This summer was the season of the backhoe and the chisel around campus; spring birdsong gave way to the monotonous beeping of dump trucks in reverse. Laborers dug trenches for irrigation pipes and lighting conduits, while restoration specialists replaced the stucco carapace of Rhode Island Hall and jackhammered the concrete steps outside Sayles. Most striking, though, was the removal of the Van Wickle Gates, which were taken away and restored while masons tediously tapped the mortar from the portal bricks, cleaned them up, and put them back. Appropriate preparation, it would seem, for the arrival this month of the Class of 1999.

[From the Brown Alumni Monthly, September 1995.]