‘Fred, President Fred!” a gaggle of upperclassmen shouted as the president of Brandeis University, Frederick Lawrence, strode down the stairs and onto the floor of the university’s basketball arena.
The students, clad in shorts and yellow orientation leader T-shirts, cheered and applauded when Lawrence stopped to chat. Lawrence, due in just minutes to deliver a freshman-orientation speech, was in conservative garb: gray suit, white shirt and blue-and-white striped tie. But the 56-year-old college president’s demeanor was blue jeans casual as he joked and commiserated with orientation leaders about their previous days’ challenge: helping freshmen move into the Waltham, Mass., campus as Hurricane Irene approached New England.
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