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The Brown Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — is currently undergoing elections for its New Alumni Trustee and Alumni Trustee positions. The voting period will close on May 2. The Corporation oversees the University’s long-term development through responsibilities such as selecting the University president and setting the budget. https://lnkd.in/erDw69sv

A number of recent federal actions have targeted Brown University, including a planned $510 million funding freeze and a Title VI investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services. Keep up with the latest developments on our live updates page, and follow along as The Herald covers how President Trump’s new administration is impacting College Hill. https://lnkd.in/eae6aAw7

At least nine grants awarded to Brown researchers, totaling over $8 million, have been terminated since Trump took office, freezing studies in their tracks and leaving some participants without treatment. Affected researchers told The Herald they had to lay off some staff from their studies, marking the first reports of layoffs from projects due to recent federal funding cuts. These grants, the most recent of which was terminated Monday, funded research related to a variety of issues, ranging from youth HIV prevention to COVID-19 testing for incarcerated people. Across these awards, over $3.5 million in funding had yet to be disbursed. https://lnkd.in/eSw97dmS

For the first time since at least 2002, Brown has enlisted two firms, one of which is staffed by operatives who have almost exclusively worked in the Republican Party, to lobby Congress and the Trump administration on its behalf, according to public filings reviewed by The Herald. https://lnkd.in/eKbce6m7

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.