Beginning this semester, campus tours leave from the Welcome Center — one of the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center's new features.
The tours, which used to start in the admission office, have been incorporated into the center, said Eleanor Brennan, associate director of admission. The move reflects a nationwide trend among colleges and universities of building dedicated welcome centers that are separate from the admission office, she said.
The larger size of the Welcome Center will make visiting campus more enjoyable for prospective students and their families, she added.
"The (admission) office is too small," Brennan said. "There were days when we were getting hundreds and hundreds of people. It was not a great experience for our visitors."
The new tour is also in a "much easier location for people to find," said Christiana Stephenson '11, campus tour co-coordinator and The Herald's alumni relations director. "It starts at the hub of student life," she said, giving prospective students and their families a better opportunity to understand Brown.
Campus tours also play an important role in allowing visitors to interact with students, said Christopher Belcher '11, president of the Bruin Club, which organizes tours and other admission events such as A Day On College Hill. Visitors can "stop a student in the Blue Room, ask them how they're doing, why they applied," he said. "That kind of personal connection is great."
The tour will continue to evolve in the future, especially with the expected completion of the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts near the end of this semester, Stephenson said.
"We are hoping to use the creative arts center to bring the tours to Pembroke," she said.
The goal of the tours is to tell visitors "stuff you can't get off the Internet," said Robert Taj Moore '11, a campus tour co-coordinator. "Most tour guides have their own stories and narratives to share."
