Today at noon on the Main Green, President Ruth Simmons will officially launch the University's 245th academic year at the Opening Convocation ceremony.
Following a long-standing Brown tradition, new students and faculty will gather on College Street and walk through the Van Wickle Gates, which are opened only at the opening and closing of each academic year.
Simmons will preside over the ceremony and introduce the Convocation speaker, Professor of Economics and social critic Glenn Loury, to the 2,186 incoming undergraduate, graduate, medical and transfer students. In the past, Simmons has given words of inspiration about how best to take advantage of a Brown education.
Loury will deliver the keynote address, entitled "Is He 'One of Us'? Reflections on Identity and Authenticity."
Holding a Ph.D in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Loury taught at Harvard and Northwestern universities before becoming a professor of economics as well as the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences at Brown.
Loury has published on topics ranging from game theory to income inequality. In 2005, Loury received the John von Neumann Award from the Rajk László College of the Budapest University of Economic Science and Public Administration.
In addition to his work in microeconomics, Loury has published over 200 essays on racial inequality and social policy, and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Among those addressed by Simmons and Loury will be the undergraduate Class of 2012, selected for admission at the record-low admissions rate of 13.7 percent. Brown's newest undergraduates hail from 49 states and 51 countries. Composed of 737 men and 817 women, the class of 2012 also includes 13 students who will be the first to matriculate in the Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program, in its first year.
To ease scheduling on the first day of classes, classes will be suspended during the hour of Convocation.
