SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD VOLUME CLX, ISSUE 14
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
UNIVERSITY NEWS
METRO
PPD violated ordinance, deparmental policy in IC
TRUMP DEAL
Comparing Trump administration deals across the Ivy League
SUMMER NEWS
SPORTS
SEE VOGUE PAGE 3
SEE TAG PAGE 4
SEE DEAL PAGE 7
SEE ZIA PAGE 9
SEE SOCCER PAGE 13
Brown alum Chloe Malle ’08 named editor of American Vogue
Rashid Zia ’01 ends tenure as dean of the College
Women’s soccer kicks off 2025 season with 3-1 record
An interview with President Paxson ANISHA KUMAR / HERALD
Community encouraged to focus on Brown’s future after deal BY ROMA SHAH SENIOR STAFF WRITER While Brown faced down investigations and unprecedented funding cuts masterminded by a White House looking to exert influence over American higher education, the campus’s gaze focused on the University’s top leadership, anxiously waiting to see whether they would choose to strike a deal or fight back. On July 30, they got their answer. Over the summer, Brown had been privately negotiating with the Trump administration and the two parties had reached an agreement. The feedback was swift. Some praised University leadership for extracting a comparatively noninvasive deal that did not give external officials on-the-ground oversight over campus matters — a power that had been granted by peer institutions. Others
decried the move, calling it an unacceptable bow to President Trump. As the Brown community grapples with how this deal will shape the future of College Hill, The Herald sat down with President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 — now 13 years into an eventful tenure at the helm of the University — and Provost Francis Doyle in University Hall for their first interview since the deal was announced. “I recognize there are people who are unhappy about the agreement,” Paxson told The Herald. “Finally, I can actually talk to them, and that’s something I really appreciate.” Why enter negotiations? In April, the White House confirmed plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding. While Brown never received formal notice of the Trump administration’s plans, the spigot was dry. Every dollar from the U.S. National Institutes of Health funding was frozen — no new awards were granted, renewed or paid. But that was just the opening salvo. Later that month, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services also placed the University under a Title VI investigation aiming to review allegations of antisemitism on campus. “We were at a point where we knew that we had to take some action or it would have really dire consequences for the University,” Paxson said. The University chose to start negotiations, in part, due to the lack of communication it received about the funding cuts from the federal government, Doyle said. “We were in limbo,” he added, explaining that Brown is more reliant on federal funding than nearly all of its peer institutions. But the University is keeping a keen eye on this vulnerability, aware that the current presidential administration has taken an adversarial posture against elite American higher education institutions, and it must safeguard its future. Part of this plan, Paxson said, is weaning Brown off its reliance on the federal government by diversifying Brown’s funding sources through philanthropy, corporate engagement and foundation support.
“It’s been a wake-up call that there is a lot of intertwining of universities and the federal government,” Paxson said. Commitment to workforce development organizations Despite the federal government’s affirmation in the agreement that it found no instances of wrongdoing by the University, Brown will pay $50 million to Rhode Island workforce development organizations over the next decade. Paxson stated that the University has the authority to pick which organizations receive grants but has not yet selected the organizations. The recipients will be chosen through a transparent application process, she added. Paxson and Doyle declined to elaborate on the particulars of how the University reached this particular resolution, or any other provisions in the agreement, with the Trump administration. Support for Jewish students and the wider community Paxson stressed that the University will
honor its agreement with the federal government to combat antisemitism and support Jewish students, but this “is not to the exclusion of our other commitments to other students,” pointing to “a good network and web of resources to support our students who come from very different identities.” Brown plans to conduct a campus climate survey by the end of 2025. The survey will build on previous ones the University has conducted, but it will be expanded to include topics of interest for the federal government, such as the climate for Jewish students and social media harassment. According to Doyle, the University’s last survey in 2023 was conducted using an external firm. The University plans to use a similar third party to administer this year’s survey to ensure high response rates while giving respondents confidence their answers will remain confidential. While she reiterated the University supports research and education regarding Israel, Paxson noted that Brown also sup-
SEE PAXSON PAGE 2
FIRST YEAR About 15 incoming international students ‘unable to reach camPOLL pus’ this fall, Paxson says STUDENT LIFE
Affected students are primarily enrolled in graduate programs BY ETHAN SCHENKER UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
SEE POLL PAGE 8
About 15 incoming international students are “unable to reach” Brown’s campus for the start of the fall semester, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 wrote in a Thursday morning Today@Brown announcement. Most of these affected students were graduate students, Paxson wrote, adding that “many others” have decided to defer their studies. About a third of graduate
students and 14 percent of undergraduate students at Brown come from outside of the United States. The challenges come amid a variety of new obstacles that the Trump administration has put in place for international students seeking to study in the U.S. These students were impacted by delays in visa appointments and approvals, according to Amanda McGregor, a spokesperson for the University. In May, the State Department ordered a halt to routine student visa interviews, and later announced that applicants’ social media accounts would be subject to review and scrutiny. “In some cases, students who are from countries impacted by a travel restriction
announced by the federal government on June 4 have not received visas,” McGregor wrote in an email, referring to an executive order limiting the entry of travelers from 19 countries. “We are deeply concerned about the difficulty international students have had in obtaining visas to study in the United States,” Paxson wrote. According to McGregor, fewer than 100 international students who were expected to start at Brown this fall are deferring their studies “for a variety of reasons.” In her message, Paxson also acknowledged that international students currently in the United States face “the threat of losing their ability to remain in the U.S.”
For now, McGregor wrote that “Brown is not aware of any visa revocations for existing members of our international community, including current students and scholars,” but the University continues to monitor the Student and Exchange Visitor Program system, which houses visa records. As of mid-August, the State Department has revoked over 6,000 international student visas. In April, at least one Brown student and several recent graduates saw their visas revoked. The visas were reinstated weeks later.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Aug. 28, 2025.