From Martha Mitchell’s Encyclopedia Brunoniana :

On May 8, 1969, after a “marathon” meeting, the faculty voted the first major change in the curriculum since the “Ducasse curriculum” of 1947. The move toward curricular reform began with a GISP (Group Independent Study Program) which decided in 1966 to study education at Brown. In 1967 a report prepared by GISP participants Ira Magaziner ’69 and Elliot E. Maxwell ’68 called for radical changes in curriculum.

From the Dean of the College website:

Placing fresh emphasis on the “liberal” aspect of the liberal arts, the New Curriculum gave students the right to choose, the right to fail, and above all the freedom to direct their own education. For almost forty years this embrace of independence has defined Brown’s place in the landscape of undergraduate education in the United States.

An electronic version of “Draft of a Working Paper for Education at Brown University,” published in 1968, is now available at: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/libweb/papers/maxwell.php