Brown University president unveils $100M draft plan to address racism

BROWN UNIVERSITY President Christina H. Paxson has unveiled a draft plan to promote diversity and inclusion.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
BROWN UNIVERSITY President Christina H. Paxson has unveiled a draft plan to promote diversity and inclusion. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

PROVIDENCE – Brown University President Christina H. Paxson has unveiled a draft plan to promote diversity and inclusion.

The university plans to invest more than $100 million over the next decade to achieve the goals outlined in the 19-page plan, which was released Nov. 19 in a letter to the Brown community.

Called “Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University,” it will “confront the issues of racism, power, privilege, inequity and injustice that are part of the Brown experience for so many members of our campus,” she said.

Paxson, in her letter, states that the plan is intentionally presented as a working document so that feedback can be obtained from students, faculty and staff. An online feedback form will be available until Dec. 4 to receive comments.
She said the final plan will be released by the end of the semester, Dec. 21.

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She said the plan has been “profoundly informed, and substantially improved” by recent campus conversations about structural racism.

“The deep pain that we have heard expressed by students of color in the past weeks and months – a pain that has been affirmed by faculty and staff members who work closely with and care deeply about our students – is very real,” she wrote.

“Creating a just and inclusive campus community is key to Brown’s ambitions as a university,” Paxson continued. “Legacies of structural racism and discrimination in our society and on our campus undermine our goals of being a diverse, inclusive and academically excellent community.”

The plan outlines three areas of concentration: campus community, investing in people and academic leadership.

To that end, the university said it plans to support critical living and learning expenses for low-income undergraduate students by doubling funding available through the Office of Campus Life’s Emergency Fund, extend dining opportunities during breaks, providing students in need with access to health insurance, textbooks and laptops, and hire a dean dedicated to working with and supporting first-generation and low-income students.

It also calls for the establishment of a center for first-generation students; more training for public safety officers; support for research on race, ethnicity and social justice; and a campus climate study, among other initiatives.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Brown officials have faced calls from students in recent weeks to do more about issues of racism and diversity.

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