A $10-million endowment for public education in Providence is the centerpiece of the University's official response to the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice's report, issued last year. The response, crafted by President Ruth Simmons, was released Saturday following approval by the Corporation, the University's highest governing body.
The response also calls for up to 10 students a year to receive free tuition towards a master's degree in exchange for serving Providence-area public schools after graduating. In addition, the University will undertake a teaching and research initiative related to slavery and justice, investigate the creation of a memorial to commemorate the slave trade and further publicize the committee's findings.
Originally appointed by President Ruth Simmons in 2003 to examine the University's historic ties to slavery and the slave trade, the committee completed its charge and released a report on its findings last October.
The report detailed how Brown's early benefactors profited from the slave trade and recommended steps the University could take to acknowledge and atone for its past, such as creating an academic center to study slavery, building a memorial and attracting more students from the West Indies and Africa.
"I'm very pleased with the response, which I think takes the recommendations of the committee very seriously and in some sense goes beyond them," said Associate Professor of History James Campbell, the committee's chair.
Those recommendations also suggested the University devote resources to Providence public schools, but Campbell said the committee had not considered creating an endowment and called that initiative "potentially one of the most enduring outcomes of this whole process."
"It clearly reflects (Simmons') desire to build relationships between the University and the public schools that will be substantial and lasting," he added.
Simmons told The Herald yesterday she is "extremely hopeful" the endowment will draw enthusiasm from donors and could meet or exceed its $10 million goal within a few years.
Campbell said he believes the endowment could provide a new model for universities to leverage their dedicated donor bases and investment management experience for community benefit.
"Depending on how and whether other universities might wish to follow Brown's lead, it suggests new ways for building long-term relationships between universities and the public school systems in the communities that are their hosts," he said.
Lamont Gordon '93, director of education outreach, called the investment "a next big step" in Brown's efforts to reach out to Providence schools, adding that the proposed endowment "shows institutional commitment to this work."
He also said it acknowledges the slave trade's "tragic legacy," which is especially apparent in education.
Simmons' response calls for the University to acknowledge its ties to the slave trade by commissioning a revised official history of the University to reflect "a more complete picture of the origins of Brown" and creating a memorial to the slave trade in Rhode Island to be developed with city and state officials.
The official response also addresses the report's impact on current students and community members by calling for an "executive summary" of the 106-page report and a free printed version of the full report, which currently costs $7.50.
In a Nov. 30 e-mail sent to the committee while she was formulating the response, Simmons called community reaction to the report "somewhat more muted than anticipated." A poll conducted by The Herald two weeks after the report's release found that only 17.9 percent of students planned to read most or all of the report and nearly half did not plan to read it at all.
The response also proposes a number of academic initiatives, including calling for a committee to look into the creation of a center for slavery and justice on campus. That committee should produce a report by the end of the Fall 2007 semester and fundraising should begin before that, the response says.
The recommendation to create an academic center met was the most popular recommendation of those asked about in The Herald's poll, with 59.9 percent in favor and only 16.4 percent opposed. The poll of undergraduates was conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, 2006, and has a 3.8 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence.
The University's response also calls for a commitment to strengthening the Department of Africana Studies and to expanding current programs with historically black colleges and universities, such as the University's existing exchange program with Tougaloo College. Those programs were not specifically included in the committee's recommendations.
Not included in the University's response are initiatives specifically aimed at increasing opportunities at Brown for people disadvantaged by the legacies of slavery and the slave trade.
Campbell said the response Simmons crafted was both substantial and realistic, and he added the committee had avoided "pie-in-the-sky" recommendations.
Associate Professor of History Kerry Smith, a member of the committee, called the response "thoughtful" and said it "lays the foundation for a continued dialogue on campus."
In an e-mail to The Herald, John Gillis '07, president of the Undergraduate Council of Students, agreed that the response provided opportunities for continued discussion. "I feel that most students are proud that (Brown) has established itself as a leader on this issue," he wrote.
Evan Pulvers '10, who mentors in a Providence public school through the Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education Program, said the education fund is "especially crucial in recognizing that inequality still exists to a very large and real extent, and that it's the job of Brown and the Providence community to try and rectify that."
But Pratik Chougule '08, editor in chief of the Brown Spectator, a conservative campus publication, said he does not think it is the University's role to provide such funds. "It's basically a veiled form of reparations that they're pushing through," he said.
The University also announced separately this weekend the creation of a social choice fund for donors interested in environmentally responsible investment. The committee's recommendations included creating opportunities for socially responsible investment.
