In late April 1975, several dozen students who called themselves the Third World Coalition walked into University Hall at 8:10 a.m., before most administrators had come to work, and barricaded the building.
The students charged that Brown had not upheld commitments made several years earlier to increase black student enrollment at the University and further called for increased admission of Hispanic and Asian students.
The Third World Coalition also condemned recent cuts in financial aid - made in response to the University's dire financial straits and implemented even as tuition increased - because of the potential impact on black student enrollment. Of the black students attending Brown at the time, 80 percent were receiving some form of financial assistance.
After 38 hours of occupation, administrators - who had been relegated to the seventh floor of Barus and Holley during the sit-in - agreed to increase the number of black students admitted to the University by 25 percent over three years and appoint a minority recruitment admissions officer. But because of budget restraints, financial support remained the same.
The Third World Center, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, was founded on the heels of the 1975 protests. Since that seminal year, even as black student enrollment has been largely stagnant, issues of diversity have taken up official residence at University Hall.
While the numbers of Asian and Hispanic students grew in the class of 1980, the first admitted after the protest, the same number of black students - 85 - enrolled in the class of 1980 as in the class of 1979. (At the same time, the overall size of the class decreased slightly.)
Furthermore, the University again denied admission to some needy students because it could not afford to provide financial support for them.
Throughout the 1980s, black student enrollment hovered between 100 and 110 students per class, according to statistics provided by the Third World Center.
Director of the Third World Center Karen McLaurin '74 pointed out that while 135 black students matriculated in her class, only 114 black students matriculated in the class of 2010, though it is uncertain how the overall class sizes compare.
"The demands (of the protestors) were realized to a certain degree," McLaurin said. Though she commended the increased enrollment of Asian and Hispanic students, McLaurin said it was "sad but true that the increase in the enrollment of blacks has been less."
"The pie is only so big," she added.
Between 1994 and 2006, black students made up roughly 6 percent of the student body, according to the Office of Institutional Research. In the class of 1980, black students also constituted 6 percent of the student body, or 85 out of 1,275 total students.
Even though the statistics have changed only slightly, student activists in the 1970s were able to shape how the University dealt with issues of diversity.
During those years, the administration's new commitment to increase the enrollment of minority students made Brown a more attractive school for future students, said Paul Buhle, senior lecturer in American civilization.
"(Race) was one of the important issues to make (Brown) different from the insular, conservative environment of the 1950s and 1960s," Buhle said.
Though students continued to organize around race-related issues after 1975, activists focused less on actual enrollment of blacks and other minorities. In the 1980s and 1990s, students protested against apartheid in South Africa and for need-blind admission, among other causes.
McLaurin and Felipe Floresca '73, former director of the Third World Center, credited this shift of focus to increases in the number of students of color at the University and the national debate about other race-related issues.
Change in the racial climate has come about in other ways, McLaurin said. She recalled attending an event recently that was part of South Asian Identity Week and seeing two students of different races - neither South Asian - discuss issues relevant to South Asia. "It was heartwarming," she said.
McLaurin pointed to 11 different ethnic groups organizing social programming at the Third World Center as evidence of progress students of color have made at Brown.
"Things have rolled into something bigger than we could have dreamt of," McLaurin said.
The 1975 protestors had a lasting impact on the University that students today may not associate with the protestors' efforts. In 1976, Brown began funding a directorship of the Third World Center, Floresca said.
Since then, several committees have made recommendations for increasing diversity at Brown. Most recently, the Office of Institutional Diversity, which was created by President Ruth Simmons, released a 13-page Diversity Action Plan. The plan represents the latest in a series of efforts by Brown presidents to address diversity issues, including efforts by former presidents Howard Swearer, Vartan Gregorian and Gordon Gee, Floresca said.
"During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s students saw that the University cared what they were thinking," McLaurin said. "The administration and Corporation took seriously their concerns."
