Dear Alumni and Friends of Brown,

Over the past few months, federal government actions have threatened the ability of colleges and universities across the country to fulfill several critical aspects of our academic mission. Many of you likely have read that Brown is among a small group of leading research universities named in the news media as being threatened with hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts or freezes to federal research funding. 

I am hearing from increasing numbers of alumni sharing their concerns about the impact on our community of scholars and learners, while many alumni also hope to learn how Brown is navigating the persisting threats. I have been moved and inspired by the many alumni across all generations who have written with deep dedication to Brown, asking how they can help.

At this critical moment, I take this opportunity to write — not only to those who have generously offered to advocate for their alma mater, but to all Brown alumni. It's important to share what is at stake for Brown. The research funding cuts that Brown has already suffered are causing immediate harm, forcing us to reconfigure our operations and budget to address funding shortfalls. Any long-term cuts of significant magnitude would imperil, or possibly end, several areas of high-impact research at Brown. This would be devastating to Brown's research community, including the undergraduate, graduate and medical students we teach, and the people, patients and communities that benefit from the results of our research. 

What has Happened, and What is at Stake

On April 3, news media across the country reported that the federal administration planned to freeze $510 million of federal research funding to Brown. It's important to note that, as of the date of this letter, we have not received official notice of any large-scale or across-the-board funding cuts, nor have we been served with any demands like those Columbia and Harvard have received as a condition for securing funding. However, approximately three dozen of Brown's grants and contracts have been terminated, and that number is increasing every week.

Even more concerning, since early April, Brown has not been reimbursed for any expenses associated with active (i.e., not terminated) grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose grants make up roughly 70% of Brown's overall research portfolio. Again, we have not been given any official explanation for why expenses for active grants are not being reimbursed. These unreimbursed expenses, which amount to millions of dollars per week, represent a significant threat to Brown’s financial sustainability and its ability to conduct federally funded research.

Brown may also be affected by proposed Congressional action, including an increase in the tax on gains in the University’s endowment, as well as large-scale reductions in the budgets of NIH, the National Science Foundation and other funding agencies that would affect public and private institutions of higher education across the country.

The federal funding Brown receives supports multi-year research projects spanning human health, national security, and emerging areas of science and technology. With the only schools of public health and medicine in Rhode Island, Brown plays a vital role in contributing to world-class medical care, strong patient outcomes, and far-reaching solutions for health challenges facing communities locally and around the world.

As I noted, about 70% of Brown's total federal research funding supports medicine and health. This includes support for clinical trials serving patients as part of research into dementia, studies for preventing heart disease, and transformative research into cancer, aging, childhood disease, immune disorders, mental health and many other areas, including vital work serving a wide range of marginalized and at-risk populations. Brown is also becoming a global hub for RNA research, which has the promise to unlock the mysteries of human RNA, which could be a key to preventing and developing treatments for a wide variety of complex diseases. Threats to this work have real-world consequences for patients and families.

Brown also contributes to national innovation and America's competitiveness in many of the areas the current federal administration has identified as priorities. We host research contributing to improvements in manufacturing technologies, security systems with national security implications, AI systems, and federally funded educational initiatives in science, math, engineering and technology that create pipeline programs for NASA's space exploration.

As a private, nonprofit university, Brown also serves many populations beyond our campus through its educational programs, partnering with the state's largest hospital systems to offer medical training, research and innovative care; and serving as an anchor institution for employment and economic development. Any effort to jeopardize research funding not only upends years of research progress, but it also puts hundreds of jobs at risk, impacts suppliers and has ripple effects across our local economy. 

Brown's Commitments

As we navigate the current environment, I continue to share a set of core principles: 

1. Brown will always defend the ability for students and scholars to teach and learn without fear of government intrusion or censorship, which is fundamental to efforts to protect academic freedom.
2. Brown is deeply committed to following the law and maintaining an academic community where all can participate fully in the life of the institution. This means maintaining a campus that is free of all forms of harassment and discrimination for all community members, including addressing allegations of discrimination based on shared ancestry. We are proud of our initiatives to combat antisemitism, many of which we launched even before this became a major area of focus for the federal government.
3. Brown will continue to provide resources and support to members of our international community.

This is a moment when your voices can really matter. Wherever you live in the world, if you believe in our research mission as I do, I hope you will help us build collective advocacy to protect Brown's ability to fulfill its mission as a leading research institution.

Taking Action and Building Advocacy

So, how can you help? You can contact your members of Congress to talk about protecting  research funding both at Brown and at colleges and universities across the country. You can engage with colleagues, family and friends about the positive impact of the work we do every day. And you can pursue other forms of support that can help our faculty sustain research that could be disrupted or abandoned without ongoing funding.

The team in Brown's Office of Alumni Relations has established a new advocacy webpage with further background and resources for building momentum around alumni advocacy. Visit the new "Brunonian Advocacy" page to learn more, including how to receive future advocacy updates. In addition, you can be assured that any gifts you make through the Brown Fund and the newly created Research Resilience Fund will help the University navigate through this difficult time period. The resilience fund will provide direct operational support for research and scholarship facing delay or disruption from instability in federal funding.  

Your support will enhance Brown’s own advocacy, which has included legislative and legal efforts. Brown is among a small number of colleges and universities to take action as a named plaintiff in two separate lawsuits to block funding cuts that would jeopardize Brown’s leading-edge research — one against the National Institutes of Health and the other against the U.S. Department of Energy. The University also has continued to provide resources to the community related to federal executive orders and agency directives concerning the possible impact on programs, activities and scholarly study related to diversity and inclusion; policy changes affecting immigration, citizenship and residency status; and threats against the transgender community.

I want to thank all the alumni and friends who already have shared their love and care for Brown. I remain deeply committed to the future of this great institution, and I thank you for joining Brown's efforts to safeguard our mission and support the amazing people who make it possible for the University to make a transformative impact every day.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson
President