At Wednesday’s Graduate Student Council general body meeting, GSC President Kevin LoGiudice ScM’21 GS shared the council’s suggestions for commemorating the first anniversary of the Dec. 13 mass shooting.
The GSC proposed candlelight vigils, moments of silence and tape art installations, among other events. The council suggested that these events be open to the entire Brown community, rather than graduate-specific initiatives, and recommended that no events be held in Barus and Holley so that students and faculty can “have their own moment to reflect in that space and have some privacy,” LoGiudice said.
LoGiudice said the GSC Committee on the Dec. 13 Memorial suggested that a memorial commemorating last year’s mass shooting be “outside (and) easily accessible, but also private” in order to provide a space for “personal reflection.” The committee emphasized that the memorial should be abstract in design, rather than a physical representation of the event.
LoGiudice also recapped his meeting with the Brown Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — earlier this month, where he presented about the graduate student experience to the Corporation’s Committee of Campus Life. His key points included advocating for greater graduate student access to campus spaces when undergraduate programs are on break, which he said is currently very limited.
LoGiudice said he also advocated for increased funding for the graduate school’s humanities programs. Last year, Ph.D. admission targets were reduced 20%, and six humanities and social sciences doctoral programs paused admissions for the 2026-27 cycle.
LoGiudice said that Brown’s reputation as an institution is heavily tied to its history and performance in the humanities, so eliminating graduate student positions in these subjects could harm both Brown and these fields as a whole.
Currently, many of the University’s policy and budget choices seem to be “all just based on the lowest cost financial model — and not necessarily what’s in the best interest of students,” he said. “This could be a tipping point in Brown’s history where we gotta preserve Brown for what it is.”
The University did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding LoGiudice’s claims.
Later this month, the Brown Corporation will hold a student leader lunch to hear from representatives from the GSC, among other student groups. The luncheon will be an opportunity for graduate student leaders to share the progress they have seen and areas for improvement within the University, LoGiudice said.
Later in the meeting, LoGiudice shared that the GSC is unveiling a new initiative in collaboration with Brown Emergency Medical Service to provide graduate students free transportation to grocery stores on weekends. The program follows previous initiatives implemented by the GSC to increase graduate students’ access to nutritious, affordable food.
Noa Saviano is a senior staff writer covering Graduate Schools and Students. She is a sophomore from New York City and plans on concentrating in Comparative Literature and Cognitive Science.
