Faces of Brown is an occasional feature to introduce the Brown community to colleagues.
Rustling up some small paper plates was the first order of business that February day. The event: a birthday celebration for a student worker in the Office of University Events.
It was a small gathering compared to those usually faced by the new director of University Events, who is charged with coordinating the types of functions that draw hundreds — even thousands — to campus.
This year, when students, faculty, and staff sat down to hear a guest lecturer, there was a good chance that the person behind the scenes orchestrating the speaker’s transportation, the meeting space, any invitations and reception caterers was Cynthia Schwartz.
Schwartz joined Brown’s Office of Public Affairs and University Relations in December, and is helping to coordinate one of Brown's biggest annual events, Commencement, in just a few weeks.
"When I started I was losing sleep over it," said Schwartz. "Then I decided I would just take it one step at a time."
But before Brown’s 233rd Commencement Weekend, Schwartz and her staff will have coordinated Parents Weekend, a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture, and the first Casey Shearer Lecture.
It is a role that requires always keeping an eye or ear out for possible speakers, said Schwartz, who welcomes speaker ideas from all members of the campus community.
She also oversees a lot of paperwork — pages and pages of lists — with spaces for each aspect of planning an event waiting to be checked off.
For Commencement Weekend, those lists make up three-ring binders that fill cardboard boxes.
That weekend when parents and friends flood onto The College Green for the procession and presentation of honorary degrees, Schwartz and her staff will have ensured that the programs are distributed.
She and her staff will have coordinated the distribution of robes to honorary degree recipients, flags to aides and marshals in the Commencement procession, and signs directing everyone to their designations.
More than 6,000 graduates, alumni, faculty, parent educators and University guests typically march down College Hill on Memorial Day in a mile-long procession that marks the beginning of Brown’s commencement exercises.
Planning for the four-day event begins a year in advance.
"It’s amazing there are that many people on The College Green and there is not chaos," said Mary Sullivan, a coordinator in University Events who has participated in the planning of 12 commencements.
"It’s a lot of work but it’s so great to see alums come back, and to pick out the students we know when the procession goes by."
This year, said Sullivan, the student worker who was feted in the Office of University Events on her birthday will be among those marching in the Commencement procession as a graduating senior. — Kristen Cole