Brown will honor financial commitments made to MFA and PhD students who experienced cuts to their externally funded research grants, said Janet Blume, interim dean of the Graduate School, at the first Graduate Student Council meeting of the academic year.
The University’s reduced graduate student admissions targets — which came following federal funding cuts earlier this year — were also launched as a response to “the changing landscape and the uncertainty around federal grants,” Blume said at the meeting.
Research funding has become increasingly volatile under the Trump administration, with cuts to grants to support indirect research costs and National Institutes of Health funding. In July, the University reached an agreement with the federal government to restore $50 million in NIH federal grant funding, in exchange for a number of resolutions.
“We want to make sure that we’re able to give each of you all of the attention and support that you need to get through comfortably (and) well-supported,” Blume said.
Blume said that the reduced targets will continue in the coming admissions cycle to ensure the University has “time to work out issues of the federal financial landscape and also shifts in the job market.”
Blume also said that the University plans to kick off its internal search for a permanent dean of the Graduate School with a call for nominations in the coming weeks. The University aims to have a candidate by the end of November to start in the role on Jan. 1, 2026, she added.
Blume assumed the role of interim dean following the departure of Thomas Lewis ’90 on July 31. The dean of the Graduate School typically delivers opening remarks at the first GSC meeting of the academic year.
The GSC also passed its fall 2025 budget of $132,300, marking an increase from last fall’s budget of $118,000. The budget increase was funded by an increase in the student activity fee from $40 to $45, according to GSC President Kevin LoGiudice ScM’21 GS.
Ian Ritter is a senior staff writer for university news. A junior studying chemistry, he covers the graduate schools & students and admissions & financial aid beats. When he isn’t at The Herald or exploding lab experiments, you can find him playing the clarinet, watching the Mets or eating Ratty carrot cake.
