Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons will officially open the 2006-07 academic year at Opening Convocation, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006. Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron will deliver this year’s keynote address to the 2,061 students beginning undergraduate, graduate, and medical studies at Brown. The ceremony begins at noon on The College Green.

(See text of the address online.)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron will address the Brown University undergraduate Class of 2010, as well as entering graduate and medical students during Opening Convocation on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006, at noon on The College Green. Bergeron’s address is entitled “Loving School.”

The ceremony will begin with the traditional procession of faculty, administrators and students through the Van Wickle Gates. University President Ruth J. Simmons will declare the 243rd academic year officially open. Brown will welcome 1,475 first-year students, 465 graduate students, 92 medical students, 22 transfer students, and seven students in the Resumed Undergraduate Education program.

Katherine Bergeron

Bergeron received a Ph.D. in music at Cornell University in 1989 and has held faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina, Tufts University and the University of California–Berkeley. In her teaching, she has explored a wide range of music, classical and popular, from the middle ages to the 20th century. In her scholarship, she has specialized in the vocal repertoire of turn-of-the-century France. Her book, Decadent Enchantments (University of California Press, 1998), was a study of the 19th-century revival of plainchant by French Benedictine monks and won the Deems-Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1999. She recently completed Voice Lessons, a history of the French mélodie in the years around 1900.

Bergeron was recruited from the University of California–Berkley to Brown in 2004. She has served as chair of the Department of Music and was named dean of the College in June 2006.

The Class of 2010

Members of the Class of 2010 applied during the most competitive undergraduate admission process in Brown’s 243-year history. A total of 18,316 students applied; 2,532 were accepted (13.8 %), yielding a matriculating class of 1,475.

Other Class of 2010 statistics include:

• Gender: 730 men (49%) and 745 women (51%);
• High Schools: 852 students come from public schools (58%); 463 from private schools (31%); 104 from parochial schools (7%); and 56 from other schooling environments (4%);
• Class Rank: 91% of students were ranked in the top 10% of their graduating class; 83% were ranked in the top 5%; more than 9,000 students applied from schools that do not provide rank;
• Diversity: 33% of the Class of 2010 are students of color;
• Academic interests: Intended areas of study are math and science (34%); social sciences (24%); humanities (21%); engineering (10%); undecided (11%);
• Geographic distribution: New England (23%); New York (16%); California (12%); international (10%);
• States and countries: The Class of 2010 represents 48 states and 47 countries. The top five foreign countries are Canada, Singapore, Korea, United Kingdom and China.

The Class of 2010 also completes the University’s transition to need-blind admission. As of this fall, all four undergraduate classes will have been admitted without considering a candidate’s ability to pay college expenses.

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