At Tuesday’s faculty meeting, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 shared that around 25 faculty members attended last week’s town hall that was held to discuss the University’s response to the Department of Education’s August call to action.
The call requested that universities across the country publicly “reaffirm their commitment to serving the American people.” The letter prompts university administrators to address a range of questions to affirm that universities are protecting free speech on campus, not using affirmative action in admissions and ensuring that universities’ degree programs are affordable and result in high financial returns after graduation. The call does not list any consequences if a university chooses not to respond.
At the town hall, attendees discussed how the changes in the “political landscape” following the midterm elections may affect how the University responds to this call to action and similar requests in the future, Paxson said. She added that she felt town hall attendees seemed attuned to the “pitfalls of responding and not responding” to the call.
At last month’s faculty meeting, Paxson encouraged faculty members to share input on what they believe Brown’s response to the call should be. Since then, she said she has received 29 submissions from faculty members, 16 of which argued that the University should not respond, citing the risk of reputational damage and loss of political leverage.
Attendees were also informed of an updated version of the proposed changes to the code of conduct, which will be shared with faculty members later this week, according to Colleen Dalton, a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences and chair of the faculty executive committee.
During last month’s faculty meeting, the University Values and Voice Implementation Working Group announced an initial round of proposed changes to the code in alignment with the University’s Statement of Values and Voice and opened a feedback form about the proposals shortly afterward. The form, which closed last week, will be used to update the initial recommended changes.
At the meeting, Paxson also acknowledged a number of federal issues facing the University, including the recent cancellation of Brown’s memorandum of understanding with Newport’s Naval War College, which was announced by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday.
Seyla Fernandez is a senior staff writer covering faculty.
