<p>Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons will officially open the 245th academic year at Opening Convocation, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008. Glenn Loury, distinguished economist and social critic, will deliver the keynote address to the 2,186 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students beginning their studies at Brown. The ceremony begins at noon on The College Green.</p>

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Distinguished economist and social critic Glenn Loury will address the Brown University Class of 2012, as well as incoming graduate and medical students, during Opening Convocation, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, at noon on The College Green. Loury's address is titled, “Is He ‘One of Us’? Reflections on Identity and Authenticity.”

The Opening Convocation ceremony begins with the traditional procession of incoming students through the Van Wickle Gates. University President Ruth J. Simmons will declare the 245th academic year officially open. Brown welcomes 1,554 undergraduates, 436 graduate students, 108 medical students, 83 transfer students, and five students in the Resumed Undergraduate Education program.

Glenn C. Loury

Glenn C. Loury is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and professor of economics at Brown University. He taught previously at Boston, Harvard, and Northwestern Universities, and at the University of Michigan. He holds a B.A. in mathematics (Northwestern University) and a Ph.D. in economics (MIT).

As an academic economist, Loury has contributed to a variety of areas in applied microeconomic theory: welfare economics, game theory, industrial organization, natural resource economics, and the economics of income distribution. He has been a scholar in residence at Oxford University; Tel Aviv University; the University of Stockholm; the Delhi School of Economics; the Institute for the Human Sciences in Vienna; the Institute for Policy Studies in Sydney, Australia; and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Loury has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and vice president of the American Economics Association. He is the 2005 recipient of the John von Neumann Award, given annually by the Rajk László College of the Budapest University of Economic Science and Public Administration to “an outstanding economist whose research has exerted a major influence on the students of the College over an extended period of time.”

In addition to his scholarly work, Loury is a prominent social critic. His more than 200 essays and reviews on racial inequality and social policy have appeared in dozens of journals of public affairs, and he is a frequent commentator on national radio and television. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was for many years a contributing editor at The New Republic, and currently serves on the editorial advisory board of The American Interest.

Loury’s books include One by One, From the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America (1995), winner of the American Book Award and the Christianity Today Book Award; The Anatomy of Racial Inequality (2002); and Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy: Comparing US and the UK (2005).

Class of 2012

A total of 20,633 students applied to be part of Brown’s Class of 2012. The University admitted 2,828 (13.7%), yielding a matriculating class of 1,554.

Other Class of 2012 statistics:

  • Gender: 737 men (47%) and 817 women (53%);
  • Diversity: 34 percent of the Class of 2012 are students of color.
  • Fourteen percent of students are first-generation college students.
  • Geographic Area: The Class of 2012 hails from 49 U.S. statesand 51 countries. The top foreign countries represented are People’sRepublic of China, Canada, Republic of Korea, India, and Singapore.
  • Thirteen students are the first cohort of the new Brown/RISD Dual Degree program.
  • Academic interest: Intended areas of study are social sciences(26%); physical sciences (23%); life and medical sciences (22%);humanities (16%); undecided (13%).