Spring 2002 - Haverford College

The View from Founders
by Tom Tritton, President
Brownian Motion
In 1822, the English botanist Robert Brown noticed that small grains
suspended in water underwent continuous movement. This movement—
rapid, irregular, unpredictable, and random—came to be known as
Brownian motion.
Nearly a century later, in 1905,
Einstein offered the first mathematical theory
that could explain such complex yet
erratic behavior. Modern scientists are still
extending and refining our understanding
of Brownian motion and the theory
has also been used to explain such disparate
phenomena as stock market fluctuations,
scheduling problems in manufacturing,
and aerosol disposition in the
human lung.
Brownian motion has come to be a
metaphor for all events that are random
and unpredictable. One would hope that
the progress of a college in achieving its
ideals would not depend on Brownian
motion, but on an orderly, systematic, and
thoughtful analysis. Alas, on some campuses
forward progress has been more random
than intentional, especially concerning
the development of buildings and
structures, which often seem to have been
placed and designed without much forethought
(or even afterthought). Not so at
Haverford, fortunately, where the campus
has evolved into a beautiful, aesthetically
arranged, and lovingly tended array of
buildings and arboretum.
In the continual thinking that occurs
on this campus, we have come to realize
that the College will need to consider several
construction, building, and remodeling
projects over the next several decades.
Phase I
2 Haverford Magazine