In 1880 Lincoln Field was just a swamp. Over 130 years later, Augustus has conquered it, and it is now central to our campus, serving thousands of students every year. Brown is growing and always has been. Just in the next few years, for instance, the University will continue to creep its way up Thayer Street.
Growth seems to be the trend in higher education today. Universities try to attract the best students and academics with infrastructure and funding. It makes us want in. But it also excludes many who simply don't have the money to afford to live in a playground of privilege.
Few would dare say Brown's strengths lie in its physical infrastructure. There are many parts of Brown that desperately need a facelift, and the University's initiative to make dormitories more livable is long overdue. But it doesn't have to engage in the University arms race that has resulted in oases of living and learning popping up along either coast.
Brown's mission is not to be the shiniest Ivy League. Face it guys - we don't have the endowment to run for that title. Brown's mission statement states that we exist to "serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicating and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry." When trying to improve our school, President Christina Paxson and the Corporation should stay true to that core mission and focus less on physical growth.
Brown can't just opt out of the arms race of elite institutions today if it is to continue to be regarded as one of the best universities in this country. Brown must evolve to meet the needs of the 21st century, but it should not do so by pursuing projects that lead solely to luxury and prestige.
In her inaugural address President Paxson said that since its inception, this University has embodied vision and independence. "Brown may sit atop a steep hill, but this is no ivory tower," she said. If Brown wants to make headway among its elite peers in some way, I will tell you right now how we can make Brown even more competitive than it already is: Make a Brown education more affordable while still retaining the integrity of its educational values and its core mission. Brown should create a capital campaign to subsidize a Brown education.
Many of us applied to a Brown that didn't have a Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center or a Marty and Perry Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. Beautiful facilities and an aesthetically pleasing campus do make me proud to be here. But are they integral to Brown's core mission? Absolutely not.
Paxson spent most of her inauguration speech defending the importance of a liberal arts education over a pre-professional one, even in these economically dire times. She is right. But Brown's educational ideals cannot overshadow the economic necessity of many recent graduates of private schools, more and more of whom are defaulting on their student loans. But higher education in this country doesn't have to be so expensive. Gail Collins, a New York Times columnist, warned, "Parents, if your kid is planning to take out student loans, you might want to avoid any college where the dorm rooms are nicer than your house." The shinier college campuses get, the more prohibitive they will be to those who cannot pay their high cost. This model is unsustainable if Brown wants to continue to be an institution that educates the best and brightest students who will in turn become valuable assets to their communities.
This problem may lie with those who make the University's financial decisions - the Corporation. It is this body's job to, among other things, set "budget and tuition fees" and establish "policy and strategic plans." The Corporation is well equipped for the task of development. But there is a fundamental problem with allowing the Corporation to define the vision for Brown's future.
The problem is not that the Corporation is populated with members who have had successful careers. It is that the Corporation may be infusing the University with values that focus on growth and profit. Growth is a means to an end. Those ends have not yet been defined under Paxson's leadership. But I urge the president and her advisers to default on the University arms race. Do not aim to enhance students' quality of life to an extent that we won't be able to replicate for years after our graduation. Especially don't do so just to compete with our peer institutions.
We can accuse the Corporation of being out of touch. If we make our University a palace, by virtue of our time here, Brown students will become pretty out of touch, too. I'm not saying that Brown students don't deserve the best - we do. But sometimes the best doesn't come in the form of treadmills with personal televisions. Maybe the best is something different. Paxson is prepared to ask alums to invest in Brown's future. Why can't incoming students ask Brown to invest in theirs?
Claire Gianotti '13 can be reached at claire_gianotti@brown.edu.
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