterans’ College, 142 were admitted to the regular college after only 1 semester rather than the 2 years.
This is a wonderful historical quotation in that it gives us a great deal of insight into the 1924 status of women in American society. Very few American went to college at that time—fewer then 5 percent. And far fewer women than men. Like other Ivy League schools, Nrown students tended to be extremely bright and quite affluent. The sexism of the time fell lightest om the upper class women like the Brown students. Yet this advertisement in the yearbook show us that few college age women, even educated females had the skills or the experience at managing money or controlling a bank account. They were generally deemed equipped to learn calculus but not to manage money. The bank was taking the radical step of encouraging women to learn how to and to manage money. While it was good for their business, profits went to the Rhode Island Hospitals. This was a radical, feminist act at the time. The other fascinating thing we learn is that these elite women, with their ability to learn calculus, the classics, history and science were expected to manage households, not to be scientists, executives, or any of other other areas of contribution that most Americans take for granted today. Particular subtle is the fact that moat of the elite women themselves believed this as this was an advertising pith to gain their business and was directed at their perceptions and aspirations.
