Opening Convocation Sept. 2

President-elect Gee will address 1,385 members of Class of 2001

Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, who will be sworn in as Brown University's 17th president in January, is the guest speaker at Opening Convocation Tuesday, Sept. 2, on The College Green.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- E. Gordon Gee, president-elect of Brown University and currently president of The Ohio State University, will be the guest speaker at Opening Convocation Tuesday, Sept. 2, on The College Green. His talk is titled "Boundless Expectations." The event is free and open to the public.

Gee, who in January will be sworn in as the 17th president of Brown, was named to succeed University President Vartan Gregorian. Gregorian, who is leaving Brown for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will preside over the ceremony, which officially welcomes the 1,385 members of the Class of 2001 into the Brown family.

The event begins at 11 a.m. with a procession of faculty, administrators and undergraduates through the Van Wickle Gates at College and Prospect streets. (The Van Wickle Gates are opened twice each year: inward in the fall to admit first-year students and outward in May to mark the departure of graduating seniors.) Once the procession has reached its destination on The College Green, President Gregorian will declare the 1997-98 academic year officially open and will introduce Gee.

In case of heavy rain, Opening Convocation will be held in Meehan Auditorium, Hope Street at Lloyd Avenue.

The Class of 2001 at a glance

• Gender: men, 654 (47.2%); women, 731 (52.8%); total 1,385
  
  
• Forty-seven states are represented. The five sending the greatest number of first-year students are New York, 227; Massachusetts, 163; California, 151; New Jersey, 104; and Pennsylvania, 64
  
  
• Forty foreign countries are represented. The five sending the greatest number of international first-year students are Canada, 20; Hong Kong, 11; United Kingdom, 9; India, 6; and Greece, 5
  
  
• Ethnicity: African American, 96; Asian American, 213; Latino, 101; Native American, 4; other, 971
  
  
• Area of intended study: sciences, 482; humanities, 342; social sciences, 214; undecided, 211; engineering, 136