Possible Clues:

• Academic union that is vaguely in order
• Climber has some distance to go to make US academic circle
• Universities behaving woollily, ie vaguely
• Group of eight prestigious USA universities
• Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale
• Brown's a member of this creepy group
• Group of US universities of high prestige
• Brown's one of eight in this climber's class
• Prestigious school group
• Three miles of climbing vine?