Brown alumni monthly

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IfdreamThe averageyourThis isn'tfor one to callThat deep-rooted yearningChances are it began before you even had a hcense.years, this onehave come and gone over theyour own. And while most of your nocturnal fantasiesand engine run-light - with its door openseems to reappear every time you turn out the bedroomlosing sleep over40 years, people have beenning. Well, you're not alone. Because for more thanLTl engine, ASR- with a 300-horsepower 5.7LCorvettes. And the 1995 'Vette is no exceptionasts 6.6 minutes,average dream.traction control, a six-speed manual transmission, and a sound system you could imagine only inyour wildest dreams. Since we introduced the Corvette in 1953, over a million people have madetheir dream come true. And all it takes is a trip to your local Chevy dealer. So instead of spendinganother night dreaming of a Corvette, why not experience what it's really like to drive one.Genuine Chevrolet™CORVETTE ^I^7^^^ liaz^!^1'11-V/irA/-^" .5^;S^^^t^^ZtiSurrTRuiH.Alumni Monthly16 Under the ElmsA soggy Commencementcompendium: Shimon Pereslooks ahead . . . Joycelyn Elders looks back . . . AtholFugard votes . . . alums bring books ... the Campaignrises to the occasion . . . and more.26 The Evolution of Nalini NadkarniFrom under the elms to above the rainforest,this canopy scientist has worked herway tobiology's cutting edge. By Nonnan BoucherSketchpad32 A Commencementfristead ofGene Kelly singin' in the rain,we found- and ...

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IfdreamThe average yourThis isn't for one to callThat deep-rooted yearningChances are it began before you even had a hcense. years, this onehave come and gone over theyour own. And while most of your nocturnal fantasies and engine run-light - with its door openseems to reappear every time you turn out the bedroom losing sleep over40 years, people have beenning. Well, you're not alone. Because for more than LTl engine, ASR- with a 300-horsepower 5.7LCorvettes. And the 1995 'Vette is no exceptionasts 6.6 minutes, average dream. traction control, a six-speed manual transmission, and a sound system you could imagine only in your wildest dreams. Since we introduced the Corvette in 1953, over a million people have made their dream come true. And all it takes is a trip to your local Chevy dealer. So instead of spending another night dreaming of a Corvette, why not experience what it's really like to drive one. Genuine Chevrolet™CORVETTE ^I^7^ ^^ li az^!^1' 11 -V/irA/-^" .5^;S^ ^^t^^ZtiS urrTRuiH.Alumni Monthly 16 Under the Elms A soggy Commencementcompendium: Shimon Peres looks ahead . . . Joycelyn Elders looks back . . . Athol Fugard votes . . . alums bring books ... the Campaign rises to the occasion . . . and more. 26 The Evolution of Nalini Nadkarni From under the elms to above the rainforest, this canopy scientist has worked herway to biology's cutting edge. By Nonnan Boucher Sketchpad32 A Commencement fristead ofGene Kelly singin' in the rain,we found - and givingnewan illustrator drawin' in the rain meaning to theword "watercolor." By Brian Floca 'gi 36 stepping Out Twenty-eight years ago he graduated from Brown and began to make a place in the world. Scott Sanders 'byNow it is his daughter's turn. By 40 Portrait: Speak, Memory World War II correspondent for the HonoluluAs a Star-Bulletin, Lyn Crost '38 chronicled the military American soldiers. Fifty years laterfeats of Japanese- she is still telling their story. By Jennifer Sutton Departments! Here No^atBrown Aliiinnt A\oiithh/ Inly uwi; \ c)oliimi- «s. No. \niu' llinm.in Diffily '71 Managing Editor Hir.ultiW: Ini.i niiitor, \i' Art Director laving flashbd ks. k.ithr\ n d.- liivr 1-tir fNiimplo, whenever I walk Assistant Editor by SayiesGym (now awaiting lonnifLTSuttim renovation as classroom Editorial Associate space) I seemy young self in Rfinbold A.M.James 74 the basement wearing a white- Photography bloomereci Pembroke gyni- lohn Kor.iste siiit, bowling ball in hand, Umbrellas . . .cameras . . .action waiting for a classmate to resetSandra LX'lany Kenncv the candlepins. Similarly vivid memories clobber me nearly every time I turn a corner. Business Manager But until this year. Brown Commencements were not in my dcjh vii repertoire. Pam.-la M. I'arker That's because in we seniors awoke on Commencement morning to a down-1973, Administrative Assistant pour so soaking you couldn't more than a few feet ahead. Like flock ofsee a bedrag- gled crowswe blew into Meehan Auditorium in our wet black gowns, alit on folding chairs, and spent the next several hours swiveling to see if our families had squeezed Board of Editors inside. Ours was the lastCommencement march to be officially rained out. Chairman This year's 227th wasn't rained out. But it was rained on to a '71Ralph J. Begleiter degree no one had seen in twenty-two years. Umbrellas sprouted, grads gamely Vice Chairman donned plastic garbage bags, and the traditional marchdown College Hill went onCathleen M. McC.uigan - as did the Graduate School ceremony on Lincoln Field and the University exercises Tom Bodkin '75 '82 on the main Green. Afterwards,Dana B. Covvin some disgruntled folks wondered why the cere- Rose E. EngfUand '78 monies had not been moved inside. Eric Gertler '85 "Justhow much rain, thunder, and lightning does there have to be to shift Brown's '76Debra L. Lee commencement indoors?" a faculty member asked on the campus computer bulletinEdward Marecki '65 '66Martha K. Matzke board the next morning. He signed his posting, "Soaked, bedraggled, stiff, sniffly, Monaghan '55John grumpy, and more than a little angry." '62Carolyn CardallNewsom Several new alumni quickly dissented. "The procession in the storm will be oneAva Seave '77L. Tenold R. Sunde '59 ofmy best memories of Brown," replied Ron '95. "The rain reduced our class to a '76Benjamin Weiser soaking, infused with androopy-capped, umbrella-worshipping mass, but it also us Bill Wooten '68 Ph.D. unbelievable amount of energy and excitement. It could never have been the same Jill Zuckman '87 indoors." Local He was seconded by Bryan '95: "When it came to marching through the Gates,Advertising & Classifieds 1401)863-2871 was] bonding experience for it hardly mattered that it was pouring. [It just one last the class." National Advertising Representative - -Then an actual University official Executive Vice President Bob Reichley Ed Antes jumped in to answer the original query. "Unless there really is lightning or a monsoonIvy League Magazine Network 7Ware Street that begins early in the morning, there is no 'indoors' for theCommencement pro- Cambridge, Mass. 02138 - -cession," Reichley wrote. "Our largest indoor facility Meehan Auditorium has a [phone] capacity of 4,400, and there are armually between 17,000 and 20,000 on the Green. ©•995 by Broom Alumni Monthly. Published monthly, For that reason. Brown's rain plan, as with Harvard and some others, is to march and except lanuary, June, and August, by Brown Univer- sity. Providence, R I. Printed by The Lane Press, sit in the rain. P.O. Box 130, Burlington, Vt. 05403 Send changes of "I would is," Reichley continued, "thereaddress to Alumni Records, P.O. Box add that for the graduates, whose day it 1908, Providence, R.I. 029x2: (40!) 863-1307. fllum®br>v.vnvm.brown. suffer andis no real substitute for the Commencement procession. The rest of us can edu. Send editorial correspondence :,- Box 1854, Provi- dence, R.I. 02912; (4011 .S65-iS73, F-w (.^(,1) get soaked once in more than twenty years."863-9595; [e-mail]. Member, Council for the Hear, hear! As onewho trailed a photographer all Memorial Day morning, hold-Advancement and Support of Educjf.on ing a giant golf umbrella over him as he shot photos and listening tomy drenchedAddresscorrechon requested sneakers go "squelch, I'm for the current rainsquelch" all the way up College Street, policy. Let the seniors -march. (And pray for blue skies next year.) A.D. 4 / JULY 1995A single ripple can create a wave. believe one idea can have an enormous impact—and one person can create a worldAt Microsoft, we ofchange. Today, we're helping individuals realize their potential by giving them unprecedented officecontrol over technology. By putting the power ofcomputers into their hands—both in the it's the underlying principle guidingand at home. We call diis "Informadon AtYour Fingertips"and everythingwe do. This beliefin empowerment also extends to the individualswho develop and market our prod- exchangeucts. Individuals like you will help create the infrastructure that will define information NT™ operating system.for the 21st Century. Impact Cairo, the next generation ofourWindows Microsoft Encarta®. Design new features for Microsoft Office.Create multimedia titles such as technologies like continuousvideo servers. No matterwhat your expertise,Or explore advanced you'll find a place to contribute at Microsoft. Join us in one of these Seatde-based positions: EngineersSoftware Design Program Managers Software Test Engineers Product Managers Attn: Recruiting, Dept.Please mail your resume and cover letter to: Microsoft Corporation, WA 98052-8303. You can also send yourOne MicrosoftWay, STE 303, Redmond,C00J3-0595, [e-mail] (Indicate Dept. inresume on-line in ASCII textformat to: C00J3-0595 additional information about Microsoft and ouremployment oppor-the subject header.) For http://www.microsoft.com. Novisit the MicrosoftHome Page on ourWeb Site attunities, support workforce diversity.phone calls please. We are an equal opportunity employer and Microsofttive for deeper scht)larship. It went by thi- name of IC Courses, standing forCarlying theMail Identification and Criticism of Ideas. The date is fixed in my mind because was the year our son1956 entered Brown, the year when the new IC courses became an integral part of the curriculum. For ,i while his college choice had been up in the air. Would it be Harvard or Brown? My preference at first was Harvard, not merely because it was my college, but because I knew that its resources and fac- ulty should be able to attract the most critical and quixotic young minds. One concern only stood in the way, tantly, happiness in one's work comes the curriculum.On the one side wasTo our readers each day from enjoying it, not from pay Harvard with its General Education Letters are always welcome, and we try to or benefits or prestige. Plan, still going strong, emphasizing the will given '^4 primacyprint all we receive. Preference he Richard Kirsch of certain basic subjects but to those that address the content the mag- Spencertown, N.Y. requiring the college to settle for largeof azine. Please limit letters to 200 luords. We lecture clas.ses.On the other side was resen'e the right to edit style, clarity, and Brown with its satisfactory teacher-stu-for Editor: 1 loved (and still love) the courses -leti'fth. Editor 1 took at Brown. Stimulating lectures, dent ratio and its emphasis on the study teeming with new ideas, presented with of ideas and "fundamental themes of human life." In the end, I painfullywit and drama. Good theater. How especially lucky I felt to be in dropped Harvard in favor of Brown.The Brown curriculum George Morgan's class. He led us back- The IC courses did not work for Editor: While I enjoyed and learned structural reasons. They were not suffi-stage, behind the ideas, challenging us much from both Janet Phillips's and to observe up close how a set was con- ciently broad-based. Few professors had -Jacob Levy's reviews of the New Cur- structed how assumptions are joined the imagination to invent new forms of riculum ("Carpe Diem" and "Liberal presentation as did [the late Professor oflike pieces ofwood to make a framework, Campus, Liberal Education," March), I how science can tell you how strong the Classics] John Rowe Workman, who was disappointed that neither discussed wood has to be but not how to paint the was one of the most brilliant original a crucial aspect of the curriculum: the thinkers in the teaching profession. Onescenery or speak your lines. option not to take grades. Forme that Congratulations to the Brown Alumni of his methods was to read to his class was enormously liberating, as Monthly for honoring the New Curricu- of twenty students a short paragraph important an aspect of the New Cur- lum who develop it. from Thucydides, then ask each for oneand those helped riculum as designingmy own program As a friend whose daughter attends idea suggested by the paragraph. The and taking interdisciplinary "1courses. Brown recently told me: think there's twentieth student had to scramble to No grades meant that I studied going on down there." identify one remaining idea when mosta real revival because I wanted to, not because I was John A. Kern '65 thoughts had been pretty well used up. supposed to do well. ofNot taking a grade Charlotte, Vt. What ego smashing and yet building freed me to evaluatehow much I put confidence if the strategy worked! into and got out of the course, without Editor: To read a history diminished by It is fairer to say, then, that it was having that experience summarily rather than twenty-fivethe omission of one of its highlights is forty years ago, judged by a single letter. I was able to an unreal experience. I refer to the arti- or even thirty-seven, when the first bold set priorities and concentratemy work cle "Carpe Diem" on Brown'sNew Cur- commitment was made to an educa- on courses I valued rather than wasting tional philosophy, an historical pointriculum. Author Janet Phillips singles time on courses that didn't deliver. And out two forerunners. which puts Brown easily into the class the no-grade option meant I valued my The first, known as University of earliest pioneers of themodem age. educational experience enough to take Sylvia CoolidgeCourses, was launched by Professor the risk that not having a grade-point George Morgan and President Bamaby Providence average would jeopardizemy prospects Keeney in 1958. This was followed by for graduate school or employment. Modes Each Editor: In her retrospective on the curricu-ofThought courses in 1969. While didn't think I of it at the time, was a part of a movement towards more lum, Janet Phillips began with the conde- no grades were a good prepar.ition for observation that "theNew Cur-creative and original teaching methods. scending life after Workacademia. doesn't come In actuality, was not the first riculum awakened a once rather sleepy1958 with grades on every assignment; you year of this kind of experimentation. In institution." If anything was "sleepy" in have to figure out what's worth putting the last the article, perhaps it was Ms. Phillips's1955, year of Henry Wriston's time intoandhowmuch is good enough. presidency and probably in the preced- research, which failed to focus on sev- rk demands self-moti\ ation and set- ing Brown's cur-year as well, Wriston and Dean eral progressive features in c; priorities. And success atwork abso- Bruce Bigelow conceived a new method riculum in the 1950s. ely demands risk-taking. Most impor- of teaching wasthat would create an incen- The most significant omission ILLY 1995