THE BROWN DAILY HER ALD
VOLUME CLX, ISSUE 13
The Herald’s guide to Spring Weekend 2025
Spring Weekend 2025 has something for everyone
BY ANN GRAY GOLPIRA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
With Spring Weekend 2025 quickly approaching, Brown students have eagerly been planning out their Saturdays, streaming performers’ discographies and me ticulously curating the perfect outfit for the event.
In addition to performances from Off set, JT, Zack Fox, Ravyn Lenae and the Undertow Brass Band, the weekend is also full of other festivities. Here’s what you can expect at Spring Weekend 2025.
On Saturday, fans can anticipate a bold, atmospheric performance from headlin ing-act Offset, an American rapper, singer and songwriter best known for hits like “Bad and Boujee” and “Walk It Talk It” from his time as a member of the Atlanta-based trio Migos.
Concertgoers will also see the Miami-based rapper and singer-songwriter, JT, who began her lucrative solo career in 2023. Her debut song as a solo artist, “No Bars,” placed 25th on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under Hot 100” chart. She later released “Sideways”
which shot up to No. 7 on the chart.
JT has been featured on records with Summer Walker, Nicki Minaj and Kali Uchis. She also released her debut album “City Cinderella” in 2024, which included the viral TikTok song “Alter Ego” featuring Doechii — a 2023 Spring Weekend performer.
Zack Fox, a comedian, rapper and “Abbott Elementary” actor, also promises an entertaining act. In 2019, his comedic
rose to internet fame.
Fox continued his rap career in 2021 when he released his debut album, “shut the fuck up talking to me.”
Ravyn Lenae has also experienced her fair share of fame. In 2024, the R&B singer-songwriter released lead singles “Love Me Not,” which breached Billboard’s Hot 100 list, and “Love is Blind,” both from her second album, “Bird’s Eye.” She has also collaborated with Steve Lacy on
bino on “One Wish.” Her dreamy vocals and catchy melodies, which earned her an appearance at this year’s Coachella, are sure to leave a lasting impression at this year’s festival.
But the weekend’s festivities aren’t confined to these four acts. On Friday evening, the Class Coordinating Board will be hosting the annual “Gigs on the Green,” a student-performed music festival featuring 10 different bands and artists.
“Mariachi Ositos de Brown.”
Other Friday festivities include a RecFest BBQ, a carnival on Ruth J. Simmons Quad, SoBear’s Sub-Free Movie Night and the Brown Arab Society’s Arab’s Got Talent.
On Saturday, Spring Weekenders can look forward to afternoon concerts with the “Spring Weekend Prep Party” on Wriston Quad.
Doors to the Main Green concert will open Saturday at 1 p.m. In a recent email to undergraduates, the Brown Concert Agency and other campus organizations outlined several guidelines for the festival, encouraging students to “stay with friends,” “avoid pushing and shoving,” “stay hydrated” and more.
The message also reminded concertgoers to bring their Brown ID, which will serve as their ticket for attending the show, breaking from previous years when students had to secure tickets themselves.
THE HISTORY OF SPRING WEEKEND PAGE 16
Officers say leadership neglected concerns when responding to threats
BY SOPHIA WOTMAN UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
Officers in Brown’s Department of Public Safety have raised concerns about their own safety and the safety of the Brown community, alleging that employees in the DPS responded inappropriately to bomb and shooting threats by altering written reports and not adequately disclosing information to the Brown community regarding these threats.
Several employees said they felt DPS leadership brushed their concerns aside when issues were raised to upper management.
In a statement sent to The Herald on behalf of the department, DPS Chief Rodney Chatman wrote that the department assesses and improves its response protocols through post-hoc reviews. “If some individuals have not felt fully confident during certain events, the overall posture of the department has remained
one of measured professionalism and preparedness,” he added.
The Herald spoke with five current and former officers and reviewed internal documents, emails, public police records and audio recordings. Some individuals were granted anonymity for fear of retaliation that could jeopardize their employment.
In one instance on July 18, 2023, a DPS sergeant was contacted by the police department of Bristol, Connecticut warning that it was investigating a shooting threat made against Brown by former University football coach Dennis “DJ” Hernandez.
According to reports from the Bristol Police Department obtained by The Herald, Hernandez told a person close to him that he had visited Brown’s campus on July 7, 2023 hoping to plan the shooting.
After being briefed on the threats made by Hernandez, an officer raised concerns to the DPS’s Director of Advocacy, Engagement and Communications Quiana Young about the department’s plans to host a children’s reading event on the Main Green on July 18, according
to a person with knowledge of the situation.
When his fears that the children could be targeted by Hernandez were brushed off by Young, the officer decided to cancel his appearance with Elvy — the DPS’s service dog at the time — hoping that the event would be canceled as a result.
The event continued without the officer or Elvy in attendance, and Young criticized the decision to cancel Elvy’s appearance, according to another source familiar with the matter.
Chatman wrote that the officer’s decision “was not based on a direct order, credible intelligence report or departmental directive” and “was considered highly inappropriate and bordered on insubordination.”
In a response to The Herald’s request for comment, Young deferred to Chatman.
On July 19, 2023, the day after DPS officers were informed of the threat, Hernandez was arrested in Bristol and later convicted and sentenced for his threats. “Despite reports of an alleged visit by the suspect to Providence, our investigation
to date indicates that he had not been on Brown’s campus in the weeks prior to arrest,” Chatman wrote in a July 26, 2023 community-wide email.
“This statement was based on data ascertained from investigative tools, campus video footage and law enforcement collaboration,” Chatman wrote in the statement sent to The Herald. “No verified evidence placed Hernandez on campus.”
The July 2023 incident was not the first time DPS officers raised concerns over how the department addressed a campus safety threat.
Michael Greco, an officer who worked in the DPS for 17 years before leaving in fall 2024, said in an interview with The Herald that DPS leadership also failed to properly respond to a previous shooting and bomb threat at Brown in 2021, neglecting DPS protocol in the process.
This incident, Greco said, put his and other officers’ lives at risk. He is currently suing the University in workers’ compensation court.
Despite the threat, no shooter or explosives were ultimately identified on campus.
On Nov. 7, 2021, the DPS received a call from an individual claiming to have placed bombs in several buildings around the Main Green and stating that they were stationed in Rhode Island Hall with an AR-15 rifle, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Herald via Greco.
“If any police approach me, I’ll open fire on them immediately and any other student I see,” the caller said in a recording of the threat, which matched other officers’ accounts of the day.
Despite safety concerns from the responding officers on the incident, the DPS delayed calling the Providence Police Department and did not do so through official channels.
After being notified of the threat at 1:50 p.m., Greco said that he and two other officers told their supervisor that they felt unprepared to respond to the call as they lacked proper equipment, according to a copy of Greco’s original report detailing the incident. They requested that the PPD be informed of the incident — a
COURTESY OF SAMKELTHUS, JØRUND FØRELAND PEDERSEN AND BRUCE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / COURTESY OF ABC
UNIVERSITY
ENDOWMENT
Brown has a $7 billion endowment. Could it be used to weather funding cuts?
Constraints on funding purposes prevent University from freely spending
BY CIARA MEYER & ELENA JIANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS
As of June 30, 2024, the University’s endowment — a collection of invested funds from donors dating back to 1769 — sits at $7.2 billion.
Although most of these funds are invested in a portfolio of financial assets to support the University in perpetuity, a portion of the endowment is taken to contribute to the University’s operating budget each year. In fiscal year 2025, the University’s operating budget is set at $1.83 billion — with endowment funds making up about 18% of the budget.
“Per the approved FY25 budget, Brown’s endowment is providing $337.7 million of revenue to support priorities in the current fiscal year,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. In FY24, the endowment contributed $281 million to the budget.
Amid the Trump administration’s plans to halt $510 million of Brown’s federal funding, questions have been raised about the endowment’s potential to financially support the University.
Clark wrote that as of Friday “Brown still has received no formal notification from the federal government” about the proposed cuts.
In a declaration filed in a joint lawsuit against the Department of Energy
FACULTY
for cutting grant funding, Vice President for Research Greg Hirth ScM’87 PhD’91 wrote “it has been suggested that Brown use its endowment to make up for these lost federal funds.”
“The endowment provides an essential source of support for the University’s financial aid, faculty salaries, and academic and co-curricular programs and consists of over 3,800 unique funds that are legal contracts given as charitable gifts by alumni, parents, students and friends of the University,” he added. “These are restricted by law and purpose for their designated use, and cannot simply be reallocated.”
What is the endowment?
The University’s endowment is made up of more than 3,800 accounts. Some are allocated for specific purposes, while others are general funds to support University operations. The funds are managed by a 23-person team in the University Investment Office.
The office sometimes brings in spe-
cialized managers and private equity managers to facilitate specific investments, according to a former investment manager at Brown who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal operations.
Each year, the University Resources Committee recommends a “payout rate” — a percentage of funds that can be pulled from the endowment to support University operations. This rate is approved by the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body. Typically, that rate ranges between 4.5% and 5.5%. In FY 25, it hit 5.5%, the highest rate currently allowed.
The URC recommends a payout rate after taking into consideration annual budgeting needs, Clark wrote. In FY25, the URC proposed a temporary increase of the endowment payout rate to 5.5% in order to “support the operating budget’s critical investments in FY 2025.”
The University sets the rate “by using a payout formula intended to provide a steady stream of income to support current needs, while preserving the en-
dowment’s future purchasing power,” Clark wrote. “If too much is spent in the short term, inflation will erode the endowment’s value in real-dollar terms and could shortchange future generations.”
What barriers prevent the University from dipping into the endowment?
The payout rate serves as a primary barrier to using the endowment to cover budget cuts. It is governed by a Rhode Island statute called the “Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act.” Similar versions of the statute have been adopted in 49 states. According to the act, any payout rate over 7% of the endowment’s market value “creates a rebuttable presumption of imprudence.”
This means that if the University were to exceed a 7% payout rate, the state would assume they were improperly managing the endowment — unless they provided evidence to the contrary.
Penalties for violating the UPMIFA can include fines, civil or criminal charges and a loss of tax-exempt status.
Brown Investment Office seeks to ensure that the endowment grows faster than the payout rate and anticipated inflation. The endowment is intended to support the University in perpetuity, and pulling out more than the typical payout rate could have lasting impacts on Brown’s spending power for generations to come, the former investment manager said.
Some funds are also allocated for specific purposes, typically by donors, posing another barrier to their use. The University can legally modify the desig-
John Friedman named inaugural dean of Watson School
The new school of International and Public Affairs will launch July 1
BY CLAIRE SONG UNIVERSITY NEWS AND SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR
John Friedman, a professor of economics and international and public affairs, has been named the inaugural dean of the Watson School of International and Public Affairs, according to a Monday afternoon email from President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and Provost Francis Doyle. Friedman, who has been at Brown since 2015, previously worked as the chair of the
Department of Economics. He will help the new school in “advancing research and teaching on pressing economic, political, social and policy issues,” according to the email.
The new school will be launched July 1. The decision to convert the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs to a separate school was approved by the Brown Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — last spring.
During his time at Brown, Friedman helped develop a summer research program for undergraduates and also expanded the master’s of public affairs program to include a summer term. When he was chair, Friedman oversaw a 30% growth in tenured faculty in the economics department, ac-
cording to the email.
Friedman completed his undergraduate degree at Harvard, where he also earned his master’s and PhD. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley, Friedman found
himself back on the East Coast as an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
From 2013 to 2014, during former President Barack Obama’s second term, Friedman worked as the special assistant to the
nation of funds with consent from the donors. But this could be difficult since many of these funding streams were set up decades ago, according to the former investment manager.
What other avenues can the University take to manage funding cuts?
Other solutions the University could take to cover budget deficits and funding cuts would fall outside the scope of endowment management, the former investment manager said. All the Investment Office is “trying to do is make money,” he added.
Decisions like raising tuition, taking out loans, selling assets or leasing buildings to cover cuts would be made by the Finance Division, the investment manager said.
Since the Trump administration threatened Brown’s funding, the University has taken out a $300 million loan. Facing a $46 million budget deficit and an uncertain federal landscape, the University also implemented cost-cutting measures like reducing PhD admissions targets, instituting a staff-wide hiring freeze and limiting operating expenses. With these factors in mind, “We will continue to develop fiscal scenarios and make budget decisions in ways that can best support the Brown community,” Clark wrote. “Beyond the actions we’ve already conveyed, we cannot speculate on what specific measures we will take or may be required.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 20, 2025.
president for economic policy at the White House. His research covers a variety of topics, ranging from the economic impacts of COVID-19 to tax policy and education.
“John brings both the expertise and energy to guide Brown’s new school as it conducts timely research and provides its graduates with deep knowledge of policy and highly developed analytical skills that will enable them to serve their communities, the nation and the world,” Paxson and Doyle wrote in the email. “We look forward to working with him in his new role as dean.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Apil 21, 2025.
Editors’ Note: Amid uncertainty, trust student journalism
Since our last editors’ note, Brown University has been shaken by federal actions threatening to remake American higher education.
The current presidential administration has pledged to freeze $510 million to Brown over concerns of the University’s handling of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The National Institutes of Health have frozen all funds to Brown. A professor was deported over her alleged attendance at a Hezbollah leader’s funeral. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has placed the entirety of the University under investigation. Congress is probing Brown and the other Ivy Leagues. Student visas have been revoked.
As Brown weathers persistent attacks on higher education, there remains a lack of clarity about these federal actions. NIH officials are explicitly instructing their staff to withhold information
from University administrators, leaving our campus community in the dark.
At the same time, we are seeing faith in institutions erode — with declining trust in higher education and the press alike. In times like these, we are committed to producing coverage that you, our readers, can trust.
The Herald has unearthed buried stories to keep the Brown community informed. We have been among the first to report on the NIH freezing funding to Brown, federal lawsuits, grant cuts to public health research on campus and closeddoor meetings where administrators grapple with questions that will determine the University’s future.
Alongside managing an onslaught of near-constant breaking news, we have continued to report on how these actions touch the lives of our faculty and staff, students and members of the
greater Rhode Island community. We’ve covered the impacts of visa revocations on international students, widespread protests and the fear among students, both prospective and current.
Contributors to our opinions section have taken the courageous step of speaking out on contentious topics, fueling vital campus discourse. Our photographers, videographers, podcasters and illustrators lend faces and voices to the stories we endeavor to tell.
With universities finding a spotlight in national headlines, the voices of students, faculty and staff are more important than ever. Beyond Brown, student journalism provides a unique pulse on campus life through on-the-ground coverage that informs national conversations.
These stories would not have been possible without the trust you’ve placed in us thus far. Over the past four months, we have been touched
by the stories you have shared with our reporters, editors and multimedia staff. The Herald is Brown University’s paper of record, a responsibility we will continue to carry with each story we report. Trust is an expensive commodity, and we won’t put yours to waste. Thank you for your continued support.
As we enter reading period and end regular production for the semester, we will continue to track these stories closely, bringing you up-todate, rigorous journalism you have come to trust and rely on. We look forward to building on this trust in the months to come.
Editors’ notes are written by The Herald’s 135th Editorial Board: Tom Li ’26, Ryan Doherty ’26, Owen Dahlkamp ’26, Julianna Chang ’26, Anisha Kumar ’26 and Yael Wellisch ’26.
RHEA RASQUINHA / HERALD
MATHIEU GRECO / HERALD
John Friedman, who has been at Brown since 2015, previously worked as the chair of the Department of Economics.
request which their supervisor said was denied.
Greco’s request for PPD reinforcement was standard procedure, according to two former DPS employees and an internal department policy document obtained by The Herald.
The department policy explicitly acknowledges that the DPS “is not staffed or equipped to provide special operations resources or support” and “outside law enforcement agencies such as Providence Police and Rhode Island State Police will be called upon to provide special operations resources and support.”
Special operations typically refer to large-scale incidents that require tactical units, such as SWAT.
“Our officers are not only trained but expected to be emotionally and physically prepared to respond to any incident on campus,” Chatman wrote. “Being unprepared is not an acceptable position when serving in a public safety role, especially on a university campus where community members depend on swift, competent and confident responses to crisis situations.”
DPS Lieutenant John Carvalho’s written account of the November 2021 incident said he personally called a PPD officer to request assistance — a breach of department protocol, according to Greco and one former officer. The call did not appear in the DPS’s dispatch log, which Greco and two former officers say is also a breach of protocol.
Chatman acknowledged the delay and wrote the decision “was made with careful consideration and best practice guidance on recognition and response to ‘swatting’ calls,” noting that other Ivy League schools received similar threats that day.
Chatman wrote that Carvalho’s call was “based on his operational judgement,” describing the way in which the call was placed as “not ideal” but adding that calls of this nature occasionally occur in “urgent settings.”
“We have since reinforced proce-
dures around documenting such contacts to enhance transparency,” Chatman added.
Carvalho did not respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
While Carvalho’s call was made to the PPD’s K-9 unit at 2:45 p.m., Sergeant Sean Kennedy — the first officer sent by the PPD — did not arrive at Brown until 3:50 p.m., according to internal docu-
Street and cleared Rhode Island Hall at 2:55 p.m., finding no suspected shooter, according to the event’s dispatch log.
None of the PPD’s reports of the incident obtained by The Herald mention the active shooter threat.
The DPS did not send an alert to Brown community members about the incident until 3:50 p.m., when the department informed those on campus that
ments written by Captain James Jackson of the DPS. This marked nearly an hour after the original call.
Chatman wrote that the PPD’s delayed arrival may have been due to “service prioritization and logistics” and that there “was no internal intentional delay.”
The PPD did not respond to a request for comment. Jackson could not be personally reached for comment.
After arriving at Brown, Kennedy was briefed on the threats, and he arranged for a PPD K-9 unit to respond.
The K-9 and officer arrived at the Main Green by 4:13 p.m. — nearly two and a half hours after the threat was first called in, according to the dispatch log.
Prior to the PPD’s arrival, Greco and other officers arrived on Bannister
both Brown and Providence police forces were “investigating multiple buildings on campus involving a bomb threat,” but made no mention of the shooting threats made against students and officers.
Greco and two other current and former officers expressed frustration with what they describe as a pattern of “vague” public alerts that do not contain all necessary information to update the community. The alerts are sent by DPS leadership, usually Chatman, and are required under federal law when there are “crimes considered to be a threat to other students and employees.”
When asked about these concerns, Chatman said that the DPS assesses threats “in real time” and evaluates “the credibility, immediacy and scope of the incident.”
UNIVERSITY NEWS
“While we strive for transparency,” Chatman wrote, “we also avoid broadcasting speculative or unconfirmed information that may cause unnecessary panic or compromise an investigation.”
After clearing the at-risk buildings named by the caller, the DPS closed the incident at around 6 p.m. that evening.
While the officers’ concerns and the DPS’s initial refusal to call the PPD appeared in the first rendition of Greco’s incident report, it was excluded from a modified version of the report, according to The Herald’s analysis of the two versions, both obtained from Greco. The second version lists an alteration date and time logged two days after the original submission.
This and modifications of other reports have raised red flags among some officers at the DPS who feel that doing so demonstrates the department’s willingness to discount employee concerns, according to three current and former officers, including Greco.
Reports may be changed when it contains “information that is inaccurate, superfluous or not essential to the legal or factual record,” Chatman wrote. “Supervisors are responsible for ensuring reports are factually accurate, free of speculative language and professionally written.”
After noticing that his report had been modified, Greco reached out to Chatman to discuss his concerns, Greco said. Chatman initially said that the department would schedule a debriefing meeting, but in a subsequent email reviewed by The Herald, Jackson requested — without providing a reason — that Greco be excluded from the meeting.
Chatman wrote that Greco “was not arbitrarily excluded from any communication or process” and that attendance in debriefings is decided by DPS command staff. “While we regret that Mr. Greco felt unsupported, we took his concerns seriously and responded accordingly.”
A little over a month after the original incident, Greco emailed Chatman and other DPS administrators again, reiterating his concerns about the department’s
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response to the threats.
“As I told you before, officers of this department, myself included, worry that Brown’s desire to protect its reputation, at all costs, leads to a willingness to gamble with our lives,” Greco wrote in the email.
Chatman replied, promising to schedule a meeting that included Greco. It was later scheduled for Jan. 13, 2022. In the meeting, which he recorded, Greco described how he and his colleagues felt unprepared to respond to the November 2021 incident, noting that they had discussed possibly walking away from the threat altogether.
After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that spring, Greco took a leave of absence from the department, but returned in fall 2022 due to a need for income.
On July 18, 2023 during the incident involving Hernandez, Greco’s PTSD flashbacks started to return as he felt department leadership continued to brush off his concerns, he said in an interview with The Herald. “They had stolen my sense of safety and control.”
“Mr. Greco’s fitness for duty became a legitimate concern raised by departmental leadership,” Chatman wrote. “Mr. Greco ultimately declined to participate in the required evaluation, which limited the department’s ability to resolve the matter through formal channels.”
This “fitness-for-duty evaluation” was intended to ensure that Greco “was emotionally and mentally prepared to carry out his responsibilities safely and effectively,” Chatman added.
Greco ultimately decided to leave the department in fall 2024, as he experienced increasingly severe PTSD symptoms triggered while working at the DPS.
In an email to The Herald, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote that the University did not wish to provide additional comment beyond Chatman’s response.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2025.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Rhode Island Senate President Dominick Ruggerio dies at 76
Ruggerio remembered as strong leader, champion for R.I. workers
BY LEV KOTLER-BERKOWITZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Rhode Island Senate President Dominick Ruggerio (D-North Providence, Providence) passed away Monday morning after a monthslong battle against cancer. He was 76 years old.
Ruggerio, a 41-year veteran of the State Senate and its longest-serving member, had served as Senate president since 2017. After missing much of the current legislative session, Ruggerio was admitted to Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence last week after having a “reaction” to a treatment.
Almost immediately following the announcement of Ruggerio’s passing, statements celebrating Ruggerio’s life poured in from across the state.
Ruggerio “will always be remembered for his unwavering commitment to supporting working families and strengthening Rhode Island’s economy,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a press release.
EDUCATION
In a statement sent to The Herald, R.I. Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos added that Ruggerio “was a perfect gentleman who prioritized respect and compromise.”
Ruggerio’s labor-related legislative accomplishments include creating a personal property tax exemption for R.I. businesses and introducing legislation to permanently establish a program to help Rhode Islanders gain critical workforce skills. In 2015, he sponsored a bill to develop the land in downtown Providence left available by the relocation of Interstate 195.
Ruggerio promoted several progressive reforms, sponsoring a bill in 2022 requiring 100% of R.I.’s electricity be offset by renewable production by 2033. The same year, he supported a legislative package that would pay for universal pre-kindergarten.
“Rhode Island lost an extraordinary leader and person this morning,” said R.I. Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Beretta-Perik in a RIDP press release. “He brought civility and respect to state politics,” she said.
“First and foremost, his legacy will be that of a truly dedicated public servant,” Providence City Councilor Juan Pichardo said in a statement.
In an email to The Herald, Ryan Strik, the director of government relations at the American Cancer Society, also highlighted Ruggerio’s work in public health legislation. Strik referenced Ruggerio’s collaboration with the ACS to expand coverage for colorectal cancer screenings and biomarker testing to many Rhode Islanders.
Ruggerio’s health battles caused him to miss a significant number of General Assembly sessions over the past year, leading many legislators to express concerns over his ability to lead the Senate. Despite these challenges, Ruggerio was re-elected as Senate President last December, but his passing now leaves the Senate’s highest-ranking position open for competition.
McKee ordered all U.S. and R.I. flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Ruggerio’s day of interment, and requested that Rhode Islanders do the same with any personal flags.
In addition, all Senate business that was scheduled for this week has been postponed out of respect for Ruggerio.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 21, 2025.
How Trump’s dismantling of the Education Department may impact the PPSD
Uncertainty pervades
Providence Public School Disctrict
BY JOY CHEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On March 11, the U.S. Department of Education announced that half of its staff would be placed on “administrative leave.”
Nine days later, Trump signed an executive order stating that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon must “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”
But McMahon said in a press release that “closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them,” adding that the Education Department will “continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student (loan) borrowers and others who rely on essential programs.”
Still, “the proposed changes will impede the work of the U.S Department of Education and undermine invaluable federal expertise and support that students, teachers and school leaders across our state and nation rely upon every day,” Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green shared in a press release last month, referencing the executive order aimed at dismantling the department.
According to Kenneth Wong, a professor of education policy, international and public affairs and political science, the Trump administration, without Congress, “cannot unilaterally dismantle” educational programs like Federal Title I, special education student support programs, college financial aid and the Pell Grant. Title I provides supplementary funding “for low-achieving children, especially in high-poverty schools,” according to
the Department of Education website.
Despite this, Wong shared that the federal government can still impact the Providence Public School District in many ways, such as removing funding streams.
“The federal government can use its funding power to change major initiatives in Providence public schools,” Wong said.
According to Infante-Green, $275 million of the state’s education spending is provided by the federal government, which is equivalent to 15% of the state’s education budget. A similar amount is included in Gov. Dan McKee’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget.
Currently, the Trump administration is attempting to reallocate certain programs to other agencies and reorganize
those programs’ funding and staff. For example, Special Education programs will be overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, while the Small Business Administration will administer student loan programs. Both programs were previously overseen by the Education Department.
Wong explained that the Education Department division tasked with civil rights compliance and enforcement has seen significant staff reductions. With the downsized civil rights division, Wong anticipated that the “federal response to parental and student complaints on equal access in educational programs will be substantially delayed.”
Wong also noted the gravity of federal
cuts in data collection, stating that it would “create a gap for school districts to benchmark their academic progress and reduce the level of university involvement in supporting data systems.”
“The confusing part is, when you give these functions from one agency to the other … they have their own culture and vision (which) may not be completely in alignment with the priorities of the education program,” Wong said, emphasizing how this shift in leadership can “create a degree of uncertainty going forward.”
The student loan portfolio for the Department of Education will be handled under the Small Business Administration. Wong expressed concerns regarding the extent to which the SBA “will fairly pro-
vide timely support to all eligible highneeds students (in accessing) post-secondary opportunities.”
In a 2023 Rhode Island KidsCount Factbook survey, 78% of PPSD students identified as low-income.
Miro Meek, an 18-year-old student at Classical High School and member of the Providence Student Union, called the dismantling of the Education Department and nationwide cuts to education funding “very concerning.” Meek added that many of his peers have recently changed their university plans in fear of student loans being removed.
The PPSD’s college matriculation rate of 55% is already lower than the state average, which sits at 68%.
To combat concerns over student loan funding, Wong proposed that the PPSD should create a timeline with better planning to ensure students start to apply for financial aid earlier. Wong hopes this would prevent application delays through technological platforms that have seen difficulties since the Trump administration’s dismantlement of the Education Department.
Despite these long-term impacts, Wong said that funding — particularly for Title I and special education programs — is mostly protected via Congress, “so unless Congress acts to eliminate those programs, funding will come through.”
But despite some of these reassurances, several community members within the PPSD referenced an atmosphere of uncertainty within the future of education.
“As a student activist, I feel like I’m witnessing a lot of fear,” Meek said. He described how among student organizers, “there’s a lot of people who are feeling like this is worse than they could have imagined.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 24th, 2025.
COURTESY OF GREG PARE McKee ordered all U.S. and R.I. flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Ruggerio’s day of interment. Courtesy of Greg Pare.
ANDREW ZHONG / HERALD
Currently, the Trump administration is attempting to reallocate certain programs to other agencies and reorganize those programs’ funding and staff.
RISD
International students make up a third of RISD’s undergraduate body
Students said they cherish having a large international student body
BY DIA NANDA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
This year, students from over 50 different countries flocked to the Rhode Island School of Design seeking a unique art school education. While international students compose roughly 6% of the U.S. higher education community, they make up around 33% of the RISD undergraduate population — over double the share of Brown undergraduates who are international students.
The Herald spoke to three international undergraduates at RISD about why so many students from abroad choose to come to the school and the United States for their studies.
Many RISD international students highlighted the American college education system’s flexibility as motivation to study art in the United States. For BrownRISD Dual Degree student Maximos Spatharakis ’29, U.S. art schools are“more experimental and more innovative” than those in his home country of Greece.
Kevin Chang, a first-year RISD student from Taiwan, echoed this sentiment, saying he chose to come to the United States for the “idea of freedom” and an “open mindset.”
Some students also highlighted RISD’s global reputation as another reason many international students choose to attend the school. Spatharakis specifically felt that art schools in other countries do not have the same recognition as art schools in the United States.
“Probably nobody knows what the
FOOD INSECURITY
best art school in Greece is,” he said.
“And I don't know what the best art school in Russia, in Spain or in Korea is. But if you ask me what the best art schools in the United States are, I would probably be able to name two or three without any trouble.”
With so many international students at RISD, Spatharakis said it often feels like being international is the “norm.”
But despite this large community, Spatharakis said it can be challenging when there aren’t many students from
your home country. Since “there are so many internationals, sometimes it feels like if you're not from one of those big countries that funnel into RISD, it’s a bit more isolated,” he said.
Almost half of RISD’s international community are from mainland China, which sends the most undergraduate students to RISD compared to other countries. Second is South Korea, followed by Canada.
For Chang, — a native Mandarin Chinese speaker — even sharing the language
with other students helps him feel less homesick, for instance.
Some students also pointed to safety as a reason they chose to come to school in the United States. An international student from Shanghai, who is transgender and was granted anonymity due to their personal safety concerns, cited increased acceptance of the queer community as a benefit of studying in the United States.
But since President Trump took office, the student has felt that the national environment has changed.
The Trump administration has been vocal about their anti-trans initiatives and Trump’s executive orders have declared that the U.S. only recognizes “two sexes, male and female.”
In early April, an international student at RISD had their student visa terminated. This has left many students feeling “really anxious,” according to the student from Shanghai. They feel that the visa terminations across U.S. schools are a way to “scare” the international community.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“It was very scary” when the news of the visa revocation broke, Spatharakis shared, adding that the uncertainty of what happens next if a student loses their visa has also become a concern. Now “there’s suddenly a world of bad possibilities that opens up” which international students didn’t have to think about before, he said.
Some international students said they wish that RISD would provide more information about what they are doing for the student who lost their visa.
Spatharakis would like RISD to be “a bit more transparent with what they are doing behind the scenes.” While he appreciates the communication RISD has provided to students, he claims the administration is projecting “blind optimism.”
The student from Shanghai also feels RISD hasn’t done enough. “I think instead of giving into the fear, RISD could help us to fight back,” they said, adding that RISD could do “more than just send us a few emails.”
RISD did not respond to requests for comment.
USDA funding cuts spell trouble for RI food relief programs, organizers say
Recent budget cuts may reduce food supply at local food banks
BY TALIA EGNAL SENIOR STAFF WRITER
When Donver Gardiner and Jacqueline Watson-Gardiner opened Your Neighborhood Food Pantry in May 2023 alongside five of their colleagues, they envisioned the food pantry serving the entire Providence North End neighborhood, from parents with young children to the elderly.
Many Rhode Islanders find that their incomes are not enough to cover the rising costs of living in Rhode Island. According to Watson-Gardiner, the executive director of the pantry, this financial strain has brought many families to their food pantry.
YNFP is open three days a week and serves up to 45 families a day. But recently, inventory has been running out quickly. The pantry restocks every Friday, but by Thursday, their shelves are “almost bare,” Watson-Gardiner said.
Recent funding cuts by the federal and state government to YFNP’s parent organization, Rhode Island Community Food Bank, has caused concern over the future of YFNP’s services. According to Watson-Gardiner, the food pantry gets between 90 to 95% of its food from the
RICFB.
Governor Dan McKee’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget will reduce RICFB’s funding by 31% — from $800,000 to $550,000. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also paused roughly half of the funding allocated to The Emergency Food Assistance Program. USDA commodities made up close to 30% of the
SIMONE STRAUS / HERALD
RICFB’s food supply last year.
So far, 14 of the 20 planned truckloads of TEFAP food support intended to arrive at the RICFB by August have been cancelled, according to Kate MacDonald, a spokesperson for RICFB. These deliveries would have delivered 541,000 pounds of food worth $1.2 million, MacDonald added.
RICFB has partnered with 147 member agencies to provide food supplies and a range of services, including housing support, daycare and help with utility bills, MacDonald explained. They currently serve a record-high of almost 85,000 people per month.
Under these mounting financial pressures, RICFB is “expecting the perfect storm right now,” MacDonald said. “Everything is very uncertain.”
MacDonald worries that proposed cuts to other programs — such as Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — could drive more people into debt and make them reliant on the services of RICFB member organizations.
RICFB “has full shelves right now and is able to provide our agencies with the food they need,” MacDonald noted. But, she added that providing these services has been getting “harder and more expensive to do.”
Nonprofit food hub Farm Fresh R.I. previously administered the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program — a federal initiative that supports food banks and organizations addressing food insecurity — before the program was cut earlier this year.
LFPA grants were meant to distribute over $1.1 million over three years, said Delite Primus, the advancement director for Farm Fresh R.I.
According to Primus, 38% of Farm Fresh’s annual budget comes from federal funding. In mid-March, the nonprofit laid off four staff members. Three other vacant positions have been left unfilled. Amid a constantly changing federal landscape, Primus also explained that Farm Fresh has kept in “very direct and continuing conversations” with Rhode Island’s national legislators. According to Watson-Gardiner, U.S. Representative Gabe Amo (D-R.I. 1) personally reached out to YNFP to see how they were being affected by the funding cuts.
In a press release sent to The Herald, Amo condemned GOP and Trump administration policies as “jacking up the cost of energy, groceries and gas while stripping working Rhode Islanders of critical support that helps them afford food.” Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) joined 24 other democratic senators in co-signing a letter condemning the TEFAP cuts. Cutting this program “will have a significant and damaging impact upon millions of people who depend upon this program for critical food assistance,” the letter reads.
“Hopefully (the politicians) are a voice for us as well,” Watson-Gardiner said “Their job is to fight for us.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 24, 2025.
RHEA RASQUINHA / HERALD
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
PUBLIC HEALTH
Survey shows broad support for opening local overdose prevention center
Survey conducted in fall 2024, before opening of Providence OPC
BY OLIVIA STACEY STAFF WRITER
A study conducted by Brown’s School of Public Health found that 74% of residents and employees working within a 0.75mile radius of the first state-authorized overdose prevention center supported the opening of a facility in their neighborhood.
The survey was conducted in fall 2024, before the center’s opening in December 2024. The OPC is run by the nonprofit Project Weber/RENEW and acts as a space where trained staff work to prevent drug overdoses.
The study is part of a broader project through the People, Place and Health Collective within the SPH. The project aims to examine the effects of OPCs on individual, community and organizational levels.
PUBLIC HEALTH
The team will continue to evaluate the impact of OPCs on communities by examining the change in public health conditions between people in close proximity to OPCs versus those that are not.
Researchers completed surveys in the neighborhood of the Providence OPC by knocking on doors, talking to people on the streets and speaking with individuals at local businesses. Participants were asked whether they support the opening of an OPC in their neighborhood — the
most common answers were “strongly agree,” and “agree,” according to Program Director Jackie Goldman ScM’19.
The team also measured what neighbors think of as “drug-related nuisances,” Goldman said, which includes visibility of “public drug use, syringe litter, visi -
ble signs of people who were unhoused, encampment remnants or other public disturbances.”
“In general, people were very supportive of it opening in their neighborhood, and people were even more supportive of opening here than elsewhere,” Goldman said.
Goldman shared that the Providence OPC provides “wraparound services,” like primary health care, referrals, housing aid and HIV and hepatitis C testing.
There are few OPCs in the United States due to “stigma and a lot of false narratives that if you have these kinds of sites, you’re going to encourage use,” Goldman said, adding that this sentiment has “not been true of the other overdose prevention centers that have opened.”
Alexandria Macmadu ’14 ScM’15 PhD’22, an assistant professor of epidemiology and member of Brown’s People, Place and Health Collective, said “policymakers often cite a perceived lack of community support for overdose prevention centers to justify their stance in
opposition to OPCs.”
But the results of the study contribute to the “growing body of evidence that OPCs are widely accepted by local communities,” Macmadu added.
The research team has received an award to fund the third year of the larger-scale OPC evaluation project, which will involve a study with 1,000 participants from New York City and Rhode Island that tracks “rates of fatal and non-fatal overdoses, drug-related health problems like skin and soft tissue infections and emergency department use,” Macmadu said.
The team will continue to evaluate the impact of OPCs on communities by examining the change in public health conditions between people in close proximity to OPCs versus those that are not, she added.
Looking to the future, Macmadu hopes that the data from the larger research project will “provide evidence to support activists and policymakers in other jurisdictions to potentially replicate these programs nationwide.”
Even the wealthiest Americans are dying before Europeans, Brown study finds
Study followed 74,000 adults across the U.S. and Europe
BY DALIA HEIKAL CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A new study from the Brown School of Public Health found that Americans are more likely to die earlier than Europeans, even at the highest levels of wealth.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed around 74,000 adults aged 50 to 85 across the US and Europe from 2010 to 2022. Researchers grouped participants by wealth quartiles, then compared their survival rates.
In every wealth bracket, Americans had worse survival rates than their European counterparts. In fact, wealthy Americans had survival rates comparable to the poorest Europeans in countries like France and Germany.
“We thought the wealthiest in the
US would at least match the wealthiest in Europe,” said Sara Machado, the first author on the study and a research scientist at the SPH’s Center for Health System Sustainability, or CHeSS. “But they didn’t.”
Instead of income, the study focused on wealth, which was defined by what people own, including savings and property. According to the researchers, wealth offers a fuller context when examining long-term access to resources, health stability and security.
The findings show how deeply inequality affects health in the US, said Irene Papanicolas, the study’s principal investigator and director of CHeSS. In countries with stronger social protections, like those in Europe, wealth is not as closely tied to life expectancy, she added.
“Your wealth matters for your health more in the US than in Europe,” Papanicolas added. “But it won’t buy you the same longevity.”
Machado noted that in some com -
parisons, survival patterns in the US more closely resemble those in Eastern Europe — where wealth inequality tends to be wider — compared to Western Europe.
“There’s a clear step ladder in the
US,” she said. “The poorer you are, the worse your health outcomes. That’s less true in most of Europe.”
Astrid Van Wilder, a postdoctoral research associate at the School of Public Health, who was not involved in the
study praised its design. Van Wilder also researches healthcare differences across countries. She said the focus on wealth, not income, makes the findings especially important.
“Wealth gives people security,” Van Wilder wrote in an email to The Herald. “And that security has a lasting impact on health.”
Although the study didn’t look at causes directly, policies in Europe — such as social care programs and “stronger safety nets” — likely play a role in equalizing health outcomes across economic groups, she added.
The researchers said the study is not meant to offer immediate policy recommendations, but they hope it sparks conversation.
“I don’t think one study changes public health,” Machado said. “But I hope it adds to the debate.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 20, 2025.
NIH staff instructed to freeze all funds to Brown, other institutions, per email
Email directs employees to withhold communication from the schools
BY ELISE HAULUND & CLAIRE SONG SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITORS
Staff at the National Institutes of Health have been instructed to freeze all agency funding awarded to Brown and several other institutions, according to one internal NIH email reviewed and verified by The Herald and obtained via an agency employee, as well as another internal NIH email shared by a journalist at Nature. The other impacted institutions listed on the email obtained by The Herald were Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and Northwestern University. The NIH employee who provided the email was granted anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The email instructed employees not to “provide any communication to these schools about whether or why the funds are frozen.” The message did not provide a reason for the freeze.
University Spokesperson Brian Clark said that Brown has yet to receive any official notice of the freeze.
When asked about the freeze, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily Hilliard wrote “HHS does not comment on ongoing investigations” in an email to The Herald.
This comes as the entire University has also been placed under investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over alleged violations of Title VI. The White House previously confirmed a $510 million planned funding freeze to Brown.
The email seems to continue the government’s pattern of wielding NIH
research money as a tool to target entire institutions. Previously, NIH grant terminations have been justified by the Trump administration as preventing tax dollars from being spent on research related to the LGBTQ+ community and diversity, equity and inclusion, as the administration says they no longer meet “agency priorities.”
As of Friday afternoon, at least $9 million in research grants at Brown had been terminated by the Trump administration, due to gender- and diversity-related terminology. The cuts have caused researchers to lay off some of their staff and has left some participants without treatment, The Herald previously reported.
On Monday, Brown, along with eight other universities, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy, following planned funding cuts in administrative “indirect costs,” which would lead to over $2 million annual loss for Brown.
The lawsuit described the funding cuts as “flagrantly unlawful,” adding that it would “devastate scientific research.”
President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 has repeatedly affirmed the University’s commitment to “academic
MAYA MURAVLEV / HERALD
Wealthy Americans had survival rates comparable to the poorest Europeans in countries like France and Germany, the researchers said.
SOPHIA LENG / HERALD
freedom” in the wake of recent federal actions.
KENNA LEE / HERALD
University Spokesperson Brian Clark said that Brown has yet to receive any official notice of the freeze.
RUGBY
Rugby dominates in Ivy 7s
The men’s club team took gold, while women’s varsity secured bronze
BY LYDELL DYER SPORTS EDITOR
There were only 90 seconds left in the Ivy 7s men’s club rugby championship game. Leading up to the tournament finale, the Bears had a flawless day, defeating Harvard 31-0, Penn 31-7 and Princeton 34-0. But with less than two minutes to go in the most important match of the tournament, Bruno was trailing Dartmouth by 3.
With the fate of Ivy League glory hanging in the air, Kenyon Graham ’25 took over. Saturday saw him at his best: Over the course of the previous three games, Graham had racked up four tries. As Bruno’s final game came to a close, it was time for him to claim his fifth.
Starting an attack along the right flank, the Bears lured Dartmouth’s defense to the sideline. As Brown approached, the Big Green flocked like moths drawn to a flame, leaving Dartmouth’s defensive line unevenly stacked. Exploiting this advantage, the Bears flipped the field.
In three quick passes, Brown crossed from right to left. Theo Romero ’27 took the ball past midfield, heading straight toward Dartmouth’s last defender. Preparing for contact, Romero fed the ball to Graham just before getting tackled to the ground.
A championship hung in the air, and with just over one minute left on the clock, Graham stole the lead for Brown. All the team had to do now was hold out on defense — and for one gruesome minute, during which Dartmouth desperately pounded at the gates of their tryzone, the Bears held strong. Brown won the game 19-15, and with the victory, became the 2025 Ivy League Club Cup Champions.
“It feels absolutely incredible to be the Ivy League 7s Champions,” wrote Raphael Lansonneur ’25, one of the team’s senior stars, in an email to The Herald. “It feels like all the hard work and the long hours of training finally paid off. But what makes this win even more special is sharing it
LACROSSE
with the guys.”
“This team isn’t just a team, we’re a family,” Lansonneur continued. “We’ve been through a lot together, and to come out on top with some of my closest friends means the world. We earned this as a group, and that makes the victory so much more rewarding.”
Even before stealing the lead, the Bears had delivered an emphatic performance against the Big Green. Although Dartmouth jumped to an early two-try lead, Bruno wasn’t shaken.
“That’s the nature of sevens,” Lansonneur wrote about the early deficit. “It’s fast, it’s unpredictable and momentum can shift in an instant. We knew going into it that not every play would go our way.”
“So when we went down early, no one panicked,” Lansonneur added. “We stayed composed, stuck to our game plan and kept believing and working.”
From 75 meters out, Tito Edjua ’27 put his speed on full display and speared toward the tryzone. A Big Green defender lunged for his legs, but Edjua evaded the shoe-string tackle, maintaining his balance and tip-toeing past his other two pursuers to bring Brown within striking distance.
With time running out in the first half,
Edjua scored again. From the midfield logo, he kicked the ball over the heads of Dartmouth’s defense. Tracking it down, he kicked it once more, evading defenders on his way to corral it. Finally recovering the ball, Edjua surged ahead, jumping into the tryzone for the score.
Even though Dartmouth reclaimed the lead early in the second half, Brown never gave up — and the results speak for themselves. After scoring 115 points and only allowing 22 in return, the Bears emerged as Ivy Champions. Though Graham led the team with five tries, both Edjua and Lansonneur tallied three tries each, and Leo Clayburgh GS added two of his own.
Only half an hour prior to the men’s club championship game, the women’s varsity team battled it out for third place.
“I was really impressed with the team’s grit,” Head Coach Rosalind Chou wrote about the team’s efforts to advance that far. “We were missing a number of key players this weekend, and some folks really stepped up.”
For the Bears, the story of the day was perseverance. Despite two defeats throughout the tournament — including a 31-point shutout against Dartmouth and a more competitive 26-7 loss against Harvard —
the team didn’t let setbacks stop them, instead attacking the following games with renewed vigor.
“The team is great about debriefing and identifying areas in which we need to improve,” Chou wrote. “This team never gives up, and it’s great to see them be able to bounce back.”
The battle for third place took place after the loss to Harvard, and this final match proved to be the perfect opportunity for the Bears to bounce back. Taking down Princeton 24-7, Brown did just that.
Lily Nowak ’27 was first score. Stopped just shy of the tryzone, the Bears played quickly out of the ruck, launching a series of passes to spread the field horizontally. When the ball reached Nowak, she dashed for the left corner of the tryzone, outsprinting the Princeton defense for five.
Just three minutes later, superstar Akilah Cathey ’25 — who received National Intercollegiate Rugby Association first-team honors for her efforts in 2024 — made her presence known. Stopping a burgeoning Princeton attack with a strong tackle, Cathey stole the ball and plunged through the heart of the Tiger defense for a score.
On the final play of the half, Nowak
doubled down. Julia Murray ’26 and Nowak headed toward the tryzone while Murray held the ball as long as possible. When she finally off-loaded to Nowak, the sophomore star ran home-free into the tryzone. Brown headed into the break with a 17-0 lead.
In the second half, the Bears continued their offensive onslaught. Three and a half minutes in, Yona Allouche ’28 joined in on the fun. Faking a pass, she got a Princeton defender to bite and took the ball herself into the tryzone for the 22-0 score. As time was running out, Princeton scored their first and only try of the game, which was, needless to say, not enough. Brown won 24-7, taking home third place.
“We knew we would be challenged with our lighter roster so we wanted to be able to play our game, tune up some things (and) build some depth,” Chou wrote. “I was absolutely impressed with how (the team) showed up today, and that’s all we could hope for.”
The team will next compete in the National 7s Collegiate Rugby Championships next weekend. The Bears will take the field as back-to-back reigning champions.
“We have learned that our systems work and when we play together as a team, we can do some really special things,” Chou concluded. “We want to build on that momentum and hopefully will have some players healthy enough to return to the roster for our national championship weekend.”
But the women aren’t the only ones about to compete on the national stage. Starting one day earlier, the men will also compete in the same championship tournament.
“Nationals has always been a tough challenge,” Lansonneur wrote. “That said, with the momentum we’ve built this season and the confidence we’ve gained, we’re definitely aiming for the title. We know it’s going to be a serious test as there are some really strong 7s programs out there, but we’re excited for the opportunity.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2025.
Women’s lacrosse qualifies for Ivy Tournament for first time despite loss to Princeton
BY GUS BAILEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On Saturday, No. 18 women’s lacrosse (104, 4-2 Ivy) fell 15-13 to No. 5 Princeton (12-2, 5-1) in a hard-fought contest that showcased the Bears’ resilience against one of the nation’s most elite programs. Despite the loss, Brown clinched a berth in the Ivy Tournament for the first time in program history.
During the match, the Bears wasted no time asserting themselves, with Greta Criqui ’25 firing the opening goal just 43 seconds into the game. Brown’s defense was equally dominant early on, and Princeton only equalized the scoreboard seven minutes later.
Bruno bounced right back, as Leah Caputo ’25 and Criqui responded with back-to-back goals to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. Although Princeton managed to trim their deficit down to one in the final seconds of the first quarter, the Bears carried a 3-2 lead into the second frame.
But in the second quarter, Princeton
continued to capitalize on this momentum with a devastating four-goal burst in a three-minute span. Not to be outdone, the Bears battled back, and Riley Peterson ’28 scored her first goal of the day, sparking a 3-1 run to close the half — narrowing the Tigers’ lead to one.
In an email to The Herald, Peterson said the key to Brown’s in-game resiliency was “knowing that we always have each other’s backs and will never stop fighting
till the last whistle.”
Coming out of halftime, Princeton stole the momentum with a 3-0 run while holding Brown scoreless for the first eight minutes. With the Tigers now at 10-6, Peterson ignited Brown’s second big counterattack, netting two goals in less than 90 seconds to fuel a 3-0 burst that, once again, cut Princeton’s lead to just one.
Reflecting on these crucial rallies, Peterson credited the team’s cohesive play
for keeping Brown in the game. She wrote that the Bears recovered their momentum through “smart plays by our defense to help the offense get back on our feet as well as great decision making by the attacking unit.”
But Princeton closed the third quarter with a goal, and in the fourth, they quickly added three more, building a 14-9 lead.
Despite a third valiant comeback effort during the final 12 minutes, which included two more goals from Criqui and one each from Peterson and Avery Doran ’28, the Tigers could not be defeated. Princeton emerged victorious, 15-13. The hard-fought loss snapped a four-game Ivy League winning streak for the Bears.
Despite the defeat, Peterson delivered a career-high four goals, continuing her recent breakout play. After contributing just three goals in limited minutes over the team’s first 10 games, she has come out strong, scoring nine times in Brown’s past four games.
“I’ve been working hard at practice to get into the (eight) meter when I dodge, and it really paid off in this game,” Peterson explained. “As a whole, our offensive gave it our all and fought till the end. We played for each other and gave it everything.”
Though Saturday’s outcome wasn’t what the Bears had hoped for, Brown qualified for the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history. The Bears currently boast a 4-2 record in conference play, leaving them tied with Penn and Yale for second place in the Ivy League and just one win behind Princeton.
The Bears’ attack has been a major factor in their success this season, as they rank second in the country in assists per game as a team.
With the most important games of the season ahead of them, Peterson is confident that the Bears will be up to the challenge. “I think as a team we know that we can play against anyone and compete,” she wrote. “Saturday goes to show that we will come prepared, and I know that this team will come more than ready for postseason play in the Ivy league tournament.” Brown will close out the regular season this Saturday when they host No. 14 Penn. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2025.
COURTESY OF TAMAR KREITMAN VIA BROWN ATHLETICS
In Ivy 7s, the women's varsity team secured third place after suffering two losses to Harvard and Dartmouth.
The Bears showcased resilience against one of the nation’s best teams
COURTESY OF MATT KIPP VIA BROWN ATHLETICS
Despite the defeat, Peterson delivered a career-high four goals, continuing her recent breakout play.
post-
Letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with the perfect goodbye. I was consumed by Siena’s goodbye the first time I read it; I cried when I came across my own name in Aditi’s piece. I was in awe of their ability to perfectly capture what graduating seniors feel every spring—exactly how I am feeling right now. I have struggled more than I would like to admit to write this short editor’s note, starting and restarting drafts to find a way to express both the grief and the gratitude I feel right now. See, I have spent one evening every week for the last four years huddled around this tiny table with far too few chairs in the upstairs of 88 Benevolent Street, surrounded by people who are nothing short of pure joy. There have been nights that I thought I physically could not laugh any harder, incapacitated over the dumbest Top Tens or meme formats, when editing felt like an impossible task to ask of me. Goodbyes are hard, and even harder when you are as lucky as I am to have a place like post- to call home. This week in post-, two of my very best friends say their goodbyes too. In Feature, Alissa muses on the presence of the moon in different phases of her life, and in Lifestyle, Katherine writes a time capsule of memories for herself and future Brown students, reflecting on her four years at Brown. In the second Feature, Ayoola also speaks to endings, writing about learning to be present as someone who likes to plan ahead. In Narrative, Ana similarly ruminates on living in the moment,
considering the time and patience she has learned through her darkroom photography class. Lynn, our second Narrative writer, speaks to how food can preserve family traditions and bring people together. Angel in Post-Pourri also writes about food, recommending a recipe for spaghetti sauce. In A&C this week, Jamie writes about meeting one of her favorite poets, and AJ reflects on Farewell My Concubine 22 years after its release. In our second Lifestyle piece, Chelsea compiles a list of poem suggestions, pondering their meaning in relation to each month of her freshman year at Brown. Finally, to top it off, a big crossword this week by Lily is filled with Brown-inspired clues.
I write this in Rhode Island Hall, having finally come inside after one of those idyllic Main Green days that is almost impossible to tear yourself away from. Today, I stayed longer than I needed to, lingering in the last drops of the day’s sunshine. In these final weeks, I hope you will take the time to appreciate the people and the places that make you whole—to linger, to drag out moments at doorsteps and lunches and late nights. In these final weeks, I will prolong my goodbyes.
As I write this, I can’t help but notice how similar it is to other last editor’s notes—other seniors saying their goodbyes to post- and to Brown. Just as they always have, the traditions that I have fallen in love with will continue on, and in another four years, someone I have never met may be writing a variation of these same words for post-. I will read them with nostalgia for the past and all that I cannot return to, but most of all, with gratitude for the privilege of having been a small part of what makes this magazine so special.
Reading future issues of post—,
Tabitha Lynn Lifestyle Managing Editor
Let's Learn About Brown! (& other things)
By Lily Coffman
“Magnolias, cherry blossoms, and daisies are everywhere. Signs of rejuvenation. In the past few weeks, I’ve spent hours basking in the sun, pondering the ubiquitous joy felt around campus.”
— Katherine Mao, “Lawn People” 04.25.24
“Against all odds, the time has elapsed. The months passed even when you didn’t believe they would. The stories played out, and then got told over, and over, and over. You’ve lived it, it’s been so full of knowing, and you’ve been so, so lucky. Everyone you’ve learnt and loved is yours to keep.”
Across
1. Brown-nose (the actual definition, no relation to Brown's satirical newspaper the Brown Noser)
6. Issa who played 'President Barbie'
9. 5280 feet
1. Annual poker championship held in Nevada, abbr.
13. Southeast Asian capital known for its Chinese and French influences
5. Assert, without proof
14. Public univ. in the Tar Heel state
1. Socially reject
2. Spiritual life force in Polynesian mythology
Down
3. Biblical father of giants
1. Prison employee
4. Cowboy competition
2. Tree tool and chainsaw company
5. You might use it to flip someone off while your hands are preoccupied
3. Herman Melville sequel to Typee
CandidatesPope
1. You ;)
15. Spice found in the cuisine of 66-Across 16. Remove one's friendship, as on Snapchat
11. Data visualization technique with varying degrees of color intensity
6. Re-vote after an inconclusive election, such as in the battle for UCS president
4. Screen or separation
7. Soon, to Shakespeare
5. *Piece of produce who sang "Paper Bag"
2. Me ;)
3. Your mom ;)
17. Partner to neither
14. Bits and ____
18. Counterparts to bases
15. Latin for "from what is earlier"
8. Hue of unbleached linen
9. Receiver of someone else's snot?
6. Super Bowl in which Maroon 5 was the halftime show, abbr.
4. Stanley Tucci
5. Popemobile from Cars 2
16. Unit of seasons
19. Brown finals activity that puts the n, u, d, & e in "student"
10. [Gasp! I am filled with fear!]
11. Gent
7. Minor deity
6. Trisha Paytas’ unborn child
22. Snowy sidekick in "Frozen"
17. *Spicy capsicums who sang "Californication"
8. Green prefix
23. Something one might bat
19. "Let's make like an orange and ____"
12. Clubs/orgs. that one participates in outside of class, like the Crosswording Club!
9. HS diploma equivalent
7. Russell Carey
8. Hot Priest
24. Bay Area agency responsible for BART and Muni
15. Bareilles of "Brave"
20. Words of reassurance
27. Shroud, as in silence
21. Danish composer of The Witch
30. David known for his gun control activism
25. Govt.-issued ID
10. Opposite of WNW
20. Mom of dragons in GOT
11. Talks persistently (on a particular topic)
9. Lorde
10. My ungrateful shit-eating sister
21. Abbrev. often found at the end of a long email or Reddit thread
12. Fencing swords
26. Where you might let him cook
33. Like a spoiled child (or the name of a Brown dining hall + one letter)
13. Highest woodwind
27. *Bakery item who sang "Baby I'm-A Want You"
28. Sheer soft fabric for curtains
35. Famed Brown professor of psychoceramics, which includes the study of pots and heads (and also probably potheads)
29. 1995 hit by Alanis Morissette, "You ___ Know"
37. Avoided on moral grounds
38. Cash grab machine
24. Trains that go to Boston, with a station just a 20 minute walk from campus
16. Galway land
25. Chapman whose car is definitely not slow
18. Did consume a beverage
26. Photos of a beachy tent, on a hotel listing perhaps?
22. Hawaiian anchovy
23. First word in NASA, abbr.
39. Distributor of media, such as a TV show or radio program
30. Description of music in a quote by Arthur Schopenhaeur...or a hint to 5-Down and 17-, 27and 43- Across
28. Relating to 8, like a standard academic year with 8 courses over 2 semesters
24. Civil Rights law of 1990
29. Bonnie and Clyde were famously on it
26. "Modern Family" actress Vergara
40. Brown has the highest number of this type of group per capita
42. Steep-sided gully
33. Yummy sauce to put on your Cantonese BBQ pork
34. Gave five stars
35. Prefix with pot, gram, or cart
43. Button that you might have to press when connecting your phone to a speaker
36. What a Brit calls algebra or geometry, etc.
44. Unwavering stability, unlike the walls of the ArchBron basement when it rains
37. Heads of corn
46. Web feed often used in podcast production
40. Word to describe the South Asian diaspora
47. [Excuse me]
49. It means nothing to the French
41. Wish granter
42. ____, a-two, ____, two, three, four
51. It is said that if you step on a north campus seal, you will be struck with this affliction
43. *Multicolored legume who sang "My Humps"
57. Lit. genre with tractor beams and aliens
59. Vessel often associated with Grecian potter
46. Largest American cactus
49. Rhode Island's is Reed or Whitehouse
60. WWII fleet weapon
61. Mini version of a McDonald's classic
50. Small, spotted wild cat
51. Sunbathers on a beach, perhaps
62. Cold, solid substance found in the base of Del's lemonade
52. Elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom
63. One of America's most renowned film critics
53. Front's counterpart
64. Place sung about by the Beatles on their White album... definitely not known for anything else
65. Archaic denial
66. Middle Eastern country
27. School transportation methods
31. Short title for a medical drama that has been on TV for a long time
30. Former Lakers center Shaquille
28. A small room which opens into a larger one
32. Greek pita sandwiches
29. Words following song, artist, and rookie in awards
30. Quality of sound
34. Youth spinoff of a popular elimination style cooking show
36. Outdoor meaty meals
31. Cat's expression of warning
38. Swiss mountain
41. White, fluffy quadraped
32. Superlative for a cookie most likely to contain raisins, as compared to other cookies
Section
Section
33. Concealed
42. French girlfriend
CROSSWORD
LAYOUT
36. "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" artist
45. Scottish island recognized by UNESCO for its neolithic sites
48. Arab ruler
37. Heli______
38. ____ the other
50. Coarse, like the carpets found in many Brown dorms
39. Brown mascots
52. Destroy
41. Country music singer Brooks
53. Certain "murderous" marine mammal
42. In modern-day Cilicia
54. South African long-barreled gun
44. Home of Vientiane
55. South Asian garment known for its versatility
56. James of "At Last"
45. French-derived feminine noun ending
Section
Layout
46. A piece of wet, soft land
57. Texas sch. located in one of the richest cities in the US
58. ___ in Christina Paxson
47. Health care reform law under Obama, abbr.
48. Like Z or X
Aditi Marshan, “A Chronological
OPINIONS
Barrozo ’26: How to reorient yourself in disorienting times
As we approach finals and contend with an unhalting news cycle, it feels as though the world has turned sideways. In these slanted days, when my mind has grown heavy with noise and my body runs on instinct alone, I have felt the urge to reorient. By infusing my days with little rituals — gestures that slow my pace and ground me — I have been able to straighten my world once again.
In the opening chapters of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince,” the narrator observes how when we mature, we lose our sense of wonder. “All grown-ups were once children – although few of them remember it,” he tells us. The question here isn’t one of age but of attitude. In falling victim to the urgency of routines, we forfeit our openness to spontaneity. We become overly attuned to what is immediate and measurable, as if time not filled is time squandered. That belief in the necessity of constant productivity is part of the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, this mindset can be necessary, as it propels us toward our goals and anchors us in motion. But when time is partitioned by deadlines and to-do lists, we leave ourselves no time for the diversions that bring us joy. Returning, if only momentarily, to childhood — a
state of creativity and wonder — can offer a reprieve from the relentless demands of our routines at Brown.
In the early 20th century, when the world was rapidly modernizing, a group of eccentrics arose in Paris — the Surrealists. In 1924, André Breton concretized this artistic movement by publishing The Manifesto of Surrealism, a call to re-enchant the world. They sought not to escape from reality, but to elevate it into a dreamscape where wandering without purpose can lead to unimagined revelations or encountering an everyday object can reveal a kind of magic hidden in plain sight.
Their romantic belief in the marvelous hidden within the mundane is refreshing. For them, chance was not chaos but opportunity, and spontaneity was not frivolity but renewal. So, in the spirit of the Surrealists, I insist that in disconcerting times like today, it is essential to carve out space for small, yet intentional acts that reimagine the way we move through the world. As difficult a sacrifice as it may seem, making time for a sliver of dreaming can surprisingly disrupt the weight of routine. What this looks like will vary for each of us, as it’s a quiet, personal practice. I can’t prescribe it, but I can
We become overly attuned to what is immediate and measurable, as if time not filled is time squandered. “ “
offer a glimpse of my own rituals, in the hope that they might serve as a starting point.
I always begin with my head tilted up towards the stars. I try, most days, to find the moon at least once. Noticing what’s above reminds me of worlds beyond my own, of other possibilities. It is a gentle relief, especially when my mind is heavy with the thoughts of approaching deadlines.
After hours spent sitting still, buried in my computer, I find that setting my body in motion can be quite restorative. When riding my bike, for instance, the landscape blurs and reshapes itself, and I remember that life can look different when you shift your approach. And sometimes, all it takes is a change in pace or a new rhythm to feel refreshed.
KENDRA EASTEP / HERALD
With movement comes breathing — another way to let go of the overburdened mind and find a path back into the grounding rhythms of the body. Lately, I’ve enjoyed afternoon walks as a way to watch the rebirth of spring in Providence. And at the end of each day, I appreciate watching the sunset. It is the last of my tiny rituals that compels me to pause and look beyond myself. In moments like these, of looking outwards, I begin to find my way back.
Julia Barrozo ’26 can be reached at julia_barrozo_do_amaral@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
Guan ’27: When fighting Trump’s attacks on higher education, let’s keep it brief
This academic year, defined by unprecedented hostility between the federal government and elite universities, has been no less eventful than the last. The torrent of recent developments at Brown, from a student’s visa revocation to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has caused great unease on College Hill.
We are staring down the barrel of the most serious threat to academic freedom and integrity in a generation. The battles, both grassroots and institutional, have already begun. Protests have enveloped campuses from Hanover to Philadelphia, and Harvard recently became the first Ivy League institution to sue the federal government over a funding freeze.
Given all there is at stake, activism will likely not be getting a break anytime soon. But this time,
we must keep our messaging focused and on-topic — attempting to advocate for every issue risks alienating potential allies whose participation is necessary for an effective defense.
As grassroots activists, our goal must be to attract the largest coalition possible because in a democracy, there is safety in numbers. If we mix support for one issue with another and another — as seen with the blending of pro-Palestine and labor movements here at Brown — we create a convoluted web of political standpoints that only narrows our appeal and alienates potential supporters. To rally the numbers needed to challenge the Trump administration, we will require the support of those who may not share all our views.
We must also recognize that public interest is an extremely limited commodity. While Brown is
MAX ROBINSON / HERALD
“ “
If we mix support for one issue with another and another — as seen with the blending of pro-Palestine and labor movements here at Brown — we create a convoluted web of political standpoints that only narrows our appeal and alienates potential supporters.
built on intellectual curiosity, there are many students and potential allies who are not politically conscious. If we make every issue into a mountain, we risk overwhelming them and thereby diluting the authority of our words. The attention and dedication of otherwise indifferent people is crucial to our success. Without them, we will yet again become fodder to mainstream media as representatives of nothing more than privilege and radicalism.
The Ivy League, composed of eight wealthy private institutions, does not usually attract public sympathy. I frankly find it nothing short of remarkable that so many have rallied in our support, and there may never be another opportunity quite like this. It is time we use this valuable momentum to
target the issues that matter most to our lives: relentless attacks on universities and their students. I am confident in our ability to fight these attacks on our institution, but only if we are determined not to repeat our past mistakes. So when we get out there, let’s condemn Trump’s attacks on institutional freedom. Let’s criticize the Department of Homeland Security’s unjustified and arbitrary treatment of international students. But let’s also keep it to just that.
Lucas Guan ’27 can be reached at lucas_guan @brown. edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@ browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
In anticipation of move-in day, I giddily perused the Google Maps Street View of Providence. By the time I carried my suitcases into Andrews Hall, I had a full itinerary of Providence attractions — coffee shops, running paths, stores and parks.
My first trip was to East Providence. I crossed the Seekonk and hurried down the East Bay Bike Path. I grinned as I looked back towards downtown Providence — I was living in a city! The novelty was most exciting: the abandoned factories across the water, the Superman peering over Kennedy Plaza, the Sciences Library slicing through College Hill’s silhouette. There was so much to get to know.
Lair ’28: A lesson from small town America — Pop your Brown bubble “
I realized that my enthusiasm towards Providence is somewhat unique. The “Brown Bubble” stereotype proved to be true: students rarely wander beyond College Hill. For me, the transition from rural Pennsylvania to any metropolitan area was thrilling enough to transcend this isolation.
But my excitement goes beyond my — what some would call — lower standards. The intimate experience of a small town upbringing has encouraged me to fully appreciate everywhere I live, a mindset we should all adopt in college. It’s worth it to be Providence citizens, not merely Brown students.
Upon moving in, my sense of disconnect irked me. As much as I enjoyed the newness of a charming campus, I immediately felt the need to expand
my radius. My goal became to live here as a resident, not a visitor. I steadily ventured further past campus: Fox Point, Downtown, Federal Hill and The Jewelry District. Eventually, local businesses and public spaces became parts of my weekly routine. Every Sunday, I chat over breakfast at Dave’s Coffee with my friend Vivian. After Spanish on Tuesdays, I run along Blackstone Boulevard. On
“
I must admit, my small town ambition isn’t entirely responsible for my proficiency in Providence history. This semester, I had the advantage of URBN 0230: “Urban Life In Providence: An Introduction,” a First Year Seminar that equipped me with the full canon of Providence’s development. I often flex my knowledge to anyone who accompanies me on a walk — perhaps somewhat ironically, but there’s a
It’s worth it to be Providence citizens, not merely Brown students.
the way back from tutoring, I take the scenic route across the pedestrian bridge.
Eventually, these routines converged into a sense of belonging, but my knowledge of Providence was incomplete. It lacked an especially important dimension: time! So, second semester, I tasked myself with mastering Providence history.
Cooper-Nelson: Gratitude in
a Chaplain’s farewell
As another academic year comes to a close, it seems like only yesterday that I mailed my annual letter to incoming Brunonians. Maybe you remember receiving or reading it? Now, I send a final grateful goodbye through the pages of The Herald. Though in my retirement, the situation on College Hill will no longer be my first concern, your firsthand reports of deep engagement have heartened me. So this time I send a loving paper airplane your direction to say a simple but profound thank you.
While I knew and loved this work before I knew and loved Brown, life here is swift and intricate. In our shared life — a life with both immobilizing griefs and radiant triumphs, deflating failures and surprising reconstructions, bewildering questions and startling love — I often felt dizzy, even exhausted. Slowing the pace was futile. Jumping into the currents with questions and caffeine forged unbreakable bonds.
Years beyond the degrees you will receive — in boardrooms, courtrooms and operating rooms, at demonstrations, airports or cathedrals — Brunonian voices, your voices, remain distinct and audible. Your music echoes like a familiar hymn steeped in traditions we practiced, conversations overheard and memories cherished on College Hill. Perhaps it is the fragrant ink of spring’s magnolias that etched invisible tattoos on Brunonian hearts? Whatever it is, I feel it now, and stepping away is harder than I imagined.
American higher education is under threat and engulfed in chaos. Yet our leaders’ voices are steadily rising in resistance and protection. This critical work shares a resonance with a beloved passage from the ancient text of the third Isaiah (50:4): “GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning (God) wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.”
The privilege of receiving an education is neither a commodity to own nor a prestige to flaunt. Exercised in courageous ways, education holds the miraculous capacity “to sustain the weary.” Our capacity to rescue the unjustly accused, to feed, to shelter, to heal and to pursue new knowledge proves the boundless potential of learning. But these outcomes are never quick.
Those aggrieved by our system of higher ed-
orful houses and renovated mills as I made my way to Federal Hill. Between two of these blocks, I could just make out the top half of downtown. I recalled the excitement of my first trip down the bike path. But my new east-facing view prompted a different emotion: pride. I regained my homey sense of familiarity; I felt like I really knew my college city.
The triumph of small town living is the personal knowledge of your surroundings — it is an unconscious side-effect of daily life. In Providence, I was able to form the same personal connection that I enjoyed back home. Every Brown student can do the same, but, in a city, it is a choice that requires effort.
real sense of joy in knowing the details of your surroundings. It makes the city dynamic and intriguing while unlocking new aspects of Providence.
During one of my field excursions for class, I took the RIPTA to the West End: a post-industrial neighborhood on the other side of I-95. I hopped out onto Dexter Field and strolled through blocks of col-
During an antsy transition like college, it is easy to close ourselves off to what is around us. But our college experience doesn’t have to end at the Van Wickle Gates — we’re surrounded by opportunities to enrich our day-to-day lives and contribute to the larger community that’s hosted us for centuries. Our hill-top bubble is comfortable, but, in order to make Providence our home, it’s up to us to venture beyond it.
CJ Lair ’28 can be reached at craig_lair @brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
a time of grievance
ucation find fault with its deliberateness and demand for efficiency and immediacy. Cheaper and quicker are asserted as moral goods — a critique
politicized demolition never produces sound learning or societal change. It harms and requires costly recovery and repair. But the impact on lives
that is both wrong-headed and infuriating. My lifelong immersion in education disqualifies me from being a dispassionate observer. I see clearly that
is always the measure. The firm reply now rising from university leaders across the nation evokes the beloved language of Brown’s 18th-century
For my part, if occasionally weary after 35 years, I send my beloved Brown family only heartfelt gratitude for your inspiring companionship and courage in these troubling times. The invitation to serve as your Chaplain was the blessing of a lifetime.
the current slashing of jobs and programs is cynical and rooted in a gross misunderstanding of the patience required to teach and to learn. Impatient,
Charter. The University’s obligation to the rising generation is to enable them to “discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation” — this
remains a reliable metric for the truly educated in the 21st century.
Leaders of merit who step up to protect our universities and our beloved nation in this time of precarity should take comfort in the words of the 19th-century poet, Emma Lazarus. Her words, forever etched into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, define the ethos of our nation: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Her words boldly conveyed her empathy for Jewish refugees, fleeing antisemitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, who would sail to our shores. Her poem offered rest for their weariness and conveyed her nation’s unconditional commitment to their good.
No less is asked of us than of Lazarus. As a University family entrusted with scholars and colleagues from across the globe, shared learning requires a shared commitment to safety. Surely the capacity entrusted once to Isaiah and Lazarus is also ours. There is much to speak and to write to sustain the weary, to convey hope,to intercede and to insist on even if uncomfortable or potentially endangering. To do less is to fail our generation and the present moment.
For my part, if occasionally weary after 35 years, I send my beloved Brown family only heartfelt gratitude for your inspiring companionship and courage in these troubling times. The invitation to serve as your Chaplain was the blessing of a lifetime.
May the poetry, grit and urgency that we need be granted so that together we can meet this moment Ever True. “The Students are Watching,” wrote our late Professor Ted Sizer. So is the world, and so is the One who blessed us with the privilege of learning. The weary await.
Reverend Janet Cooper-Nelson is the Chaplain of Brown University and Director of the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life . She can be reached at janet_cooper-nelson@brown.edu. Please send responses to this op-ed to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
SCOUT CHEN / HERALD
ARTS & CULTURE
LECTURE BOARD
Colin Jost takes students behind the scenes of SNL at Brown Lecture Board talk
Jost discussed experiences writing skits for the show
BY TALIA LEVINE & SOPHIA WOTMAN ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR & UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
On Tuesday evening, hordes of students flocked to the Salomon Center for Brown Lecture Board’s spring event — a conversation with writer, comedian and actor Colin Jost. The event was moderated by Brown Lecture Board President Will Havens ’25.
Jost is known for his work on Saturday Night Live, where he started as a writer in 2005 and became co-head writer in 2012, later taking on the role of co-anchor on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment in 2014. During his time on SNL, he has won five Writers Guild Awards, two Peabody Awards and has been nominated for 14 Emmy Awards.
Jost also wrote the film “Staten Island Summer” and has acted in films such as “How to Be Single” and “Tom and Jerry.” In 2020, he published his memoir “A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir,” which became a New York Times Bestseller.
The last time Jost was at Brown was for a college tour, he said at the beginning of the event. The “only colleges I was accepted to were Harvard and Brown,” he added. Although he eventually attended Harvard as an undergraduate, Jost said that his parents met at Brown, and it remains “a very special place” for him.
Jost said he originally struggled when he started as co-anchor of “Weekend Up-
date,” revealing that his experience was “deeply existentially stressful” for his first several years. But after some time, he said that he grew more accustomed to the role and began to have more fun with it.
“Now it is something I genuinely look forward to at the end of every week,” Jost added.
Jost also spoke about the often unpredictable nature of “Weekend Update,” highlighting how former SNL cast members such as Bobby Moynihan and Leslie Jones would incorporate physical comedy into their live performances.
“Once you get past being nervous that you’re going to get fired all the time, you start to appreciate those moments and how rare they are and how thrilling it is to be in that moment live,” Jost said.
While Jost himself is typically only on-air in “Weekend Update,” he still continues to write sketches for other cast members on SNL. Since his role on the
show is more “limited” in terms of his performance capacity, Jost said he enjoys getting to write for cast members who deliver a line in a way that is “so much better than it was even written.”
Jost also revealed that he has written more SNL sketches than have aired on the show, noting that the process is “way more rejection than it is acceptance.”
He shared some sketch ideas that did not make it on the air, including Law and Order UTI, Kevin Hart coming down Santa’s chimney for Christmas and 23andMe for dogs.
“In my version, you would send your dog’s DNA in the mail, and they would send you back a piece of paper that said — ‘its a fucking dog,’” Jost said.
Jost and his “Weekend Update” cohost Michael Che’s well-known segment “Joke Swap” originated from the pair wanting to tell jokes that were cut and not allowed to appear on the show, Jost said. He went on to share several “cen -
sored” jokes with the crowd.
During the event, Jost also emphasized the role comedy plays during the “absurdity” of current times and present issues with the federal government.
While he joked, “I definitely don’t think I’m going to solve” current political issues, he explained that he does believe “comedy can be helpful in highlighting particular hypocrisies.” And while Jost doesn’t believe all comedians must engage with politics directly, he said they can play an important role in democratic systems.
Lecture attendee Thomas Leggat-Barr ’28, a fan of Jost’s previous work, told The Herald that he thinks “satirizing news is something that I feel like is increasingly important.” He added that people “should make jokes out of some of the really crazy stuff that's happening right now.”
In his lecture, Jost similarly touched on the role of comedy in more interpersonal life challenges and how it can help people “cope with difficult times.”
“If you have friends who are funny, your life is going to be happier,” Jost said. “If you have a partner in life who’s
funny, it’s going to get you through a lot of hard times,” he added, referring to his wife, Scarlett Johansson.
In an interview with The Herald, Eden Lewis ’27 said that she had attended the event since she is a big fan of “Weekend Update” and “Pop Culture Jeopardy!” — which Jost hosts. “I thought his comedic timing was really good,” Lewis added.
For Maya Varma-Wilson ’27, the best part of the event was hearing Jost tell jokes that didn’t make the cut for SNL. “I didn’t know how comedic he would be sitting on stage without a script, but I thought he was really good,” Varma-Wilson said. “He played off the interviewer and the audience really well.”
Anna Hurd ’25 said that she enjoyed how “personable” Jost was, adding that he was very “engaged with the audience.”
“When you watch him on SNL, you think that he’s playing a character, but it’s just kind of himself,” Hurd said. “I feel like that came through in the stories that he told.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2025.
Sean Baker details filmmaking process, authenticity at Ivy Film Festival
Four-time Academy Award-winning director spoke at annual festival
BY MANAV MUSUNURU ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
On Saturday evening, the Ivy Film Festival hosted a conversation with Sean Baker — director of the Oscar-winning movie “Anora” — as a part of its 24th annual festival. The talk was held in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts in collaboration with Brown Motion Pictures and the Brown Arts Institute.
Moderated by IFF co-director Maiya Jannah ’25 and IFF member Spencer Myers ’28, the event started with a discussion about Baker’s education at New York University and the New School.
After graduating from NYU in 1998 following a six-year “leave of absence,” Baker wanted to “focus on (his) directing career,” he told attendees. But with the rise of digital revolution in film, Baker decided to return to the classroom to take a course on non-linear editing at the New School.
Since completing his education, Baker has directed a number of films, including “Tangerine” in 2015 and “The Florida Project” in 2017. Last month, Baker became the first-ever person to win four Academy Awards in the same year for the same film, “Anora.”
Baker told attendees that his four wins have only “started to sink in” within the past few weeks. After the Academy Awards,
he immediately went back to work, embarking on a research trip for his next film with his wife, Samantha Quan, who co-produced “Anora” with Baker.
When creating “Anora,” Baker’s only goal was for the film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival, he said. So when “Anora” won the Palme d’Or — Cannes’s most prestigious award — at the festival last year, he was shocked.
“I almost had a panic attack,” Baker said, describing how he felt when he realized he would have to campaign the film for the Oscars. He doesn’t like to think about awards to avoid “jinxing” himself, he added.
While filming “Anora,” Baker knew that Mikey Madison’s performance was Oscar-worthy — and he was right. In March,
Madison, who plays the titular character, Anora, won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.
During the film’s pre-production process, Baker met with Madison to determine her interest in the project. After taking the role, Madison asked for updates on and would provide feedback throughout the writing process, according to Baker. This collaboration, Baker said in the talk, made Madison’s Oscar win much more meaningful.
Many of Baker’s films focus on the experiences of marginalized groups: sex workers in “Anora,” children from low-income families and the “hidden homeless” in “The Florida Project” and transgender
people in “Tangerine.” While Baker said the underrepresentation of these groups in Hollywood is what draws him to these stories, he emphasized his commitment to retelling these experiences in a “responsible, respectful way.”
To establish trust with members of these groups, Baker works with liaisons who are connected to these communities, he said. When creating his 2004 film “Take Out,” Baker relied on his co-director ShihChing Tsou — who speaks Mandarin — to converse with immigrants working at a Chinese restaurant underneath the co-directors’ shared apartment in Manhattan. Hearing these accounts “led us to the story” of “Take Out,” Baker said.
Later, while working on his 2008 film “Prince of Broadway,” Baker attempted to interview numerous sellers of counterfeit goods and was redirected to Prince Adu, a West African immigrant living in Manhattan. Adu, an aspiring actor, was cast as the film’s lead character and was able to convey “the real experience — the African experience here in Manhattan,” Baker said.
Baker similarly worked with Mya Taylor — a transgender sex worker who was later cast as one of the film’s leads — to accurately portray the experiences of transgender people and sex workers in “Tangerine.”
In Saturday’s talk, Baker described his rise to fame as both a blessing and a curse for his career. Although he now has access to larger film budgets, this has made it harder to negotiate deals with artists during the filming process. While filming “Anora,” Baker became attached to “Gucci Flip Flops
(feat. Lil Yachty)” by Bhad Bhabie, but in order to use a snippet of the song in the film, Baker would have had to pay a price well above his budget, he told attendees. In the end, Quan and co-producer Alex Coco convinced him to use another song in the scene instead.
When he was constrained by a smaller budget, Baker had to resort to “bartering … begging, borrowing and stealing” to create his films, he said. During the production of “Tangerine,” Baker only had to pay one restaurant a small fee to film there, as the other filming locations for the movie were free, he recalled.
Baker noted that when selecting locations for filming, the most important consideration is to ensure businesses that they won’t be affected by filming, adding that he had to wait for people to order while filming “Tangerine” and shoot around customers for “Take Out.”
But these low-budget, indie movies are what helped Baker rise to prominence within the film industry, he said. Baker recalled that when he was an amateur filmmaker, many of his friends would judge him for making low-budget films, seeing them as a “waste of time.” But that didn’t dissuade him from creating them, he said.
“It might take a while to be recognized,” Baker told the audience. “But you won’t be recognized at all unless you actually do it.”
COURTESY OF PRISCILLA MARS VIA IVY FILM FESTIVAL
Last month, Baker became the first-ever person to win four Academy Awards in the same year for the same film, “Anora.”
TALIA LEVINE / HERALD
Jost is known for his work on Saturday Night Live, where he started as a writer in 2005 and became co-head writer in 2012, as well as co-anchor of “Weekend Update” just two years later.
TALIA LEVINE / HERALD
REVIEW
Julien Baker and TORRES’s ‘Send a Prayer My Way’ redefines country music
Album is a heart-wrenching depiction of battle between faith, tradition
BY SUMMER SHI SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On their collaborative album “Send a Prayer My Way,” Julien Baker and TORRES reimagine country music through personal experiences. In the album, which was released April 18, a pedal steel guitar, banjo and fiddle accompany lyrics about queer love, addiction, shame and devotion. Created by two queer musicians who are intimately familiar with homophobia and discrimination in the South, “Send a Prayer My Way” redefines Southern musical traditions like country.
“Send a Prayer My Way” often feels like a conversation between the two artists’ styles. Baker’s lyricism leans spiritual and searching, while TORRES’s delivery is bold, tongue-in-cheek and theatrical. The artists’ queer Southern identities are central to the album’s narrative, and rather than distance themselves from tradition, Baker and TORRES make country music their own as they sing about love, loss and family. While they use language and motifs from Southern traditions, the two artists alter the narrative to fit their own personal stories.
REVIEW
COMMONS
The album focuses on faith, shame and the process of self exploration as a queer person in a world that fostered fear surrounding queerness.
that knows how to laugh at pain without diminishing it.
“Send a Prayer My Way” is a great album because it feels lived in. This isn’t an album made simply to line the artists’ pockets. Instead, it’s the result of years of lived experience and the reflections of two queer artists reckoning with the forces that shaped them.
Each of the album’s songs does something different, but they all feel like they belong together. Some are sad, some are funny and some are quiet — but what connects them is how real they feel. Nothing is dressed up too much. The album is full of emotion, but never feels fake or forced.
The way Baker and TORRES use country music to talk about their experiences as queer individuals from the South makes these songs feel personal and fresh.
“Tuesday,” for instance, recounts a doomed queer relationship strained by a conservative family. The song’s melody is deceptively sweet, the instrumentation twangy and familiar, and yet the lyrics cut deep. “I took a knife / To the paper-thin skin on my arms … Tuesday, now I hardly think of you / But when I do, I only think of shame,” the two artists sing. The track is a portrait of love stifled by shame, and the silence that follows.
“No Desert Flower” is slow and serious. The music remains steady, building slowly under lyrics about loyalty and what it means to show up for someone and choose to stay even when things aren’t easy. The sound is filled with soft harmonies and a slow, steady beat, and the way it talks about
love breaks from heteronormative views of romance. “No Desert Flower” promises devotion in the face of hardship. The lyrics are stark and modern, illustrating that the best love is one that is gritty, not idealized.
But Baker and TORRES diverge from melancholy in “Sugar in the Tank,” which is playful and irreverent, poking fun at stereotypes and expectations. It’s a song
Through embracing the musical traditions of the South while putting their own spin on the genre, Baker and TORRES show that country music has more room for artists and experimentation than its gatekeepers would suggest. The pair created a stunning record that feels both familiar and defiant, a homecoming and a reinvention. “Send A Prayer My Way” serves as a reminder that music genres are not set in stone. Baker and TORRES prove that traditions can be reclaimed and reimagined.
Mumford & Sons’s ‘RUSHMERE’ is an unimaginative replication of the past
Album is an insipid addition to the band’s discography
BY ALYSSIA OUHOCINE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
English rock band Mumford & Sons released their fifth studio album, “RUSHMERE,” on March 28. Despite releasing their previous album, “Delta,” almost seven years ago, Mumford & Sons emerged from silence with far too safe a play, resulting in a dull and lifeless body of work.
“RUSHMERE” was released almost four years after lead guitarist Winston Marshall left the band. The decision was made after Marshall tweeted in support of far-right social media influencer Andy Ngo’s 2021 book, “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.” The band’s internal dissonance is evident in “RUSHMERE,” which leans too heavily on their past work.
The album, though only 34 minutes long, feels endless. Devoid of any core, “RUSHMERE” is an amalgam of the many aspects of Mumford & Sons’s musical identity — but without a cohesive purpose.
The project opens with “Malibu,” a classic Mumford & Sons ballad. With a stripped-down sound and pleading lyrics, the song establishes a return to the band’s origins. The same can be said of “Rushmere,” the album’s lead single. The song is a clear replication of tracks from their 2009 album, “Sigh No More.” But the bright-eyed hopefulness of that album is cheapened on this reproduction. Lyrics like “You say ‘Come get lost in a fairground crowd’ / Where no one knows your name” come across as self-indulgent after their years of mainstream success.
For lovers of folk, the album carries the essential elements to make it an enjoyable listen, but in the grand scheme of 2025 releases, “RUSHMERE” leaves much to be desired.
This is the trap that “RUSHMERE,” like many folk-rock albums, falls into: searching too deeply in the past for inspiration. Themes that used to be relevant and meaningful become increasingly redundant — and inauthentic.
“RUSHMERE” is repetitive and uninspired, with most songs indistinguishable from others. “Surrender” is a desperate cry for forgiveness, with lyrics like “Break me down / And put me back together / I surrender.” The track “Where It Belongs” is also a plea, with a chorus that isolates Mumford’s voice — a frequent choice by the band and a highlight of the album. Though the songs’ content and sound are often lackluster, Mumford’s vocals remain as powerful as ever.
“Caroline” addresses a woman of the same name and breaks open the troubles of a toxic relationship. Lyrics like “Break this glass and make a scene again / I know that’s what you want so you can write again” contribute to the highly-aestheticized version of love that the band often sings about: Visceral and passionate love
affairs, often described with lengthy metaphors, establish the world of Mumford & Sons.
“Monochrome” is a slowed-down love ballad, but despite its intimacy, it wavers into cringe-inducing territory. But perhaps cringe is the cost of being known and loved. Among the strange pet names (“Hyacinth girl”), there are moments of pure honesty. Mumford’s voice is clear as he sings “The kind of love I am always chasing / Is the kind of love that won’t be chased.”
“Anchor,” “Blood On The Page” and “Carry On” mark the album’s shining points, rising above the tedious noise they’re sandwiched by. “Anchor” is a heartfelt admission of guilt over strippeddown, lonesome production and incredibly powerful lyrics. In “Blood On The Page,” the band collaborates with American singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham on a charming track. Lyrics like “But call me out late / Call me in a slip / I will still run to your side” are heartwarming, made more impactful by Cunningham’s haunting backing vocals.
“Carry On” is the album’s devastating closer. The band dives headfirst into religious themes that stand out against the monotony of the rest of the album. Lyrics like “If this is what it’s like to be lost / I will take this heresy / Over your hypocrisy” point to a depth of subject matter that the band clearly has access to, but failed to make full use of throughout the album.
“RUSHMERE” reveals itself to be nothing more than an unremarkable addition to Mumford & Sons’s discography. In the wake of internal strife, the band was unable to rise above their origins as a folk-rock band and present something new to the genre. For lovers of folk, the album carries the essential elements to make it an enjoyable listen, but in the grand scheme of 2025 releases, “RUSHMERE” leaves much to be desired.
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA
COURTESY OF SACKS & CO.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Students vote for UCS to organize strike if Brown acquiesces to Trump admin
Only 16% of Brown’s student body voted in this year’s elections
BY CHIUPONG HUANG & HADLEY CARR SENIOR STAFF WRITER & UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
In the Student Government Association’s spring general elections, students voted in favor of two referendums calling on the Undergraduate Council of Students to organize a student body-wide response to the federal government’s attack on higher education.
Results for the SGA’s spring general elections — which included the two referendums, as well as elected positions in the UCS, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the Class Coordinating Board — were announced Tuesday evening.
The first ballot measure, which asked students if the UCS should “organize a general strike” if Brown complies with any Trump administration demands to reopen funding negotiations, passed with 63% of 739 votes. The second measure, which asked if the UCS should “release public statements and organize university-wide actions” to affirm to University administration that the student body does not support the federal government’s actions, passed with 72% of 738 votes.
These questions came amid the Trump administration’s plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding. The University is also currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office for Civil Rights for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded institutions from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.
ELLIS ROUGEOU / HERALD
The first ballot measure, which asked students if the UCS should “organize a general strike” if Brown complies with the Trump administration’s demands to reopen funding negotiations, passed with 63% of 739 votes.
Referendum questions only require a simple majority to pass, and the UCS is “responsible to represent those majority sentiments in its future actions,” according to the UCS’s Code of Operations.
But given that fewer than 750 of Brown’s over 7,000 undergraduates voted on these referendums, the “UCS must interpret the strength of these results with that in mind,” SGA Elections Chair Ethan Davis ’25 wrote in a message to The Herald.
Current UCS Vice President Talib Reddick ’26 was elected UCS president, and current UFB Chair Naomi LeDell ’26 was re-elected. Current UFB Representative At-Large Kieran Lucus ’26 will serve as UFB vice chair. Reddick, LeDell and Lucus all ran unopposed.
Reddick’s platform emphasized his continued dedication to improve the undergraduate experience at Brown and protect students in light of recent federal actions.
“I’m excited to continue fighting for students,” Reddick said in an interview with The Herald after results were announced.
According to Reddick, he will now be
the second Black man to serve as UCS president.
Although LeDell was fairly certain she would be elected, she told The Herald she was “grateful” that she secured the position.
In her second year as UFB chair, she plans to organize an orientation event introducing incoming first-year students to student government at Brown, she said.
Eugenia Bamfo ’27 — who is currently the UCS’s interim chair of the Campus Life committee — will serve as UCS vice president. The two other candidates for th4e position were Tommy Medlin ’27, the current UCS Chair of Student Activities, and Balázs Cserneczky ’28, who is not currently involved in the UCS.
After one round of rank-choice voting, Bamfo received only 39% of the 759 votes for UCS vice president, while Medlin received 33% and Cserneczky received 17%. 10% of voters abstained.
After all first-choice votes for the lastplace candidate — Cserneczky — were redistributed to the voters’ second-choice candidates, Bamfo won the election with
nearly 51% of total votes, while Medlin received just 43%.
After the results were announced, Bamfo said she is “ready to assume office” and keep students informed about recent federal actions. She added that she intends to carry out the actions mentioned in the referendums despite the low voter turnout.
“We’re still going to stand by students,” Bamfo told The Herald.
Kate Choi ’26 and Nick Lee ’26 will serve as senior co-presidents for the CCB. Choi and Lee — who are the current CCB junior class vice president and president, respectively — both ran unopposed. Current UFB Vice Chair Catherine Jia ’26 will be the CCB senior treasurer after running unopposed.
Of the 31 races in this year’s election, more than 20 were uncontested. Five races had no candidates at all.
According to Davis, only 16% of Brown’s 7,272 undergraduates voted in this year’s elections — the lowest turnout rate since at least 2022. In 2022, 35% of Brown’s undergraduate student body voted in runoff elections. In 2023, the turnout rate decreased to 29%, and last year, only 21% of students voted.
Ahead of this year’s elections, the SGA delayed the election timeline by nearly a month and extended the voting period from two days to one week in part to increase voter turnout. Last week, the SGA also hosted a candidate forum with the Brown Political Union to encourage student engagement.
In an interview with The Herald, Davis said he was unsure why voter turnout dropped so significantly this year, even after the SGA took measures in hopes of increasing it. But he suspects that the reduced voter turnout was a result of a lack of student interest in student government at Brown.
Davis said that over the next few weeks,
he will be “devoting some time” to understanding the drop in turnout. He added that he hopes to “integrate student government elections into the broader political scene of life on campus.”
Davis also hopes the SGA can encourage more students to run in future years, noting that “if there’s more competition, people will campaign harder.”
For the CCB, Ava Stamatakis ’27 was re-elected president of the 2027 class board for the third year in a row, and Fiona Shen ’28 was re-elected president of the 2028 class board. Both candidates ran unopposed.
Grace Zhong ’28, Leanna Le ’27, Aidan Lu ’27 and Stanley Wong ’28 will serve as UFB at-large representatives. There are still three vacant positions for at-large representatives.
For the UCS, Rachel El Grably ’28 will serve as the UCS Chair of Academic Affairs after defeating opponent Asher Patel ’28. Meruka Vyas ’28 defeated Sophia Mun ’28 to become the Chair of Campus Life. Sabrina Liu ’28 was elected as the Chair of Health and Wellness, overcoming opponent Neil Stringer ’27.
Shayyan Ahmed ’27 — a current Herald columnist — will serve as the Chair of Equity and Inclusion, and Alexa Theodoropoulos ’27 was elected Treasurer. Both students ran uncontested.
UCS Chair of Student Activities and SGA Elections Chair are both still vacant, as well as several senior class CCB positions. All vacant positions will be “filled in the coming weeks,” according to Davis. Elected candidates will assume their roles in the fall.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 22, 2025.
Paxson signs open letter condemning federal actions targeting higher education
Leaders from over 200 colleges and universities have signed the letter
BY SAMAH HAMID SENIOR STAFF WRITER
President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 signed a public statement released on Tuesday condemning the federal government’s recent actions targeting institutions of higher education. As of Tuesday evening, the letter has been signed by leaders from over 200 colleges and universities, as well as some educational associations.
The letter was released by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, which is an organization “dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education,” according to their website.
In the letter, the undersigned leaders “speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” The letter emphasizes that the leaders are not opposed to “legitimate government oversight,” but rather, they condemn “the coercive use of public research funding.”
The statement follows a series of federal actions taken against Brown and other institutions of higher education.
Earlier this month, the White House
Earlier
confirmed plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding. On April 18, staff at the National Institutes of Health were instructed to freeze all agency funding awarded to Brown, according to internal emails reviewed by The Herald.
But as of Monday morning, Brown has not yet “received any formal notifica-
tion from the federal government of the large-scale grant terminations reported in the news media,” according to University Spokesperson Brian Clark.
In February — before staff at the NIH were instructed to freeze Brown’s grants — Brown, 12 other universities and three educational associations filed a lawsuit
against the agency to stop widespread cuts to research funding. While a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against these cuts on April 4, the NIH has since appealed the decision.
Last week, Brown, eight other universities and the same three educational organizations also filed a lawsuit against
the Department of Energy in an attempt to stop funding cuts by the agency.
A number of peer institutions have also faced federal funding cuts in recent months. On Monday, Harvard sued the Trump administration over its multibillion dollar funding freeze, accusing the federal government of unconstitutionally targeting the university.
The Tuesday statement signed by Paxson emphasizes a commitment to protecting freedom of speech and ensuring that faculty, students and staff are “free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation.” In recent weeks, at least one Brown student and several recent graduates have had their visas revoked, following a pattern of similar visa revocations at schools across the country.
The letter also calls for “constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.”
As of Tuesday evening, Dartmouth remains the only member of the Ivy League whose leader has not signed the statement. A Dartmouth spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The University also did not respond to a request for comment about the statement.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2025.
BEN KANG / HERALD
this month, the White House confirmed plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal funding.
ACLU files class action suit against student visa revocations at Brown, RISD, other schools
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of over 100 students around the US
BY SANAI RASHID & SOPHIA WOTMAN METRO & UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS
On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island — alongside three other ACLU affiliates and law firm Shaheen and Gordon — filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, requesting to reinstate the F-1 student status of over 100 students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico who have had their student visas revoked.
The named plaintiffs include five international students from India and China, who attend universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
According to an ACLU press release, these students had their “F-1 student immigration status unlawfully and abruptly terminated” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “with no specified reason as to why.” Among the affected international students are “a handful of students from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design who have had their student status revoked in the past few weeks,” the press release reads.
FACULTY
At least one Brown student and a “small number” of recent graduates have had their visas revoked as of April 10, The Herald previously reported. Additionally, as of April 7, one student at RISD had their visa revoked.
Neither the University nor RISD responded to a request for comment.
“It’s disturbing that several international students studying here in Rhode Island, at both Brown University and RISD, have had their student status determinations revoked without explanation,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of R.I., in the press release. “There
is no question in my mind that actions like these have a chilling effect on international students who are currently in Rhode Island and the rest of the country,” Steven Brown wrote in an email to The Herald.
“The American Civil Liberties Union appears far more interested in protecting foreign students than (the) civil liberties and safety of Americans,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of DHS, wrote in an email to The Herald.
The ACLU “should consider changing their name,” she added. “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you break
our laws and advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country.”
The class-action lawsuit aims to “protect (students) and others who have had to suddenly leave their studies and face possible deportation for absolutely no legitimate reason,” Steven Brown added.
The filing notes that affected international students now “face immigration detention and deportation,” arguing that the Trump administration’s “unilateral and unlawful terminations have severely disrupted the educational opportunities of students who are in the middle of their studies.”
“To terminate student status, the student, for example, must fail to take full courses of study, engage in unauthorized employment or be convicted of a violent crime with a potential sentence of more than a year,” the press release states. “For those who would be represented in this case, none of those situations exist.”
Additionally, the suit argues that the terminations violate students’ due process rights, given that the Trump administration did not communicate direct notice of the revocations to international students, provide students with reasoning for the termination of their student status or grant affected students an opportunity to terminate the revocations.
Earlier this month, the ACLU of New Hampshire filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of a student at Dartmouth whose visa has been revoked. In an emergency meeting on April 9, a federal court in New Hampshire temporarily restored his visa status. International students at Columbia, Harvard and Stanford University have also had their visas revoked.
The ACLU’s press release included an estimate of over 1,400 international students and recent graduates across over 210 colleges and universities “who have had their legal status changed” as of April 17.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 21, 2025.
Schiller to step back from Watson Institute, Taubman Center leadership
Schiller will take a yearlong sabbatical before returning to Brown
BY SAMAH HAMID SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Wendy Schiller, interim director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, is stepping down from her leadership positions on June 30.
After taking a year-long sabbatical, Schiller, who is also a professor of political science, will return to Brown in fall 2026 to teach and advise students.
Schiller has held leadership positions at Brown for the past decade, chairing the Department of Political Science for six years before serving as the director of the Taubman Center for the subsequent four years.
Since July 2024, she has also led the Watson Institute, which will be converted into the Watson School of International and Public Affairs this coming July 1. John Friedman, professor of economics and international and public affairs, will serve as the school’s inaugural dean.
In an interview with The Herald, Schiller said that through each of these roles, she has gained appreciation for her “faculty colleagues, the students, the graduate students, the administration — everything that comprises Brown and how complex it is.”
As director of the Taubman Center, Schiller worked to reorient the center toward supporting undergraduates.
“I wanted to reinvigorate the student dialogue on American politics,” she said.
Under her leadership, the center funded undergraduate research that students
could complete independently of faculty, expanded internship funding and focused on bringing speakers to the University.
Kathryn Dunkelman, chief of staff and director of strategic operations and engagement at the Watson Institute, added that Schiller “elevated the (Taubman) Center’s role as the hub for American politics on campus, building a community of students engaged in the issues and offering research opportunities to connect policy and theory.”
One of Schiller’s proudest accomplishments is the “Politics and Policy Lunches,” which are open to all Brown students and held every Monday. Through the program, academics and policymakers come to campus to share their experiences in and thoughts on the American political system.
The lunches, like other events hosted by the Taubman Center, aim to “expose undergraduates to lots of different people with lots of different voices at different stages of their career,” Schiller explained.
For Everton Prospere ’27, the lunches are his “highlight of the week.”
On days when no outside speakers are
scheduled, Schiller hosts the lunch herself.
“It’s been great to have a place where students who are interested in politics and policy in America can come on the Brown campus,” she said.
Given the Trump administration’s second term and recent changes to the political landscape, “I think now’s the time you really want to preserve that kind of connection and that space for Brown students,” Schiller added, noting that she is trying to ensure the lunches continue even after her tenure as the center’s director ends.
Prospere, who has known Schiller since his first semester at Brown, described her as “the most knowledgeable professor I have interacted with in regard to American politics.”
Prospere praised Schiller’s ability to digest and interpret political information as “quite remarkable.”
Dunkelman described Schiller as deeply committed to serving students at Brown.
“Even during the last year, when pulled in so many directions, she would meet individually with students, mentoring them,
providing research opportunities and ensuring they are thriving in her classes and across Watson,” Dunkelman wrote in an email to The Herald.
As interim director of the Watson Institute, Schiller aimed to prepare the institute for its upcoming transition to a school, she said.
Changes to the Watson Institute under her tenure included increased “consistency across opportunities” to ensure that students not concentrating in international and public affairs could take classes and attend lectures that are usually primarily targeted to IAPA concentrators.
Schiller also oversaw the creation of the Watson Institute Ph.D. Fellows Program, which provides training and research opportunities for select students pursuing doctorate degrees in the socil sciences at Brown. The program, Schiller said, encompasses a broad range of topics including security, governance and development.
Andrew Schrank, professor of sociology and international and public affairs, explained that Schiller “rationalized the budget and staffing and created new avenues for faculty and student engagement” during her time as interim director of the Watson Institute.
Schiller’s accomplishments are made more impressive by the fact that they came at a “particularly difficult moment in (United States) and international politics,” Schrank wrote in an email to The Herald.
“I really can’t think of a more difficult time in which to have done this job,” Schrank added.
Daniel Smith, professor of international studies and director of the Africa Initiative at the Watson Institute, added that Schiller is “committed to the collective good.”
According to Smith, Schiller’s efforts at the Watson Institute created “a place where scholars and students engage in research, teaching and learning with the goal of understanding and addressing some of the biggest challenges of our times, not just in the United States but also around the world.”
After she steps down from her director positions, Schiller will take a yearlong sabbatical to continue her research on American policy surrounding domestic violence, particularly in relation to gun violence.
“If we can continue to draw attention of political science and public policy to the impact of laws that are either passed or should be passed, I feel like you can make some progress,” Schiller said.
Once she returns from her sabbatical, Schiller will return to what she described as “the world’s greatest academic job”: being a professor and advising students.
Looking to the future, Schiller has “high hopes” for both the Taubman Center and the School of International and Public Affairs.
Eric Patashnik, a professor of public policy and political science, will serve as the director of the Taubman Center following Schiller’s departure. Schiller described Patashnik as an “expert in policy implementation” who will “bring faculty research back to Taubman,” adding that she hopes he will preserve the student-oriented activities currently in place.
She also described John Friedman, incoming dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, as energetic and committed to the Master of Public Affairs program.
“My hope is that he preserves all that is great about Watson now and then makes it only better,” Schiller said.
COURTESY OF U.S. CUSTOMS & BORDER PROTECTION
The suit argues that the terminations violate students’ due process rights.
COURTESY OF WENDY SCHILLER
During her time away, Schiller intends to continue her research on American policy surrounding domestic violence, particularly concerning gun violence.
SPRING WEEKEND
ARCHIVAL
The ‘debaucherous’ history of Spring Weekend drinking culture
The Herald examined the evolution of intoxication at Spring Weekend
BY TALIA LEVINE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Over the last 75 years, Spring Weekend has evolved from a weekend of crew races and jazz concerts to the music festival we know today. In its earlier years, University-sanctioned festivities distributed free beer. Now, alcohol isn’t even permitted within the concert, but alcohol consumption has remained core to the Spring Weekend experience.
Today’s Spring Weekend is a one-day affair organized by the Brown Concert Agency, a student group that invites multiple artists to campus for a concert which Brown students can attend free of charge. University policies prohibit alcohol at Spring Weekend, according to guidance from Brown’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter.
Alcoholic beverages “may be confiscated by event staff,” the ACLU website reads.
Although Rhode Island remains the only state not to have ratified the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors, the state was still subject to national Prohibition laws until 1933. In 1970, the drinking age dropped to 18. It was set to its current minimum of 21 in 1984.
But concerns of legality did not deter past Heralders from reporting on the elevated intoxication that often accompanies the festival, eschewing some laws on College Hill for a weekend. The Herald flipped through the archives to see how Spring Weekend’s drinking culture has evolved over the past three-quarters of a century.
1950s: The Hilltoppers Ball and ‘restraining influence of the fair sex’
In 1953, Spring Weekend was a three-day ordeal featuring a variety of events, from an inter-fraternity regatta to the “Hilltoppers Ball,” which, according to a Herald article, had become a symbol of the event. The ball featured Japanese lanterns and a large revolving crystal ball.
The morning after the ball, The Herald reported that “some of the more stalwart fraternities offered morning parties to start the day off properly” before heading down “to the Seekonk for an afternoon at the crew races.”
“Whether the Brown man and his date were reclining on the bank or wandering about the jumbo-sized excursion boat in mid-river, they all ended up in the same condition; chilled by the unseasonable weather, but sporting an inner glow to which the littered condition of the river bore eloquent testimony,” the article reads.
Following the crew races, it was time for “serious partying,” and the evening was described as “conspicuous in its lack of complications involving the local gendarmerie, for which we give thanks to the usually restraining influence of the fair sex.”
A few years later, in 1956, one Herald writer described the “kaleidoscope picture” of that year’s Spring Weekend: “Bright lights, intoxication, Spring, women and nonsense.”
1960s: A Memoryless Bacchanal in the Sharpe Refectory
A 1960 Pembroke Record article titled “Memoirs of My Brown Spring Weekend…” features the opening line “Dear Diary,” followed by a swath of blank space — a seeming nod to the alcohol-induced mem-
ory loss sustained by a number of students who partook in the weekend’s festivities.
Described by a Herald reporter as an “infamous bacchanal,” the weekend featured a semi-formal dance in the Sharpe Refectory and a portion of Saturday designated by administrators as the time to “raise limited havoc.”
A 1979 Herald article reflects on Spring Weekend in 1960, recounting that “damage in the Wriston Quad was limited to 36 windows.”
In the article, a previous Herald reporter wrote that “retiring porter John Sweeney remembered previous Spring Weekends when practically every window of every fraternity house was broken. ‘This was nothing like the days when empty beer kegs were rolled down the hill,’ he said in a voice devoid of regret.”
But in order “for Spring Weekend to be a truly drunken orgy,” the article continues, “more than alcohol was required.” Since Brown students outnumbered Pembroke students, The Herald wrote, students sought dates beyond College Hill — often beyond state lines.
In 1964, The Herald wrote about the rock ’n’ roll band the Coasters’ upcoming performance: “For those who attend the free concert and are not enthralled by the Coasters, liquid refreshment will be found in abundance. Those who are really wild about the Coasters might want to partake anyway.”
1970s: Free beer and legal debauchery
When Rhode Island lowered the state’s drinking age to 18 in 1970, the BCA distributed free, University-sponsored beer for the first time.
The 1974 concert, held on Pembroke Field, was one of these festivals that featured free beer. In an interview with The Herald at the time, a member of student government, Harry Wood ’76, said that $400 was allocated for BCA’s purchase of beer, adding that he “would be disappointed if there is not free beer.”
In response, then co-chairman of BCA Peter Allstrom ’75 told The Herald, “in good faith we could not use the money for anything else other than free beer.”
The Undergraduate Council of Students provided 25 kegs of free beer for the 1976 iteration of Spring Weekend, The
Herald previously reported.
But the free beer tap was shut off in 1979, when BCA transitioned to selling beer instead. In 1979, The Herald reported that BCA faced costs of $1,000 for cleaning up food- and drink-related trash. These expenses motivated the agency to establish a new policy that no outside bottles or containers would be welcome at the concert, but they would still sell beer, champagne and other concessions.
1980s: Breathalyzers and more free beer At Spring Weekend 1981, free beer was reintroduced — and was described as “flowing.”
But by 1984, when the drinking age in the state was raised to 21, The Herald reported that “as part of a campus-wide effort to curb alcohol abuse during Spring Weekend, off-duty state troopers stationed in front of the Ratty will offer optional breathalyzer tests for those interested in checking their blood alcohol level.”
In an interview with The Herald at the time, the co-chairperson of Spring Weekend Committee, Lindsey Arenberg ’86, said, “a big part of Spring Weekend is alcohol.”
“We can’t prevent people from drinking, but we can encourage taking a responsible approach so that people enjoy the weekend rather than just getting plastered,” Arenberg said.
1990s: The introduction of regulations In a break from tradition, BCA decided not to serve alcohol at the concert in 1991, The Herald reported. Dean Forsberg, then-director of student activities, told The Herald that he believed the agency’s decision was due to “costs and potential liability problems.”
In fall 1991, after that year’s concert, the University instituted a ban on kegs and bottled alcohol, limiting alcohol consumption to canned beverages for students over 21. In response, leading up to Spring Weekend in 1992, some students took to The Herald’s opinions section to protest the ban, even suggesting that students engage in a “Primal Puke” to persuade the administration.
In 1994, alcohol policies surrounding the festival continued to get stricter, with the University prohibiting fraternities from serving alcohol at Spring Weekend events after 6:30 p.m. The Herald also reported
that “the sale of bracelets, tickets or other items used in exchange for alcohol will be prohibited,” and “impromptu” gatherings were barred.
Then-Dean of Student Life Robin Rose credited these policy changes to incidents at the previous year’s Spring Weekend, including 11 false fire alarms and mass underage drinking.
But students felt the new policies were far too restrictive. “A lot of students came up to me and asked if Spring Weekend was canceled,” Czerina Patel ’96, then-vice president of the UCS, told The Herald in 1994. “Many of them feel that the University is trying to stifle the little fun that we do have.”
Patel also told The Herald that students expressed concerns that “the University is eventually trying to do away with Spring Weekend.”
1999 saw further restrictions on drinking and a stronger police presence. In an interview with The Herald, Matthew Stroup ’00 expressed frustration over the police presence, saying “it seemed like a power trip more than anything else.”
Stroup also told The Herald that “the cops were pretty invasive … People were walking around carrying their beverages and they were harassing them.”
But these alcohol restrictions resulted in fewer medical emergencies at the 1999 Spring Weekend, The Herald reported the next year.
2000s: “An anticipated fable of downright debauchery”
Alcohol policies remained in place into the start of the new millennium.
Erica DeRosa ’00, then-president of the Greek Council, told The Herald at the time that “to say that Spring Weekend is going to be alcohol-free would be naive. The reality is that there is going to be a substantial amount of drinking going on. What we’re looking for is responsible drinking.”
In 2009, The Herald’s guide to Spring Weekend described the festivities as “an anticipated fable of downright debauchery” and a “four-day sh*tshow” that evolved from a “drunken brawl.”
The guide also featured an advertisement for Emergency Medical Services.
2010s: Vodka water bottles
By 2011, some students told The Herald they were uncomfortable with the strong drinking culture surrounding Spring Weekend and opted out of attending. In an interview, Brian Lin ’12 said that “many students approach the event with the attitude that they are so stressed they ‘need a whole week to be shitfaced.’”
For that year’s festival, the Contemplative Studies Initiative planned to offer meditation retreats Saturday and Sunday called “Staying Grounded on Spring Weekend” in part for students not interested in attending the concert, The Herald reported. In 2015, a Herald article about data from that year’s fall poll showed that 15% of students had attended class under the influence. One student interviewed by The Herald said that on the Friday afternoon before Spring Weekend, “in my last class of the day, everyone showed up totally drunk except me. There were people drinking straight vodka from Poland Spring bottles.”
2020s: Hydrate or die-drate Today, the student group SoBear Activities Club hosts a “retreat on Spring Weekend that offers students the opportunity to leave campus during a period of elevated substance abuse,” according to Brown’s Division of Campus Life website.
In a message to The Herald, BCA Co-President Yabeke Zike ’25 wrote that current policies have expanded to the concert queues, and “open containers with alcohol are not permitted while you are waiting in line. Anyone in line with an open container will be asked to leave and not admitted to the concert.”
Students are not able to bring any drugs, alcohol or outside food or drinks into the concert, according to Zike. Zike wrote that BCA also provides concertgoers with guidance for safe alcohol consumption: “If you’re out in the sun or drinking alcohol, you’ll need more water. If you go to the concerts, remember to bring an empty water bottle to fill at the water stations. Eat often. Food slows the absorption of alcohol, and a meal or snack every four hours will keep your energy up, allowing you more time for fun.”
TALIA LEVINE / HERALD
DATA DESK
75 years of Spring Weekend, by the numbers
From jazz to Kendrick Lamar to Offset: 75 years of performers at Brown
BY MANAV MUSUNURU ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
In October 2012, Kendrick Lamar released his sophomore album, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” to widespread acclaim. Just six months later, the rising rap star took the Spring Weekend stage, which was described by a former Herald writer as “a rare combination of genre innovation and genuine star power.”
Lamar has become one of the most successful Spring Weekend performers, garnering numerous accolades and headlining the Super Bowl halftime show two times after his performance at Brown: once at the Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles alongside former Spring Weekend performers Snoop Dogg and Anderson .Paak, and another time at the Superbowl LIX in New Orleans earlier this year.
Lamar is just one of numerous Spring Weekend artists who have gone on to have some of the most successful careers in music. His visit in 2013 marked the 63rd annual Spring Weekend, which has become one of the most anticipated events of the year for Brunonians.
The roots of Spring Weekend can be traced back to Junior Promenade in 1898, which evolved into All-Campus Weekend after World War II. In 1950, the modern Spring Weekend was born and the Brown Concert Agency was founded in 1960, tasked with bringing up-and-coming artists to campus. In honor of Spring Weekend’s 75th anniversary this Saturday, The Herald took a look back at the artists who defined past Spring Weekends by analyzing Billboard charts, Grammy awards and more.
Lamar (SW 2013) leads previous Spring Weekend performers on the Billboard Hot 100 with a total of 830 weeks on the chart over the past 13 years. In fact, Lamar is currently on top of this week’s chart with “Luther” — a collaboration with SZA — marking his sixth chart-topper on the Hot 100. Five other songs by Lamar also appear on this week’s chart, including “Not Like Us.”
James Brown (SW 1968) comes in at a distant second with a total of 645 weeks on the Hot 100 chart, including his entries with the Famous Flames. When Brown, an R&B artist, performed at Spring Weekend in 1968, “the crowd pulsated, clapped out the beat, danced sitting down, danced
performers with a total of 550 weeks — and poet and social activist Allen Ginsberg. This was not the first — nor the last — time Spring Weekend featured non-musicians. Comedians were commonplace in early Spring Weekend concerts and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. even visited in 1967.
Third place for weeks on the Hot 100 is infamous rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs (SW 2011), who performed at the 2011 Spring Weekend concert with R&B singers Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper as the group
“Diddy – Dirty Money.” Diddy — with a total of 637 weeks — has five No. 1 hits on the Hot 100. Since his performance on College Hill, the rapper has faced widespread criticism and public scrutiny. In 2024, Diddy was arrested on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, among other accusations. The rapper is currently awaiting trial and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
In fourth place, Atlanta rapper Young Thug (SW 2017) has amassed 619 weeks on the chart. His biggest songs include “Havana” with Camila Cabello and “Go Crazy” with Chris Brown, which spent a full year charting on the Hot 100. Close behind in fifth place is Snoop Dogg (SW 2010) with 616 weeks on the chart with hits like “Drop It Like It’s Hot” featuring Pharrell and “California Gurls” with Katy Perry.
2025).
Lamar also leads past Spring Weekend
have been multiple international artists, especially in recent years.
The 1959 Spring Weekend concert saw the first international artist, featuring Italian big-band leader Ralph Marterie (SW 1959) and his orchestra.
It wasn’t until almost a decade later that the next international artists visited Brown’s campus for Spring Weekend. The 1968 Spring Weekend concert had not one, but two rock bands from the United Kingdom: Procol Harum (SW 1968) and The Yardbirds (SW 1968). Just one year later, Spring Weekend featured yet another international artist — flamenco artist Carlos Montoya (SW 1969) from Spain.
Other than the UK, which 18 Spring Weekend artists — including rapper M.I.A. (SW 2008) — call home, the international country that produces the second-most Spring Weekend artists is Canada, with nine. Meanwhile, Jamaica comes in at number three with four artists: Toots and the Maytals (SW 1982, 1989), Pablo Moses (SW 1985), The Wailers Band (SW 1988) and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers (SW 1990).
/ HERALD
performers in terms of Grammy nominations, receiving a whopping 57, making him one of the most nominated rappers of alltime. Lamar has also garnered some of the most prestigious awards in music, including a Pulitzer Prize for his album “DAMN.” and an Academy Award nomination for his song “All the Stars” with SZA from the movie “Black Panther.”
Lamar is tied with rock band U2 (SW 1983) for the title of the Spring Weekend performer with the most Grammy wins, each earning 22 throughout their musical careers. The band has had considerable success with their live performances, with their 360° Tour between 2009 and 2011 becoming the highest-grossing and most-attended concert tour of all-time upon its completion. Unfortunately, a Herald reporter covering the concert decided to go to Newport instead, upset that the performance was held indoors in Meehan Auditorium when the temperature outside was 77 degrees.
Bruce Springsteen (SW 1974) comes in second place with 20 Grammy wins out of 51 nominations. His other accolades include an Academy Award, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (SW 1964, 1997) takes fourth place on the list with 38 Grammy nominations and 11 wins. In 2016, Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the only Spring Weekend performer with that distinction. He is one of at least 20 artists to perform at multiple Spring Weekend concerts, while rock band NRBQ has performed a staggering five times on campus in 1974, 1978, 1981, 1983 and 1988.
Rounding out the top five is soul music pioneer Ray Charles (SW 1962, 1970), who earned 37 Grammy nominations and 18 wins throughout his career. Charles’s performance at the 1962 concert spawned numerous twisters — students dancing the then-popular “twist” dance — in the aisles of Meehan Auditorium.
Numerous Spring Weekend performers have also won Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards, including Ella Fitzgerald (SW 1965), Jefferson Airplane (SW 1970), The Band (SW 1970) and Grandmaster Flash (SW 1998).
Although Spring Weekend has generally been a domestic affair — with 267 artists coming from the United States — there
The 1980s saw the continued popularity of rock but the appearance of fewer folk artists on the Spring Weekend stage. Rap and alternative music, the two genres with the most representation at recent Spring Weekend concerts, first appeared during the 1980s. Alternative rock band R.E.M. (SW 1985) and rapper Afrika Bambaataa (SW 1985) are some other notable performers during this decade.
The domination of rap and alternative music started during the Spring Weekend concerts of the 1990s and 2000s. Brown students enjoyed performances of artists including Coolio (SW 1996), Busta Rhymes (SW 1999), They Might Be Giants (SW 2001) and Lupe Fiasco (SW 2008).
Japan and Chile have each sent two artists to Spring Weekend, with Rina Sawayama (SW 2018) and Mitski (SW 2019) hailing from the former, and Nicolas Jaar ’12 (SW 2011) and Elyanna (SW 2024) from the latter.
Zooming into the US, just under half of the artists come from New York or California, with 66 and 44 artists, respectively.
New York City alone is home to over 50 Spring Weekend artists. Our northern neighbor, Massachusetts, comes in at third place, sending 17 artists to Spring Weekend. Georgia and New Jersey are tied for fourth place, with each state sending 15 artists to
R&B started gaining ground in the 2010s, with artists such as Childish Gambino (SW 2012), Erykah Badu (SW 2017) and Daniel Caesar (SW 2019) making appearances on the Spring Weekend stage. But rap and alternative artists have continued to dominate in recent years. Artists such as Fetty Wap (SW 2016), Mitski (SW 2019), Phoebe Bridgers (SW 2021) and Doechii (SW 2023) have all visited the campus within the past decade.
Other genres that have made an appearance at Spring Weekend include blues — popular during the late 1970s — and dance/electronic, which peaked during the EDM phase of the 2010s. In addition, the 1990s saw the popularity of two genres originating in Jamaica: ska and reggae.
Although popular among the general public and constantly on the radio, both country and pop have rarely been represented at Spring Weekend concerts. Only four country artists and 15 pop artists have been at Spring Weekend in its 75-year-long history.
perform on Brown’s campus.
Pennsylvania has been home to 14 Spring Weekend performers, while 11 artists have come from the District of Columbia.
Rhode Island has sent only five artists to Spring Weekend: Roomful of Blues (SW 1976, 1977), Rizzz (SW 1977, 1978), The Mundanes (SW 1980) Deer Tick (SW 2009) and the Undertow Brass Band (SW 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025).
As the music tastes of the general public have shifted over the decades, so have the genres represented at Spring Weekend. The very first iterations of Spring Weekend featured orchestral performances led by jazz musicians, including pianists Elliot Lawrence (SW 1950, 1957) and Teddy Wilson (SW 1952).
With the revival of folk music and the advent of counterculture came the dominance of folk and rock music at Spring Weekend concerts in the 1960s and 1970s. Rock artist Janis Joplin (SW 1969) “electrified” attendees at a Spring Weekend concert that was attended by dozens with forged tickets, according to a 1969 edition of The Herald. Other performers during this decade included Bonnie Raitt (SW 1972, 1978) and Atlanta Rhythm Section (SW 1979).
At this Saturday’s Spring Weekend concert, rap is the most represented genre, with Zack Fox, JT and Offset planned to make appearances on the Main Green. Meanwhile, Ravyn Lenae brings some genre diversity to this year’s concert with her R&B-inspired music.
Data analysis by Elina Coutlakis, Caleb Ellenberg, Manag Musunuru and Tiffany Xiao.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 24, 2025.
standing up,” according to a former Herald writer.
Other notable guests at the 1968 Spring Weekend concert included singer Dionne Warwick — who places sixth for Hot 100 entries among former Spring Weekend
Some other notable names in the top 25 include English guitarist and The Yardbirds member, Eric Clapton (SW 1985), rapper Nas (SW 2009) and one of this year’s performers, Offset (SW
CALEB ELLENBERG
RESEARCH
ARCHIVAL
From liberal arts to a research institution: Uncovering the roots of Brown’s research focus
BY ROMA SHAH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In November, the University announced that it is facing a $46 million structural budget deficit due to its continuing efforts to reposition itself as a leading research institution rather than a liberal arts college. But when did this transition start?
The Herald explored University archives to understand this shift.
The University’s origins
Founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College, the University originally referred to itself as a “liberal and catholic institution” and later emphasized its promotion of the “liberal arts and universal literature” in its 1945 charter.
Liberal arts colleges typically tout their emphasis on undergraduate education and prioritize small class sizes. In 1800, the University served 107 undergraduate students and offered no graduate programs.
The ‘research university’ Research universities are institutions that emphasize intensive research by professors and graduate students and promote social advancement via research contributions to academic fields.
“In a sense, Brown and other American colleges and universities started becoming ‘research universities’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when they adopted and adapted the German model of higher education,” wrote Luther Spoehr, senior lecturer emeritus in education, in an email to The Herald.
The German model of higher education, also known as the Humboldtian model of higher education, was influenced by the ideals of Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German philosopher and educational reformer. The model emphasizes scientific inquiry, academic freedom, graduate education and the integration of teaching and research.
While The Herald was unable to find any official records of Brown adopting the Humboldtian model, the University carries many elements of the model, including a focus on research and a commitment to intellectual freedom, according to the University website.
Before World War II, the majority of the federal funds allocated for research were granted to government laboratories composed of government employees.
But after the war broke out, universities began to receive more federal government support for education and research, supplementing funding typically provided to universities by private foundations and state governments. The establishment of federal departments and agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, increased the potential sources of funding for research at institutions of higher education, giving rise to research universities as they exist in the present day.
Establishing master’s and PhD programs
Graduate study at Brown began in 1850, when students were able to receive a master’s degree with one additional year of study following their undergraduate education. But this option was discontinued in 1857.
In 1887, graduate study was reinstated at the University with the addition of mas-
ter’s and PhD programs. The University awarded its first PhD degree in 1889.
An official graduate department was announced in 1903. 24 years later, the graduate department transitioned to become the Graduate School.
Brown as a ‘university-college’
In 1948, then-University President Henry Wriston coined the term “university-college” in his presidential report to the Corporation, The Herald previously reported. While graduate and doctorate programs did exist at the University at the time, Wriston described Brown as an “institution which puts primary emphasis upon the liberal arts, bringing to their cultivation the library, laboratories and personnel resources of a university.”
The term “university-college” remains prevalent in the University’s mission to this day, which refers to Brown as “a partnership of students and teachers in a unified community known as a university-college.”
The Warren Alpert Medical School
In 1811, Brown became the third university in the United States to offer an academic medical education, according to its website. But the medical degree program did not transition into a full-fledged school until 1972, when Brown’s Medical School was launched following the allocation of $200,000 in the state budget for its establishment, according to a Herald article at the time. Before the establishment of the medical school, “the Graduate School was the only part of the institution that qualified Brown as a ‘research university,’” Spoehr wrote.
Brown’s research capacities at the time were significantly smaller than they are today, as the University itself had a significantly smaller student population. In 2024, there are over twice as many graduate students and four times as many medical students as there were in 1973.
The start of a new era: President Ruth Simmons In the past two decades, the University
has seen immense growth in its science and research profile. “The arrival of Ruth Simmons in 2001 presaged an important pivot for Brown,” Spoehr wrote, referencing the former University president.
“I always saw my time at Brown as trying to build a foundation for the next president to be able to take the University to the next level,” Simmons said in a 2011 interview with The Herald.
In the early years of her presidency, Simmons released the Plan for Academic Enrichment, which helped Brown hire close to 80 new faculty members and expanded support for undergraduate advising and Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards.
“To achieve its goals and remain in the ranks of the most outstanding universities, Brown must continue to provide support to promising academic and research programs across the University,” the PAE states.
During Simmons’s tenure, the University’s total research output skyrocketed. In 2001, the University received $57.8 million in federal research grants. A decade later, that number had increased to $91.1 million, according to previous coverage from The Herald.
Through the PAE, the University also emphasized its support for research through endeavors such as the Cogut Humanities Center and the Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. During Simmons’s tenure, the University also saw the transition of the Division of Engineering to the School of Engineering.
President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and the University today President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 took office in 2012. In an interview with The Herald at the time, Paxson said that “one of the goals of Brown is to continue to grow as a first-class research institute” while maintaining a focus on undergraduates.
In 2013, the Brown Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — approved the creation of a School of Public Health from the preexisting Program in
Public Health. A key focus of the transition to the school was creating ways to “maintain positive collaborations in both research and educational programs,” said Terrie Wetle, the then-incoming dean of the School of Public Health, in an interview with The Herald at the time.
In 2014, Paxson launched her strategic plan — Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown — a document guiding her plans for the next decade. The report highlights the University’s commitment to being a leader in areas such as undergraduate, graduate and medical education, academic excellence and campus development.
The original draft of the strategic plan received criticism as it did not contain the term “university-college,” The Herald previously reported. At the time, Paxson said she had no intention behind rejecting the phrase “university-college.”
“I came to Brown because I loved the fact that it has this amazing undergraduate education that’s integrated into this research university,” she added in an interview at the time. The strategic plan now contains the term “university-college.”
In the first five years since the launch of the strategic plan, the University established the Brown Institute for Translational Science, the Data Science Initiative, the Brown Arts Initiative and expanded the School of Engineering.
At the end of 2022, the University released its Operational Plan for Investing in Research, which details the University’s aims to increase research output. The University aims to double “internal funding available for research across the University” in the five to seven years after the release of the plan.
In December 2024, the BrownTogether fundraising campaign, which aimed to fund the Building on Distinction initiative, concluded after a decade-long run. The campaign raised over $4.4 billion from over 76,800 donors, making it the largest fundraising campaign in University history.
Out of the $4.4 billion raised through BrownTogether, $1.58 billion is dedicated
toward supporting research. Other categories include facilities, financial aid, endowed professorships and athletics.
Classifying a ‘research university’ In 1973, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed the Carnegie Classifications, which is “a system for organizing the diverse set of degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States,” their website reads.
As of 2025, Brown’s research classification has been designated as “Research 1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production.” Research 1 institutions are the highest level of distinction doctoral universities can earn, with the classification requiring at least $50 million in research and development and the awarding of over 70 doctoral research degrees per year.
“Another marker for ambitious research universities includes membership in organizations such as the Association of American Universities,” Spoehr wrote. Brown became a member of the AAU in 1933, The Herald previously reported.
The AAU, founded in 1900, comprises 71 U.S. member institutions that are considered to be “America’s leading research universities,” according to the association’s website. The AAU aims to shape higher education policy to help support research institutions.
Over the past few months, Brown and the AAU, along with other organizations and universities, sued the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health in hopes of stopping funding cuts.
Brown’s “central business remains the increase of knowledge, the inculcation of wisdom, the refinement of emotional responses and the development of spiritual awareness,” said Wriston in a 1948 Herald article.
“Brown is a member of the Ivy League and is clearly a ‘research university,’” Spoehr added.
The Herald traced Brown’s transition to a research institution
SOPHIA WOTMAN / HERALD
The term “university-college” remains prevalent in the University’s mission to this day.
DATA DESK
Trump has frozen millions in research grants. See how much Brown relies on them.
The Herald dove into federal, institutional data to understand research funding
BY CLAIRE SONG SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR
Since President Trump returned to office in January, his administration has leveraged billions in federal research funding in an attempt to reshape higher education. Freezes and cuts have hit highly selective institutions that the administration sees as violating civil rights laws — and Brown is no exception.
On April 3, the White House confirmed to The Herald that the federal government plans to freeze $510 million in Brown’s federal funding. Since that day, researchers have not been reimbursed for expenses from National Institutes of Health grants, according to an April 23 email sent from the Division of Research to researchers and obtained by The Herald.
Staff at the NIH were instructed to freeze all
grants awarded to Brown and other universities, according to an internal email reviewed and verified by The Herald. The email told employees not to “provide any communication to these schools about whether or why the funds are frozen.”
Currently, at least $8 million in federal grants at Brown have been cut by the Trump administration, The Herald previously reported. Gender- and diversity-related terminology were cited as the reason for these cuts.
With cuts rolling in over the past month, more grants are likely to be at risk.
The Herald’s data desk dove into federal and institutional data to understand how research is funded at Brown, and the possible implications recent federal developments will have on College Hill.
In 2023, Brown spent over $353 million in research and development expenditures — a stark increase from 2017, the start of Trump’s first term — where they spent $212 million. Data from 2023 is the most recent data available from the Higher Education Research and Development Survey by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
The appropriations for federal research grants are typically set through a budget from the president, which is voted on by Congress, according to Vice President for Research Greg Hirth ScM’87 PhD’91.
“Right now, that budget hasn’t been set for the coming years,” Hirth said, explaining the budget is on “a continuing resolution, where they basically take the money agreed on from a previous time and just forward that same amount of money to the future.”
“But there’s wiggle room with that, and with all the things going on in Washington, D.C., there’s more uncertainty,” he added.
Finding a grant is mostly the responsibility of the principal investigator of a research project, according to Hirth. Most researchers are exposed to the grant application processes as graduate students
Half of Brown’s R&D expenditures in 2023 came from life sciences, according to the NCSES survey. Social sciences came second at 12%, followed by engineering at 8%. According to Web of Sciences, an online database of publications, “Clinical Neurology” was the field with the highest number of publications from University researchers in 2023, with “Public Environmental Occupational Health” coming in second.
At Brown, the National Science Foundation and the NIH are two of the federal agencies where researchers most commonly submit their proposals, according to Hirth. The U.S. Department of Energy and NASA
were also popular funding agencies, he added. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense backed $19 million of the University’s R&D expenditures, while the DOE financed $7 million — the next two highest sources of funding for Brown, according to the NCSES survey.
Brown, along with eight other universities, filed a lawsuit against the DOE last Monday claiming the department’s plans to cut funding of indirect administrative costs were “flagrantly unlawful.” In February, Brown joined another suit attempting to stop NIH cuts.
Compared to other Ivy League schools, Brown receives considerably less funding from federal agencies, with the third-lowest R&D expenditures from federal
institutions. In 2023, the University spent around $239 million in federal funding on these expenditures, while Columbia spent over $988 million.
Nationally, the University ranks 89th in total R&D expenditures, under George Washington University and above Auburn University ranked at 88th and 90th, respectively.
Brown also receives funding from other institutions, such as businesses and nonprofit organizations. While federal funding constitutes nearly 68% of R&D expenditures, over $113 million come from these external sources. Only $32,000 came from local and state governments in 2023.
when they work with their advisors.
“The Division of Research has a whole office where (the staffs’) job is to make sure that your grant is compliant with all the regulations that you’re sending it to,” he said. “The person writing the grant will work with their department, typically, and then the department will interface with the administration in the research office.”
From there, the Office of Sponsored Projects sends the application to the funding agency.
In 2024, Brown submitted 1,710 grants and 821 of them were funded — meaning around half of submitted grants were approved, according to Hirth, who added the national average of grants approved is around 30%. But he noted these numbers can fluctuate depending on the field of research.
But even without the effects of federal funding cuts, researchers still face the possibility of funding sources rejecting their grant applications.
Hirth explained that, in some cases, a submitted grant may have good reviews, but are ultimately rejected due to lack of a “proof of concept.” The funding agencies may also request pilot data during their review, a process that Brown’s Division of Research can help facilitate by providing additional funding to researchers through a seed program, he added.
“We can provide funding for the PIs to get to the next step, and then they can resubmit,” Hirth said. “In some cases there’s actually a good chance of getting funded on the second go-around.”
Hirth emphasized that the University is still receiving funding from grants that were previously submitted, and researchers are “still submitting grants at a pretty high level,” noting the University is currently
at a similar number of submissions compared to this time in previous years.
Amid current uncertainty, Hirth advised researchers to “still submit your grant proposal, because your chances are zero if you don’t submit them.”
Data analysis by Maya Davis, Kenna Lee and Claire Song.
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
OBITUARY
Environmental studies pioneer, UEL driving force, master tomato gardener: Remembering Harold Ward, chemistry and environmental studies professor
Ward, who passed away this winter, is remembered for decades empowering students
BY ELISE HAULUND SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR
Harold Ward, a professor emeritus of chemistry and environmental studies who is known as the father of the environmental studies program at Brown, passed away on Dec. 4, 2024 at the age of 89. He is survived by his two children and Selma Moss-Ward P’02 P’06, his wife who taught English at Brown.
Born in Mount Vernon, Illinois, Ward’s humble childhood informed his environmentally conscious mindset, which he brought to his research as a tenured chemistry professor. After observing the amount of waste his chemistry labs produced, he was inspired to switch his research and academic focus to environmental science and studies.
Before his transition to environmental science, Ward earned a PhD in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. He was a frequently cited chemistry scholar, with dozens of publications on topics including photochemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance. Ward began teaching chemistry at Brown in 1963, just as the modern environmental movement began taking root.
After transitioning his interest to environmental studies, Ward decided he needed a more holistic perspective of environmentalism. He attended Harvard Law School to bolster his knowledge of environmental law, obtaining a juris doctorate in 1975.
The 60s and 70s saw an increase in students creating independent concentrations about the environment, and in 1978, Ward and his students coalesced into the Center for Environmental Studies. In 1979, a concentration program in environmental studies was approved by the University.
Shortly after the Center for Environmental Studies was established, Ward turned his attention to finding the community a more suitable physical home that would embody the applied environmentalism that he
championed. He hoped to fashion it with solar panels, insulated windows and a community garden. With funding from the Mellon Foundation and a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Ward and more than 45 of his students began construction on the Urban Environmental Lab in 1981 — a teaching building that has been home to environmental studies at Brown since it opened at 135 Angell Street in 1983.
According to Moss-Ward, Ward would most want his legacy to manifest as “having his students continue to do good work, in terms of public service and creative environmentalism, and passing that on to other people.” The Center for Environmental Studies now exists as the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, which graduates around 60 students per year and celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. The Harold Ward Prize, announced last year, recognizes a senior in the department for work that benefits Rhode Island and broader society.
In addition to his impact on Brown, Ward has an extensive legacy in the New England region for his environmental work.
Using his law background, Ward engaged in legal action by founding and serving as president of the Rhode Island chapter of the Conservation Law Foundation and working with the Environmental Law Committee of the Rhode Island Bar Association. In addition, he was a board member of the Audubon
Society of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Water Resources Board, president of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association and a member of the governor’s Environmental Advisory Council.
Ward’s achievements also include the development of a state commercial recycling program and the state’s first greenhouse gas inventory. Ward has received awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and Save The Bay, an organization that works to protect the Narragansett Bay.
In the months following his passing, The Herald spoke with several of Ward’s former students, friends, family and colleagues, who remember his quiet persistence, his commitment to applying environmental research to the real world and his skill for grafting tomato plants.
‘The state of Rhode Island was a classroom’ Peter Heywood, professor emeritus of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry, said the most impactful part of Ward’s work was “his abiding belief that what you did in environmental studies had to be applied to a real-world situation.” Heywood recalled how Ward worked with his students to test for lead in the environment, as many of the old buildings in Providence were painted with lead-containing paint that flaked off into soil.
At the forefront of Ward’s teaching was “service learning,” according to Katrina Korfmacher ’90 P’21, who had Ward as her first-year advisor and is now an environmental medicine professor at the University of Rochester.
“Over time, this practice led to tremendous contributions to addressing environmental problems in Rhode Island and wherever his graduates landed,” Korfmacher wrote in an email to The Herald.
For Ward, “the state of Rhode Island was a classroom,” according to James Corless ’88, another one of Ward’s former students.
“If we were writing papers or doing research, he always wanted it to be about an actual issue that was happening,” Corless said.
One thing that made Ward’s courses so uniquely engaging was “this combination of teaching and pedagogy and research,” said Senior Lecturer in Environment and Society Kurt Teichert, who met Ward in 1992. Another was his humor.
When a colleague took over his introductory environmental studies class, Ward gave the colleague all of his notes and slides, “and in his notes and preparation for his lecture, he would write out the jokes,” Teichert said.
“The whole program was arranged and structured in a way that really entrusted us students,” said Chip Giller ’93, another of Ward’s former students.
Packaged with the immense confidence Ward placed in his students, though, were high standards that he empowered them to meet.
“Sometimes he pushed us really hard or challenged us — he was not afraid of conflict — but all of that was really made so much easier to take (because) you just knew, fundamentally, (that) he was in your corner,” Corless said. “I had never had an experience where I had an adult and a mentor … who just so fundamentally believed I could kind of do anything.”
The admiration was mutual — Ward was “very close” and “very, very proud” of his students, MossWard said. She remembered a special gift from students
when he retired.
“He always had a supply of scotch in his office,” Moss-Ward said, adding that his favorite brand was Dewar’s. “When he retired, his graduate students gave him an honorary bottle of scotch, (for which) they had made a label that looked like the Dewar’s label, but it had Harold’s picture on it.”
This bottle still sits in their home.
“He regarded his students as his chosen family,” she said.
‘I wanted to do for undergraduates what he had done for us’
Many of Ward’s students credit him with inspiring and encouraging their careers in environmental studies.
“He made me realize that I wanted to teach environmental studies,” Korfmacher wrote. “I wanted to do for undergraduates what he had done for us — create an engaged, multidisciplinary, service- and action-oriented learning community.”
After Corless graduated, Ward recommended him to be the first director of the Brown is Green initiative, an older University sustainability initiative. Corless recalls Ward’s “unwavering belief” in him, despite Corless’s “horrible” first speech to Brown’s provost
and other University leaders at the time. Now the executive director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Corless is reminded of Ward’s mentorship when he watches young staff members make their own first presentations to boards of directors.
“I was so nervous, and I just basically blew (the speech) — I mean, it was horrible, like I fumbled my words,” Corless recalled.
“He could easily have said, ‘Jesus, you gotta get better,’” Corless added. “But he just said, ‘The first time is the hardest, and you’re just gonna get better.’” Ward also had a large influence on Giller’s professional career, instilling in him the value of engaging community groups in his work. But this is not where his influence ends: Ward even shaped Giller as a parent to his two teenagers — “in ways that I don’t even realize,” Giller said.
‘The kindest person I ever knew’ Heywood and Ward met in the 1970s and together formed a “men’s group” of six friends who met every couple of weeks for over 40 years. According to Heywood, Ward was “one of the most active members” of the group, which had their final meeting last July.
“We talked about our lives and our concerns, what we thought about what was going on in the world and in the University, and it was just a great opportunity in a confidential setting to talk about our innermost feelings,” Heywood said.
Ward, Heywood said, could have been the one who hosted the most dinner parties, but definitely was “the one who gave away the most plants” — tomatoes and squashes and zucchinis that he grew in his garden.
COURTESY OF KURT TEICHERT
PHOTO BY SELMA MOSS-WARD