From the President
Dear Members of the Brown Community,
This year we are conducting two important, campus-wide climate surveys that are essential for shaping the best living, learning and working environments at Brown. Next week we will launch the campus climate survey to all students, with a faculty and staff survey to follow in the spring.
- Highlight What’s Working Well: Help us understand what is important to help you thrive. This provides guidance for areas of continued investment.
- Shine a Light on Concerns: We are asking direct, necessary questions about experiences of harassment and discrimination, including those related to antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and transphobia, among other critical issues. Your honest answers are the only way we can understand and confront these problems head-on as a community.
- Inform Brown’s Path Forward for Diversity and Inclusion: Your feedback will directly inform the creation of a new University plan for diversity and inclusion at Brown, allowing us to develop a broad, whole-campus approach and to re-commit to embracing a diversity of perspectives, ideas and experiences as part of our academic mission, while complying with the law.
Your answers are strictly confidential—the survey is managed by a reputable external firm that will not share any identifying information with Brown or any other entity. We hope that this gives you the confidence and the freedom to share what you really think. We also are committed to being transparent, so the aggregate, anonymized results of the survey will be shared with the campus and with key community stakeholders. As required by our July 30 agreement with the federal government, the survey includes a few specific questions, among many others that we will use to assess campus climate. We will provide the aggregate, anonymized results of the survey to the government, along with our analysis of the survey and any actions we intend to take in response.
We want your voices to be central to the University’s future plans. Completing the survey is an important way to demonstrate a commitment to continuing the work of building a better Brown. I urge you to complete the survey when you receive it. We look forward to hearing what you have to say and to sharing the results with the entire campus community in the spring.
Christina H. Paxson
President