It was an afternoon for the record books. On April 25, thousands of students, faculty, and staff, gathered on the College Green--not to protest, but to thank President Simmons for her eleven years at Brown.

The student-organized celebration started with a flash-mob--a wave of students wearing bright t-shirts with the president's face on them danced their way onto a stage in front of University Hall--and moved to poetry and song. It ended, of course, with a bang: an explosion of red and white streamers aimed at Simmons. She draped them around her shoulders before heading to the microphone as students chanted "Ruth, Ruth, Ruth!"

"The experience of working for you, beside you... is the best I have ever had, " she said.

Here's a slideshow of the celebration.