How Good Is It?

Is Brown University one of the nation's best? No one in Providence seems able to agree. The director of admissions says not any more--but the president of the university says he's wrong.

Early last month James Rogers, Brown's director of admissions since 1969, wrote a letter to The Daily Herald that stated that "Brown is not a top college."

Rogers said that the best students who get into Brown, which has a very unstructured curriculum, and other prestigious schools end up going somewhere else. He called the reports of Brown's popularity in past several years "hollow hype."

The Daily Herald reported that Rogers was right. Brown's popularity leaves it behind Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton, in that order, according to the paper.

In addition, Rogers said that the average of test scores and class rank of admitted students is higher than the average for attending students, because the top students choose to go elsewhere.

Two weeks ago, Brown President Howard Swearer retaliated against the admission director's charges. "Brown is a great university...We're getting the cream of the country."

Swearer responded to Roger's claim that the rest of the academic world views Brown as "complacent" by saying that outsiders simply did not understand Brown's curriculum.

"It's a never-ending problem to explain what the Brown curriculum is a about," he said. "When you're different it's incumbent upon you to explain what you're about."

Brown does lose some students to other schools, Swearer said, but other schools lose students to Brown as well.

Dean of the College Harriet Sheridan joined Swearer in his criticism of Roger's evaluation. "I have a different perspective. I think Brown is a first-rate university. It's its own university. And it is getting superb students," she said. CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Divestment Protests Start Up

Anti-apartheid activists at Cornell barricaded a university building late last month, protesting the school's investments in companies that do business in South Africa.

Fourteen of the 50 protesters were forcibly removed from the lobby of Day Hall, three-and-a-half hours after they first blockaded the building.

None of the protesters were arrested by the Cornell police squad but a university spokesman said protesters are still liable to be arrested after the fact. The university videotaped the protest because the students were violating the Campus Code of Conduct, said Dean of Students David Drinkwater.

Protesters marched into Day Hall and blocked the lobby, telling Drinkwater that they would only leave if they could go up to the third floor to speak to the university president, The Cornell Daily Sun reported.

Lisa M. Daugaard, a graduate student and protester, said that the university forced the activists to protest in the lobby. "There are places Day Hall wants us to be, and the third floor of Day Hall is not one of them," she said. STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Minority Admits Rise

Like Harvard, Stanford University this year increased the number of minority students it admitted, The Stanford Daily reported.

The admissions office accepted 15 percent of its 16,883 applicants. Of those admitted, 9.4 percent were Black, 7.9 percent were Mexican-Americans, and 17.1 percent were Asian-Americans. Stanford also accepted more women, 45 percent of admitted students, than last year.

More than 3000 of the applicants had a 4.0 grade point average, and more than 6000 scored 700 or better on the math SAT. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Senior Found Dead in Possible Suicide

In a possible suicide, a Columbia College senior died in a hotel last month, The Columbia Spectator reported.

Nand Khandwala, an English concentrator scheduled to graduate this month, died at the Queens Marriot Hotel. Police found sleeping pills when they discovered his body.

Khandwala, who was from India, was hospitalized about two years ago after a suicide attempt, The Spectator reported. People who knew the senior said they were not especially surprised by his death. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Provost Releases Report On Sexual Harassment

Toward the end of a year when sexual harassment became a well-publicized problem on the Princeton campus, the university's provost, Neil Rudenstine, late last month released a 99-page report assessing what the school should do to lessen the problem.

The provost's report, on which administrators will gather criticism before Rudenstine presents his final proposals to President William G. Bowen, does not recommend radical changes in the way Princeton handles sexual harassment cases. But it does ask that certain aspects of the current policies be strengthened, The Daily Princetonian reported.

The report recommends that all sexual harassment cases be referred to an administrator who is trained to deal with such problems. It also calls for more coordination and communication among those who help victims of sexual harassment.

"Even if the case does not appear to be at the `extreme end' of the spectrum... there should be a presumption that the individuals involved may need medical attention or at least special counseling," the report states.

The report does not call for a new disciplinary committee to deal with sexual harassment cases. Many people at Princeton have recommended such a committee because they think people on the normal committee do not understand sexual harassment well enough, The Princetonian reported.

We Bit

Were you fooled by The Stanford Daily report in last week's Class Cuts section that said President Reagan and his wife wanted to reserve grave sites at Stanford? The story actually came from the campus daily's April 1 issue. We apologize to the Reagans and to Stanford.