[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3355-3356]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BROWN UNIVERSITY

 Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, this March, Providence, RI, 
celebrates the 250th anniversary of the founding of Brown University, 
known as one of the world's great universities.

[[Page 3356]]

  In 1764, the American Colonies were on a headlong course toward 
Revolution. Many of those who would lead the charge to independence 
also had a hand in establishing this great American college. Among the 
founding Fellows and Trustees of what was then called the College in 
the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were 
future signers of the Declaration of Independence, delegates to the 
Continental Congress and Congress of the Confederation, and members of 
the prominent Brown family of Providence. One of them, John Brown, was 
later in the 1772 attack on the royal customs vessel HMS Gaspee in 
Narragansett Bay, an act of violence against the crown that drew the 
first British blood in the conflict that led to the American 
Revolution, more than a year before the Boston Tea Party.
  Since then, prominent Brunonians have included Secretaries of State 
John Hay and Charles Evans Hughes, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, 
and our own Governor Lincoln Chafee and Congressman David Cicilline, to 
name just a few. For two and a half centuries, bright and eager young 
Americans have arrived in Providence's beautiful College Hill 
neighborhood, greeted by historic architecture and the famous Van 
Wickle Gates. They brought their ambition and their talent and, 
inevitably, they left their mark and continue to leave their mark--on 
our State and our Nation.
  Today, Brown University is a hub of research, innovation, and 
learning, and an integral partner in our capital city's culture and 
economy. As a magnet for talent and resources, Brown has helped fuel 
Providence's Knowledge District, and the university itself is the 
fifth-largest private employer in Rhode Island. Brown's Alpert Medical 
School has helped bolster our State's leadership in the health care 
field, with more than 1,700 physicians--43 percent of all physicians in 
the State--affiliated with the school. And Brown's heralded BrainGate 
program famously helped Cathy Hutchinson use a robotic arm to pick up a 
cup of coffee and take a sip 15 years after a stroke left her paralyzed 
and unable to speak. These and countless other contributions continue 
to put Rhode Island on the forefront of the innovation economy, and I 
am grateful for Brown's role in driving our Ocean State forward.
  Brown is a wonderful place. As I travel the country and encounter 
Brown graduates, and attend Brown functions and meet undergraduates, I 
have been struck at how much they love this college. For a great many 
of our best and brightest high school seniors, Brown is their decided 
first choice among all the great universities of the world.
  In its original charter, it was said that Brown, ``to which the youth 
may freely resort for education in the vernacular and learned 
languages, and in the liberal arts and sciences, would be for the 
general advantage and honor of the government.'' Two hundred fifty 
years later, it is clear that Brown has lived up to that expectation.
  I am proud to congratulate the president of Brown University, 
Christina Hull Paxson, Brown's trustees and faculty, and its students 
and alumni on 250 remarkable years.

                          ____________________