For me, the most important question raised by the two quotes is: what is the "proper tone" for the university to spread, and how should the university work to communicate this tone? Often, the university can unintentionally spread an improper tone to its students and the community at large.
An example of this is the University Disciplinary Council (UDC), which has - in the minds of many students - become almost synonymous with arbitrary, politically motivated punishments. On a campus where inquiry, criticism, and individual judgment are deeply held values, the UDC is sorely out of place. Its heavy emphasis on secrecy and its policy of not publishing a rationale for its decisions invite suspicion and criticism from the student body. In addition, the lack of firm evidentiary rules, the lack of sentencing guidelines, and inadequate separation of the roles of prosecutor and investigator invite further distrust and hostility. Even if members of the UDC insist that they are working for the good of the community, their reassurances will have little effect, because the tone spread by the UDC's methods of operation already violates the fundamental values of many Brown students.
Even the acts of a single, powerful individual can have a corrosive effect on the tone spread by the university. For instance, by resigning only two years after coming to Brown, Gordon Gee sent the message that the university - and a President's obligation to it - is no more significant or worthy of respect than the average for-profit corporation. This creates a very improper tone. After all, the elite educational institutions of the U.S. produce many of the people who will eventually set the tone for their cities, states, and perhaps the nation. The task of shaping and educating those people must be entrusted to institutions that have loftier goals in mind than rankings, money, and greed. Setting a tone that contradicts this - as Gee did - is dangerous, because by undermining our trust in those who lead universities, it chips away at the legitimacy of their role as shapers and educators.
As a student, I am deeply concerned about the way in which Brown ends up spreading its tone, because this has a direct impact on the nature of my experience here. As an officer in the Brown ACLU, I have played a leading role in our efforts to ensure that fairness and equal treatment figure largely in the tone spread by the university. As a staffer for the Third World Center, I have worked to keep diversity woven into the university's tone. After I leave the Van Wickle Gates, I hope to continue spreading a similar tone in the legislative arena; my planned career is to work as a staffer - probably with a focus on environmental issues (including environmental racism) - for Congress or the California Legislature. (Hopefully, this will turn out to be a life of "usefulness and reputation," as the Brown Mission Statement puts it.)