Former president Vartan Gregorian and his wife, Clare, returned to campus April 12 for a ceremony renaming the Thayer Street Quad the Vartan Gregorian Quadrangle. The site, which is located on Thayer Street between Power and Charlesfield, is a dormitory and inn. About 300 people showed up to congratulate Gregorian, including a surprise speaker: University of Chicago law and ethics professor Martha Nussbaum, who was a professor of philosophy, classics, and comparative literature at Brown during Gregorian's tenure.

Gregorian seems to be on a commemorative roll. In May the New York Public Library named one of its first-floor halls after him. Gregorian was president of the library from 1981 to 1989 and president of Brown from 1989 to 1997.