Brown University has long prided itself on having a student body committed to community service and social change. And yet, Brown lacked a broad and formal way of discussing issues of ethics, civic responsibility, and community commitment. Upon becoming the seventeenth president of Brown, E. Gordon Gee announced that “”Brown is a private university with a public purpose”" and has challenged the Brown community to define that ideal. The Presidential Seminar is one vehicle used to discuss that ideal.

The seminar is limited to 15 students and with the participation of Peter Hocking, Director of the Swearer Center for Public Service, the course will cover questions of general consideration to higher education: individuality vs. commitment to community, the nature of liberal education, and the issue of hate speech vs. open speech. It will also explore and research questions of inclusion at Brown University from the post World War II era to the present, focusing on the issues of race and class. Using archival materials and oral histories, we hope eventually to produce a more nuanced history of Brown. Students will do research projects of their own choosing, guided by previous research on these topics. Fall 2002 Seminar focus and application: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Presidential_Seminar/application.html