Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Brown University

2007-05-10T15:41:46Z

Bradley: /* Controversies */

'''Brown University''' is an American university located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is a member of the Ivy League. Brown was founded in 1764; the University motto is ''In Deo Speramus'', which means "In God We Hope" or "In God is our Hope". The current President of Brown is Ruth J. Simmons; it has 628 full-time faculty members and 7,595 students.

==History==
Brown was founded by Ezra Stiles, a Congregationalist Minister, and James Manning, a Baptist Minister; it was originally known as Rhode Island College. It charter was granted on March 3, 1764; among the sixty-odd signatories were the wealthy brothers John and Nicholas Brown, and the College was located in Warren, Rhode Island. The charter specified that "into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests, but on the contrary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience", and as such was considered liberal and nonsectarian. Brown and Penn both have claims to be considered the first nonsectarian institution of higher learning in the United States

The College moved to Providence in 1770, and in 1804 was renamed Brown University in honor of Nicholas Brown, a nephew of John Brown, who had given a bequest of $5,000. The Brown family, as was typical at the time, participated in the slave trade. According to a Brown University report, "slavery was... an institution that permeated every aspect of social and economic life in Rhode Island, the Americas, and indeed the Atlantic World. There is no question that many of the assets that underwrote the University’s creation and growth derived, directly and indirectly, from slavery and the slave trade.... By the standards of Rhode Island’s mercantile elite, the Browns were not major slave traders, but they were not strangers to the business either."<ref>[http://www.brown.edu/Research/Slavery_Justice/report/index.html Slavery and Justice Report], Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice; "many of the assets," p. 13. "not strangers to the business," p. 15</ref>

The 1836-7 Brown catalog—or "catalogue," as it was spelled—lists the names of the entire student body: 43 freshman, 60 sophomores, 45 juniors, and 41 seniors. Candidates for admission were required, among other things, to
:bring satisfactory evidence of unexceptionable moral character, and be thoroughly acquainted with the Grammar of the Latin and Greek languages, be able to construe and parse... the Historical Books of the New Testament, or three Books of Xenophon's Cyropædia, and translate English into Latin correctly.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?vid=00Dr0QOabAjYypfexv&id=4xEWeUleibIC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=%22brown+university%22&as_brr=1#PPA13,M1 The Catalogue of Brown University], 1836-7</ref>

Brown did not admit women until 1891, when a women's college named Pembroke College was founded. Brown became coeducational in 1971 when the undergraduate school merged with Pembroke College.

Brown had "compulsory chapel"—a requirement that students attend Sunday services—from its founding until 1872.<ref>[http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=C0330 Chapel], from ''Encyclopedia Brunoniana.''</ref> After 1872 services were, of course, still conducted and students encouraged to attend them. At some point, services again became mandatory (although not strictly enforced) until the requirement was finally abolished in 1959. A 1904 book of student verse includes a lament by one C. S. Mitchell entitled "Chapel Bell:"
:Far away across the fields
:The tolling of the iron bell
:Calls the faithful to their knees
:To hear the softly spoken magic spells...<ref>Boone, Ilsley (1904), College Hill Verse: Being Selections from Student Publications of Brown University, 1894-1904, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0Ov889qyeUnxOVt4ej&id=zufLsuEUEHgC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=%22brown+university%22&as_brr=1#PPA4,M1 p. 4]</ref><br>

==Hypertext==
Brown University has been a pioneer in the development of [[hypertext]]. This technology was championed by Andries van Dam, who founded Brown's computer science department and chaired it from 1975 to 1989<ref>[http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/avd/ Andries van Dam]]'s home page</ref>. The first hypertext editing system, HES, was developed at Brown in 1967 by Ted Nelson (coiner of the word ''hypertext'') working under van Dam's direction.<ref>[http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/cpace/ht/HTatBrown/BrownHT.html Hypertext at Brown]</ref>, short summary by George P. Landow, professor of English and Art History]. Brown's Iris Intermedia project was important and influential; several significant bodies of hypertext developed in that system have since been ported to the Web, notably [http://www.victorianweb.org/ The Victorian Web], an encyclopedic collection of information and source texts about the Victorian era.

==The New Curriculum==

Brown prides itself on its "New Curriculum," first established in 1969, which allows students to take virtually any course they want, with no general distribution requirements. Traditional letter grades are optional. [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=adp5xdxUBo78] However, the current undergraduate curriculum is currently under review, with recommendations set to be made in the spring of 2008. [http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2007/03/01/CampusNews/New-Task.Force.Will.Review.College-2751247.shtml]

==Controversies==

In 2005, Brown University's Queer Alliance threw a raucous party called SexPowerGod in a university building. Although many students were intoxicated, alcohol was not and has historically not been served at SexPowerGod. The event was covered by disguised reporters for [[The O'Reilly Factor]], causing bad publicity for the university. The Queer Alliance was placed on probation for a year and all student groups were hence prohibited from throwing parties in Sayles Hall.[http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/04/27/CampusNews/Chaos.And.Management.Failures.Marred.Sex.Power.God-1880141.shtml?norewrite200605012032&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com]

In April 2006 occured what became known as the "Bongmarket Street Riot" where many students brought their bongs out onto a green to celebrate "Marijuana Day", 4/20. When security personell approached these stoners and asked them to disperse they refused, and some, under the influence of the Marijuana, became manic, violent, and threatening. Police had to be called in to disperse the rioters.[http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/04/20/CampusNews/]

==Notable Brunonians==
* [[John Hay]] (1858), Abraham Lincoln's secretary, later Ambassador to Great Britain and Secretary of State.
* Dhani Harrison, son of [[George Harrison]] of the [[Beatles]]
* Thomas O. Paine (A.B., 1942), third administrator of NASA
* Donald Carcieri (A.B., 1965), conservative Republican businessman and current governor of [[Rhode Island]]
* Richard Holbrooke (A.B., 1962), U.S. ambassador to the [[United Nations]], 1999-2001
* [[Chuck Colson]] (A.B., 1953), chief counsel to U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]]
* John F. Kennedy Jr. (A.B., 1983), son of U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]]
* Mary Chapin-Carpenter (A.B., 1981), singer-songwriter
* Chris Berman (A.B., 1977), anchor/announcer at ESPN
* Joe Paterno (A.B., 1950), current head coach for football at Penn State
* Travis Rowley, author of the book ''Out of Ivy'' which details his experiences as a conservative in a liberal university.
* Sidney Frank, entrepreneur. Dropped out due to financial reasons, but later received an honorary degree. Donated $100 million increase financial aid for low-income students, among other substantial gifts to the University.
* [[Adoniram Judson]], Christian missionary to Burma and one of the first American missionaries to travel overseas
* [[Josiah S. Carberry]], legendary professor of psychoceramics
* John Nakatamo, professor emeritus of organizational psychology

==Notes and references==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/ Encyclopedia Brunoniana], good source of information of Brown's history, customs

[[Category:Educational organizations]]

United States of America

2007-05-10T15:19:03Z

Bradley: Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House, the House Majority Leader is Steny Hoyer

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|United States of America
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Kljghlkjkh.png|250px]]
Flag of the United States
|-
|Capital
|[[Washington, D.C.]]
|-
|Government
|Federal constitutional republic, Representative democracy
|-
|Official Language
|None <br><small>([[English]] de facto)</small>
|-
|President
|[[George W. Bush]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Vice President
|[[Dick Cheney]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Senate majority leader
|[[Harry Reid]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|Speaker of the House
|[[Nancy Pelosi]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|House majority leader
|[[Steny Hoyer]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|Area
|3,718,695 sq mi
|-
|Population (2007 estimate)
|301,554,000
|-
|GDP (2007 estimate)
|$13.049 trillion
|-
|GDP per capita (2007 estimate)
|$44,333
|-
|}

The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as '''the United States''', '''the USA''', '''the US''', or simply as '''America''') is a North American nation that consists of a federal union of fifty individual states and the federal District of Columbia. Its origins lie in the [[British Empire]]: it was founded on July 4, [[1776]] with the signing of the [[Declaration of Independence]], and its independence from Britain was formally recognized in 1783, following the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]]. The US is currently the world's sole [[superpower]]; it has the world's largest economy, and is recognized as having the world's most powerful military.

==Overview==
The United States has land borders with [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]], as well as several territorial water boundaries with Canada, [[Russia]] and The Bahamas. It is otherwise bounded by the [[Pacific Ocean]], the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Two of the fifty states, [[Alaska]], an exclave, and [[Hawaii]], an archipelago, are not contiguous with any of the other states. Alaska in located in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also has a collection of overseas territories and possessions around the world. Each of the 50 states has a high level of local autonomy under the federal system.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²), the U.S. (including its non-contiguous and overseas states and territories) is the third largest country by total area. It is the world's third most populous nation, with over 300 million people.

The United States' military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased through the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, the United States has become a dominant global influence in contemporary economic, political, military, scientific, technological and cultural matters. With the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] at the end of the [[Cold War]], the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower, greatly influencing world affairs, as it continues to do today.

==The Constitution and Politics in the United States==
[[Image:76485685i79.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The drafting committee presenting the [[Declaration of Independence]] to the [[Continental Congress]], painted by John Trumbull 1817–1819.]]

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and the other [[Founding Fathers]] signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.

Between the [[Declaration of Independence]] in 1776 and the ratification of the [[Constitution]] in 1788, the United States was governed according to the [[Articles of Confederation]].

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and the other [[Founding Fathers]] formally established the current structure of the United States by ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788.

Since 1788, the United States has had only one official governing document: the [[U.S. Constitution]].

Although officially a [[Republic]], since the Presidency of [[John Quincy Adams]], the United States has been governed by two or more [[political parties]] under the rules of a "Representative [[Democracy]]." Presently, the two major political parties are the [[Democratic Party]], and the Republican Party. The younger of the two parties, the [[Republican Party]], was created in 1854.

== The Role of Religion in Government ==

A contentious issue in modern politics is the role of religion in public life and particularly government entanglement in religious affairs. Some groups that self identify as Republican, argue that the US was founded on Christian principles and that the modern US Government should be more lenient with regards to entanglement of Christianity with politics. Others that self identify as Democrat or Libertarian argue that the Constitution is a secular document which prohibits the entanglement of religion and politics in any way. Though these divisions are on general level and a particular stance on this issue is not a prerequisite to being a member of either party.

The [[Declaration of Independence]] acknowledges the existence of a God when it refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That statement was inserted at the request of [[Thomas Jefferson]], whose religious beliefs were [[Deism|Deistic]].

Many early Americans emigrated because of religious persecution in their home countries. The American [[Founding Fathers]] adhered to various sects of Christianity ranging from Catholicism, Protestantism, and Deism, and recognized that Christian tradition in addition to other legal traditions should inform the Constitution.

Based upon these beliefs, the [[Founding Fathers]] specifically placed into the [[First Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] which states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first clause is referred to as the Establishment Clause, and the second the Free Exercise Clause.

This "Free Exercise Clause" of the [[First Amendment]] to the [[U.S. Constitution]] began increasingly to be tested and interpreted by the judiciary in the late 19th century as a result of the increasing population of religious minorities in the United States.

The [[Declaration of Independence]], [[U.S. Constitution]], the [[Federalist Papers]], and the many personal papers of the [[Founding Fathers]] have been used to examine the issue. Different and sometimes contradicting statements have been noted regarding the influence of religion on government, and it can be difficult sometimes to interpret the importance and precedence of personal beliefs, legal intent, and actual verbiage in the documents.

In recent decades, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] has used the [[Lemon Test]] as a means for determining whether or not a particular controversy causes excessive entaglement between government and religion, though in some cases has allowed religious icons (such as the Ten Commandments display in Texas <ref> http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=03-1500 </ref>). The first amendment is often paraphrased as "separation of Church and State"; a phrase originating in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association which assured them that their rights (nor anyone's rights) to free exercise of their religion would not be curtailed.

In America today, an individual's party affiliation is at times determined by their personal view of the relationship between religion and government. Many other social issues, such as Abortion, Euthanasia, Freedom of Speech, and Cloning are based on an individual's religious beliefs.

==History and geography==

[[Image:56eugyjnm.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[White House]], the official home and workplace of the [[President of the United States]] of America.]]

In [[1783]], when the [[Peace of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totaled some three million [[citizens]] and [[slaves]] living on slightly less than one million square miles of land. An unknown number of [[Native Americans]] also lived in the western part of the United States, which was then bordered on the west by the [[Mississippi River]], on the north by [[Lake Superior]], [[Lake Huron]], [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], on the east by the [[Atlantic Ocean]], and on the south by [[Florida]], then controlled by [[Spain]]. The land border with Canada was not clarified until the [[Rush-Bagot Agreement]] of 1816.

The majority of the taxable population lived in the thirteen original [[states]]. In alphabetical order they are [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Virginia]]. In 1790, an agreement between supporters of Jefferson and those of [[Alexander Hamilton]] resulted in the creation of the [[District of Columbia]] from part of [[Maryland]]; it has served as the national capital from 1800 on. The remainder of the 1783 territory was eventually organized as the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Michigan]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. Two additional states were added during the first fifty years by [[secession]] from existing states: [[Vermont]] from New York, and [[Maine]] from Massachusetts. After that, the legality of [[secession]] became an issue.

In 1803, [[French]] emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] took advantage of a lull in his war with Great Britain to sell the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States, more than doubling the nation's land area. This territory would later be organized as the states of [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Louisiana]] proper. President Jefferson commissioned [[Lewis and Clark]] to explore the new territory, which they did from 1802 to 1804.

[[Florida]] and [[Texas]] joined the United States as a result of [[revolutions]] by settlers from the United States against their central governments. Florida's was fought in 1810, while the much better remembered [[Texas Revolution]] was fought in 1836. While Spain was willing to cut its losses in Florida and relinquished any claims on the state in the [[Adams-Oniz Agreement]] of 1819, one of the successors to its empire in the Americas, Mexico, was considerably more attached to Texas and fought the [[Mexican War]] between 1846 and 1848 to reverse its annexation by the United States. Losing badly, Mexico was forced to cede the sparsely populated northern portion of itself under the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. This territory eventually became the states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Colorado]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. At approximately the same time, [[President]] [[James K. Polk]] had agreed with the British that the 49th Parallel (degree of latitude) would serve as the boundary between the U. S. and Canada from [[Lake of the Woods]] (partially in Minnesota) to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. This territory was later organized as the states of [[Washington]], [[Oregon]] and [[Idaho]].

In 1867, [[Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] purchased [[Alaska]] from [[Russia]]. Critics referred to this as "Seward's Folly." Alaska is the westernmost extremity of [[North America]] bounded on the east by Canada, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the west by the [[Bering Strait]] and on the north by the [[Arctic Ocean]]. At $7,000,000, Alaska cost the United States considerably less per acre than the [[Mexican Cession]] and slightly less than the Louisiana Territory. Of course, [[inflation]] was less of a factor at this time due to the world [[economy]] still being principally [[agrarian]]. Although at the time it was considered a foolish bargain, Alaska would later become a large source of economic prosperity due to large gold, oil, and other natural resources. Alaska would not be admitted as a state until 1959.

The 50th and so far final state, [[Hawaii]], was also admitted in 1959, 67 years after the DOLE corporation, sugar producers, and the US Marine Corps deposed the last native [[queen]] of the archipelago and 62 years after annexation had become politically feasible as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]], in which the United States also annexed [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]] and [[Wake Island]]. The last three islands are not states, although [[Puerto Rico]] has occasionally held non-binding [[referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.

The United States has occasionally relinquished territory. The most significant example of this was certainly the granting of independence in 1946 to the [[Philippines]] as part of the general [[decolonization]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] following [[World War II]]. Under both [[autocratic]] and [[democratic]] governments, the Philippines have subsequently remained a strong United Statesian ally, and today contribute more troops to the U. S. [[military]] than some states. Other Pacific territories such as the [[Federated States of Micronesia]] and [[Palau]] have also become independent in the postwar era with little objection from opinion leaders on the mainland. More controversial was the 1977 agreement between President [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[General]] [[Omar Torrijos]] to return the [[Panama Canal Zone]], which had been part of the United States since 1914, to [[Panama]] in the year 2000. Ultimately the United States lived up to this agreement despite the worst fears of both [[liberals]] (who decried [[Operation Just Cause]], the 1989 invasion of Panama) and [[conservatives]] (who feared the management of the [[Panama Canal]] by [[Chinese]] interests).

The USA's has been criticized for holding back its [[United Nations]] dues (currently, even after the Helms-Biden amendment, the United States has withheld 41%, or $1.246 billion dollars, <ref>http://www.un.org/ga/president/55/speech/una_usa.htm</ref>) as the US has sought reforms within the international organization.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:North American Countries]]
[[Category:NATO members]]
[[Category:United States]]