Hank Brown to lead students on tour of U.S. Capitol's art

Hank Brown, University of Colorado at Boulder political science professor and CU president emeritus, will lead his fall semester class on a Nov. 13-15 trip to Washington, D.C., to study art in the U.S. Capitol Building.

The trip is part of his "Icons of the American Republic" class, which introduces students to the founding period of the United States through the events, concepts and individuals depicted in art exhibited in the U.S. Capitol Building. The class — 25 students from the Boulder campus and six from the Colorado Springs campus — will get an extremely rare opportunity to visit the floors of both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

This is the second consecutive year Brown has led students on the trip, which is made possible by financial contributions from external donors.

According to Professor Ken Bickers, chair of the CU-Boulder political science department, "This is a remarkable opportunity for our students. They learn about the American experiment in national self-governance in the heart of the government itself from someone who has been an influential participant in that experiment."

Brown has 30 years of public policy experience as a legislator, congressman, U.S. senator and higher education executive. He served in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1991 and in the Senate from 1991 to 1997.

He joined the CU-Boulder faculty last year after serving as president of the University of Colorado from 2005 to 2008. Besides his political science appointment, he holds the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership at CU-Boulder and is an adjunct professor in the CU School of Law.