Brown University

Brown University is an Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and the seventh-oldest in the United States. Brown was the first college in the nation to welcome students of all religious affiliations.

Traditions

Though the early history of Brown's traditions as a men's school includes a number of unusual hazing traditions, the University's present-day traditions tend to be non-violent while maintaining the spirit of zaniness (Poulson 2004).

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Van Wickle Gates

The Van Wickle Gates, dedicated on June 18, 1901, have a pair of center gates and a smaller gate on each side. The side gates remain open throughout the year, while the center gates remain closed except for two occasions each year. At the beginning of the academic year, the center gates open inward to admit students during Convocation. At the end of the second semester, the gates open outward for the Commencement Day procession. A traditional superstition is that students who pass through the gates for a second time before graduation do not graduate. Undergraduate members of the Brown Band who must pass through the gates during the Commencement ceremonies walk through it backwards. Formerly, the graduation superstition only applied to male students, as female students had their own fear of never marrying. Similar superstitions apply to the Pembroke seal on the stone steps leading to the Pembroke quad from Meeting Street, a holdover from when Pembroke College was a separate college for women. Another traditional superstition is that students rub the nose of the statue of John Hay in the John Hay Library for good luck on exams, a superstition that has been in effect since around 1910, resulting in a very shiny nose.

Related Topics:
1901 - John Hay - 1910

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Josiah S. Carberry

One of Brown's most notable traditions is keeping alive the spirit and accomplishments of Josiah S. Carberry, the fictional Professor of Psychoceramics (the equally fictional study of cracked pots), who was born on a University Hall billboard in 1929. He is the namesake of "Josiah's", a University-run snackbar. "Josiah" is also the name of the University's electronic library catalog. Every Friday the 13th is "Josiah Carberry Day" and students throw pennies into cracked pots on campus.

Related Topics:
Josiah S. Carberry - 1929 - Friday the 13th

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Recently, reseachers in Brown's John Hay Library have unearthed a notebook from 1854 containing what is rumored to be the personal notes of a Josephiah Carnberry, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and noted amateur clay enthusiast. While official University documents have no record of such a professor ever existing at Brown, academic communities are more and more turning towards an alternate explanation of this mythical figure, postulating that his existence was removed from record in order to protect society from his research, which focused on mind-altering substances which could be obtained through plants grown in soil medium and clay pots. His notebook is rumored to contain dried samples of the plant in question, but experts, red-eyed from late nights working the issue, seem dazed and confused when asked about such information.

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Spring Weekend

Starting in 1960, Brown replaced a traditional Junior Dance with a Spring Weekend concert on the college's main green, which has, in the past, brought in acts such as Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Bo Diddley, Peter, Paul and Mary, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Ike and Tina Turner, Blue Öyster Cult, Bruce Springsteen, U2, R.E.M., Afrika Bambaata, Elvis Costello, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, George Clinton, The Fugees, Digable Planets, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Busta Rhymes, and G. Love & Special Sauce. Recent acts include They Might Be Giants, Ben Harper, The Get Up Kids, The Roots, The Wallflowers, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Jurassic 5, Ben Folds, Howie Day, The Shins, and Talib Kweli.

Related Topics:
1960 - Ray Charles - Bob Dylan - Ella Fitzgerald - Bo Diddley - Peter, Paul and Mary - James Brown - Janis Joplin - Ike - Tina Turner - Blue Öyster Cult - Bruce Springsteen - U2 - R.E.M. - Afrika Bambaata - Elvis Costello - A Tribe Called Quest - De La Soul - George Clinton - The Fugees - Digable Planets - Sonic Youth - Yo La Tengo - Busta Rhymes - G. Love & Special Sauce - They Might Be Giants - Ben Harper - The Get Up Kids - The Roots - The Wallflowers - Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - Jurassic 5 - Ben Folds - Howie Day - The Shins - Talib Kweli

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Other Campus Traditions

Naked donut run

At the end of each semester, usually on the night before the first day of exams (the last day of "reading period"), naked students walk (despite the word "run" in the name) through the Rockefeller and Sciences Libraries and hand out donuts to their peers. Neither the organization nor the precise timing of the "run" are publicly known, with the recruitment of participants usually occurring within 24 hours of the actual run. The role of head organizer is secretly passed from an upperclassman to an underclassman every year or two, and has usually been associated with one of the campus's co-ed fraternities or residential co-ops. However, if a naked donut run fails to occur during a semester, a new organizer will often take it upon his or herself to continue the tradition.

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Naked party

Every fall, the Brown Association for Cooperative Housing (BACH) throw an invitation-only "naked party" where all guests remove their clothes upon entry. The party is known for good times, but not for lewdness. The hosts aim to create a comfortable setting where people of all body types can celebrate the naked human body. In contrast to the sexually suggestive dancing that can be found at many college parties, dancing at a "naked party" is paradoxically much more tame and devoid of physical contact.

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Miscellaneous traditions

• Students rub the nose of the statue of John Hay in the John Hay Library for good luck on exams, a superstition that has been in effect since 1910.
• Seniors sleep in the Sciences Library some time before graduation.
• Students have sex on the 13th floor of the Sciences Library. The restroom is usually used by all but the most adventuresome of students.
• It is said that a student who enters all five of the Brown libraries during his or her first year will never marry.

Brown songs

Alma Mater

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By James Andrews DeWolf (1861)

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::Alma Mater! we hail thee with loyal devotion,

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::And bring to thine altar our off'ring of praise;

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::Our hearts swell within us, with joyful emotion,

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::As the name of old Brown in loud chorus we raise.

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::The happiest moments of youth's fleeting hours,

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::We've passed, 'neath the shade of these time-honored walls,

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::And sorrows as transient as April's brief showers

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::Have clouded our life in Brunonia's halls.

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::And when we depart from thy friendly protection,

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::And boldly launch out upon life's stormy main,

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::We'll oft look behind us, with grateful affection,

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::And live our bright college days over again.

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::When from youth we have journeyed to manhood's high station,

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::And hopeful young scions around us have grown,

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::We'll send them, with love and deep veneration,

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::As pilgrims devout, to the shrine of Old Brown.

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::And when life's golden autumn with winter is blending,

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::And brows, now so radiant, are furrowed by care;

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::When the blightings of age on our heads are descending.

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::With no early friends all our sorrows to share; -

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::Oh! then, as in memory backward we wander,

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::And roam the long vista of past years adown,

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::On the scenes of our student life often we'll ponder,

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::And smile, as we murmur the name of Old Brown.

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Ever True To Brown - Official fight song

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By Donald Jackson (1909)

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