The Corporation of Brown University has re-elected Chancellor Thomas J. Tisch and Vice Chancellor Jerome C. Vascellaro to second three-year terms. The Corporation asked President Simmons to continue in office beyond the 2010-11 academic year, and Simmons agreed to do so. The Corporation also welcomed three new trustees, received reports on various capital projects, formally accepted gifts totaling nearly $20 million and established endowed positions and a new academic department.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — During its business meeting Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010, the Corporation of Brown University re-elected its two senior officers to their second three-year terms. Chancellor Thomas J. Tisch and Vice Chancellor Jerome C. Vascellaro will serve through June 30, 2013. The election was made upon recommedation of the Corporation’s Nominating Committee after review and consultation with all members of the Corporation. Officers of the Corporation may serve up to three three-year terms in their positions.

The 2010-11 academic year will mark President Ruth J. Simmons’ 10th year in office. The Corporation announced its decision to request that Simmons remain in her position beyond the 2010-11 academic year, and Simmons announced her decision to do so.

“With the campaign nearing an end, continuing fiscal constraints of significant concern, and many major projects to be completed, I look forward to doing what I can to continue the work that we have begun,” Simmons said. “I am immensely encouraged about the opportunities before us and I look forward to ensuring that the priorities of the Plan for Academic Enrichment continue to bear fruit.”

The Corporation also welcomed three new trustees. Elizabeth West and Richard Barker will serve as alumnae/i trustees through June 30, 2011, and Norman Alpert will serve as a term trustee through June 30, 2016.

Norman Alpert, a 1980 Brown graduate, was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2009. He is a founding partner and managing director at Vestar Capital Partners (1988-present), a global private equity firm, that specializes in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital investments. He began his career in the special finance group of Manufacturers Hanover Trust (1980-1984). He joined First Boston Corp. as an associate in the mergers and acquisition group in 1984. He was later named vice president and senior executive of the management buyout group at First Boston. Alpert is a trustee of the Brown Hillel Foundation, the Brown University Sports Foundation, and the National Rowing Foundation. (As a student, Alpert was a member of the varsity crew and was coxswain of the varsity eight from 1978-80; Brown won its first IRA Championship in 1979.) The Alpert family supports numerous important causes in education, children's health, social support, and medical research.

Richard Barker was re-elected to the Board of Trustees in 2009, having previously served from 1994–1999 and 2000–2006. He is a 1957 graduate of Brown University and former Naval aviation officer, is a noted businessman and civic volunteer. In 2005, he retired from The Capital Group, where he had served as vice chairman of Capital Group International Inc. and chairman of both Capital International Ltd. and Capital Guardian Trust Company. Barker is chairman of the San Francisco Ballet Board of Trustees, a former trustee of the California Film Institute, Youth Tennis Advantage, and the Naval War College Foundation, among other interests. At Brown, Barker serves on the Board of Overseers of the Watson Institute for International Studies and the Brown Sports Foundation Board of Directors. He is the father of two Brown graduates and leads the University’s campaign for financial aid. Brown conferred an honorary doctor of humane letters on him in 2009.

Elizabeth West, a 1973 Brown graduate, is an associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a documentary filmmaker. She is co-producer of Constantine’s Sword, a film about religion and war that opened in theaters around the country in 2008. She is the executive producer of the Women 2.0 Media Project, an online oral history, documentary and book initiative for PBS about the women’s movement. West began her career at ABC News, where she was one of the original producers of Nightline and was part of the senior team that launched the magazine program PrimeTime Live in 1989. Her work at ABC earned her 21 Emmy Awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. As senior vice president at CBS NEWS from 1998-2005, she oversaw 60 Minutes and 48 Hours, and was the executive in charge of 9/11, the two-hour documentary that won a Peabody Award and the PrimeTime Emmy Award for Best Documentary in 2002. West served as a Brown Trustee from 1997-2003.

 

Other Actions of the Corporation

 

Capital Projects

The Corporation’s Committee on Facilities and Design approved the schematic design for the combined aquatics center and Nelson Fitness Center to be constructed at the athletics complex. This facility is funded entirely by donor-designated gifts restricted to this purpose, and the project will take advantage of cost savings and efficiencies by consolidating the fitness and aquatics facilities into a single building. The project will include a landscaped quadrangle in place of the existing parking lot.

The Corporation voted to name the aquatics center the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in recognition of a bequest in the amount of $14.75 million from the estate of the late Raymond L. Moran, a 1941 Brown graduate. The Budget and Finance Committee authorized construction of this project to begin, sufficient donor funds having been secured under Corporation guidelines for approving building projects. Completion of the Nelson Fitness Center and the Moran Coleman Aquatics Center is expected by fall 2011.

With adequate donor funding secured, the Budget and Finance Committee authorized construction to begin on the medical education building at 222 Richmond Street.

Academic Department Established

The Board of Fellows approved the recommendation of the University faculty to establish the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, effective July 1, 2010.

Gifts Accepted

University policy requires the Corporation’s formal acceptance of gifts of $1 million or more. At its Saturday business meeting, the Corporation accepted gifts totaling $19.7 million. These include:

  • from Trustee and Mrs. Richard A. Friedman, both Brown graduates and Brown parents, a gift of $5 million — $4 million for renovation of Metcalf Laboratory as a new home for the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, and $1 million to be designated by June 30, 2010;
  • from Trustee Joan Wernig Sorensen and Dr. E. Paul Sorensen, both Brown graduates and Brown parents, a gift of $3.5 million — $1 million for the first-floor renovation to the Rockefeller Library, $1 million for the Brown Annual Fund, $1 million for a Chancellor’s Scholarship, $450,000 for the Brown University Sports Foundation, and $50,000 for the Fund for the Children of Providence;
  • from Trustee Emeritus Charles M. Rosenthal and Phyllis Rosenthal, Brown parents, a gift of $2,075,000 to create the Phyllis and Charles M. Rosenthal Directorship of the Brown-Marine Biological Laboratory Partnership;
  • from Trustee Emeritus Frederic M. Alper, a Brown graduate and parent, a gift of $1.5 million to endow the directorship of financial aid;
  • from Trustee Ralph F. Rosenberg, a Brown graduate, and Kim Alison Rosenberg, a gift of $1 million for the Brown Annual Fund;
  • from Catherine Willis Gildor, a Brown graduate and parent, and Ephraim F. Gildor, a Brown parent, a gift of $1 million — $800,000 to restore the Archives Room in the John Hay Library, and $200,000 for the Brown Annual Fund;
  • from an anonymous friend of Brown, a gift of $3,150,000 — $3 million to create and endow the Aman Scholarship Fund and $150,000 to establish the Aman BAF Scholarship;
  • from the estate of Eleanor H. Schwartz, a gift of $1,438,431 for the Schwartz Scholarship;
  • from anonymous Brown parents, a gift of $1,050,000, of which $450,000 is for Brown University Sports Foundation capital projects; $300,000 for athletic team special projects; $125,000 for women’s soccer; $125,000 for the Athletic Director’s Excellence Fund; and $50,000 for Brown Annual Fund.

Endowed Positions

The Corporation voted to establish the Phyllis and Charles M. Rosenthal Directorship of the Brown-Marine Biological Laboratory Partnership, effective July 1, 2010.

The Corporation also ratified an earlier vote by its Advisory and Executive Committee establishing the Dean’s Professor of Medical Sciences. Funding for that chair came from an alumnus of the University and the University Medicine Foundation in honor of Professor Charles C.J. Carpenter, M.D. The professorship will be renamed in Carpenter’s honor upon his retirement from the faculty.