The Brown Daily Herald, Inc.

After being held by customs officials at Boston Logan International Airport Thursday, Assistant Professor of Medicine Rasha Alawieh has been deported and is now in Lebanon, according to her relative Yara Chehab and court filings reviewed by The Herald. The deportation took place despite a Friday order from U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin requiring 48 hours’ notice of Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts.

One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including visa holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunday. “Potential changes in travel restrictions and travel bans, visa procedures and processing, re-entry requirements and other travel-related delays may affect travelers’ ability to return to the U.S. as planned,” Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey wrote in the email.

On Wednesday evening, Tom Perez ’83 P’18, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Democratic National Committee chairman, and Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman, discussed President Trump’s return to power at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy. Speaking at the center’s Alexander Meiklejohn Lecture, the two former party chairs said that both parties need to reflect on the 2024 election’s outcome for different reasons. https://lnkd.in/eZSxefrf

Early Thursday morning, Brown announced it would be implementing a temporary, staff-wide hiring freeze in response to the “uncertainty we now face from federal actions.” The freeze will begin immediately and remain in effect through the end of the 2025 fiscal year for positions “with any component of unrestricted funds.” In a letter to community members, Provost Francis Doyle and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Sarah Latham wrote “the freeze applies to all staff positions with any component of unrestricted funds.” An exemption process will be available for positions that, if vacant, would have significant impacts on “critical” operations, are essential to ensure compliance with “regulatory and legal requirements,” “support critical infrastructure” or “are required to ensure campus health and safety.”

Tucked away in Room 112A of the Biomedical Center, a select group of students can be found spending hours each week cultivating human stem cells. The 15 students taking BIOL 0610: “Modeling Human Disease Using Stem Cells” have the unique chance to design a research project using the cells to explore Alzheimer's disease. Only a few universities nationwide, including the University of Southern California and Harvard, offer courses that allow undergraduates to work with human stem cells hands-on, according to Chuck Toth, director of the Brown University Multidisciplinary Teaching Laboratories and adjunct professor of biology. 

Brown and 59 other universities could face “enforcement actions” if they fail to “protect Jewish students on campus,” according to a letter sent to the universities Monday. The letter was sent to all United States universities that “are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed” with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights about alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Title VI prohibits federally funded institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin, including Jewish ancestry.

Friday afternoon, hundreds gathered at the Rhode Island State House to protest recent federal actions that organizers say have imperiled the future of scientific research. Providence was one of over 30 cities across America where the rally, hosted by the grassroots campaign Stand Up for Science, took place. The four-hour rally called for expanded federal funding, an end to “political interference” in research and protections for diversity, equity and inclusion in science, according to rally organizer Margaret Crane, an implementation science fellow at the Warren Alpert Medical School.