Brown offers a variety of housing options which students can take advantage throughout their undergraduate years.
As reported by Wesley Royce '08:
“There are three main options for freshmen: Keeney, Perkins, and Pembroke. Hands-down, Keeney is the best freshman dorm. Its location is perfect, just a block from the Main Green and the Ratty (dining hall). Keeney is split into six houses; while most of the rooms are doubles, with a smattering of quads and triples interspersed throughout the houses, “Junior Row” in one of the houses has singles. Keeney has a study room on the top floor and a kitchen/lounge in each house, and also houses one of the campus’ satellite gyms. Perkins is another freshman option – possibly owing to the fact that it’s farther from the center of campus, it supposedly has the highest marriage rate of any dorm on campus. Pembroke Campus has three sets of dorms, which are mostly for freshman, but also include a lot of singles that are popular with upperclassmen. There is another satellite gym in Chapin, which is the same building as the V-Dub, another main dining hall.
The housing options for upperclassmen vary dramatically and improve throughout one’s Brown career. For sophomores there are a few choices: Grad Center, Caswell, and Barbour. Caswell contains double rooms and houses only sophomores; because it’s located near the Main Green, it’s very popular and goes quickly in the lottery. Grad Center consists of five towers offering suite-style arrangements, with four to five single rooms sharing a common bathroom. Students have the option of forming co-ed groups within their suite. There is a sophomore-only tower in Grad Center, but otherwise it is usually quickly filled by juniors. A third satellite gym, called the Bear’s Lair, is found in Grad Center, as is the GCB, an on-campus bar. Barbour has a variety of rooming situations, including suites of different sizes, and is typically filled by juniors as well, though some sophomores usually luck out.
The remaining main dorms on campus are Hegeman, New Dorm, and the Young O apartments. Hegeman contains only three-person suites, complete with a common room but no in-suite bathroom. Located next to Caswell, it is across the street from the Ratty and right off the Main Green so it is quite popular for juniors. New Dorm is split into two houses, A and B, each of which have four-person suites, again sharing a common room but without an in-suite bathroom. New Dorm is obviously new, so it is quite nice and popular with juniors and seniors. The Young O apartments are located next to Perkins, so they are farther from the center of campus but are very popular among seniors looking for apartment-style living without moving off campus. Each apartment houses four people who share a kitchen, common room, and bathroom.”
Dr. Ruth J. Simmons is Brown University's 18th president. Born in 1945 in Grapeland, Texas, Simmons is the first African-American president and second female president of an Ivy League institution. She served as the president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001 before beginning her tenure at Brown. Since her appointment, she has initiated the Campaign for Academic Enrichment, with the ambitious goal of raising $1.4 billion to "build on [Brown’s] strengths and establish new benchmarks of excellence in research, education, and public leadership."
Simmons has received her fair share of accolades. In 2001, Time magazine named her America’s best college president. Simmons’ popularity among the student body was only enhanced when she denied that she was interested in the top spot at Harvard in 2007. According to a poll conducted by the Brown Daily Herald, over 80% of the school’s undergraduates approve of Simmons’ job performance.
- Elif Ince ’08 contributed reporting
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- Wesley Royce '08 contributed reporting
