Katherine Bergeron, professor and chair of the Department of Music at Brown University, has been named Dean of the College. Bergeron succeeds Paul Armstrong, who has served since October 2000.

President Ruth J. Simmons’ wide-ranging Q&A with the People’s Daily touches upon such topics as the value of diversity, the cost of higher education, financial aid and endowment, Brown programs focused on China and its culture, and how the “university college” and the Brown Curriculum benefit students.

Benjamin Bright-Fishbein, the Brown University student who was kidnapped briefly while at a cafe in the Palestinian city of Nablus, is expected to return to Brown this fall for his senior year.

A 2002 Brown University study that compared the performance of metal bats and wooden bats is cited in an article about a Montana American Legion team that has decided to forfeit games in which metal bats are used. This wire service article was distributed to member media across the United States and was published in a number of newspapers and on several Web sites.

Portions of “The Education of Charlie Banks,” a film being shot in Rhode Island this month and next, will be shot on the Brown University campus. Brown University undergraduate Eva Amurri has a role in the film.