With $25,000 secured from the Office of the President, a new Undergraduate Council of Students program will allow students to propose projects they feel will improve campus life.
UCS President Ariel Shifrin ’27 said that the UCS has been workshopping ideas to expand student power over shared spaces with President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 since this spring. In September, Paxson informed UCS that it would receive $25,000 to start the pilot participatory budget program, he explained.
Announced on Monday, students will be able to submit proposals online through a Google form or in person at various locations on campus where Student Engagement and Campus Life UCS committees will be tabling, Shifrin said.
Proposals can take a range of forms, according to Shifrin. “People can let us know their ideas at different levels of commitment,” he said. This can range from a one-sentence improvement suggestion to a detailed proposal.
UCS Chair of Campus Life Balázs Cserneczky ’28 said possible project examples include more furniture on the Main Green, water fountains in dorms or pool tables in dorm lounges.
After projects are reviewed by the UCS, a small committee will conduct feasibility assessments and a cost assessment of the submitted proposals, Shifrin said. The UCS plans to submit a number of their own proposals for review, he added. Students will be able to vote on selected project proposals in late November, according to Cserneczky.
The UCS receives funding through the University’s student activities fee, but the Student Activities Office requires that this money be used in specific ways — not including campus improvements, Shifrin added.
“The way that the student activities fee had been defined and laid out would not give us the kind of flexibility that we needed,” Shifrin said. Improvements to shared spaces like dorm lounges and dining halls “were not captured in that scope,” he added.
Recognizing that Paxson will be stepping down at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, Shifrin emphasized that this is a pilot program that is not ensured in future years.
Shifrin said he hopes student participation will “prove to whoever the next president might be that this is a worthwhile initiative and it really helps students make an impact on campus.”
“This is really our chance to leave a mark on campus,” Cserneczky said. If over 50% of undergraduate students engage with the program, the Office of Community Engagement has also pledged to donate $5,000 to student-chosen local causes, according to an announcement from the UCS.
UCS Vice President Meruka Vyas ’28 added that this is important because Brown students “don’t live in an isolated nexus.”
“We live within the broader Providence community,” she added.
“This is one of the most important things that UCS has done in the past years,” Cserneczky said.
“As students, we often feel like we don’t have power, but this is a real chance for us to have power and for us to turn our ideas into a possible reality,” Vyas said.
“President Paxson deeply appreciates the role student leaders play in representing the interests and concerns of the student body and has continued to consider proposals from the leaders of UCS over time,” Chief of Staff to President Paxson Davia Read wrote in a message to The Herald. “President Paxson is hopeful that the pilot will generate broad student engagement, and that students will directly enjoy the benefits of new investments.”
Tyler Timmers is a senior staff writer covering undergraduate student life.
