In the coming months, a committee of faculty, staff and students will draft an important framework for the University’s future — one which will define a campus where every member of our community enjoys the benefits of opportunity, belonging and access, and where we collectively value and respect each individual’s contributions to our campus. As the chair of this Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, I know that our success depends on hearing from University stakeholders about what is working well, what is not and where there is hope for a better Brown. I also know that the student campus climate survey released Tuesday — a part of the comprehensive 2025-26 campus climate survey — is our very best chance to hear from students across all degree programs.
Though I acknowledge that University committees might not be the most exciting topic for most students, this committee should be different. The committee is taking on the responsibility of fostering a more inclusive campus with fierce determination, committed to cultivating a truer sense of belonging at Brown in response to a world off College Hill that is often cruel. We want better for students here and for every member of our community. The results of this inquiry will inform a series of discussions and focus groups we will host with the Brown community in the spring, which will shape our next plan for diversity and inclusion.
Any framework is only as good as its materials. To make a good plan, the University needs to hear from candid voices, because positive change can only come from reckoning with facts. From our students, we want to know where they find joy and where they take solace. We want to know where students turn for help in a moment of grave need. We want to know where students are comfortable speaking boldly and acting with confidence, and where our community sustains imagination and curiosity.
But we also need to know how many of our students have ever felt the sting of bigotry or exclusion. We must understand how social media conversations wound us, individually and collectively. We have to learn where our students feel unwelcome. We need to measure how many feel lonely and isolated, set apart and adrift. We desperately want Brown to be a place where every student can walk into a classroom and feel both heard and seen by their professor, or enter a residence hall and be enveloped by the warmth of peers. We need to know if that isn’t happening so that we can address it.
Students know best what it means to belong, and they know best where we fall short. I earnestly hope they will share what they know because we need to understand where we fail so that we can become better together.
Why does this matter? Because we know that it is right, and that we owe it to each other. Because we know that when we leverage our collective strength, it is certain that academic discovery, collaboration and invention will follow. Because by thoughtfully and intentionally attending to the needs of everyone, we ensure that we are preparing our community for a life of kindness, commitment, teamwork and shared imagination — curricular and co-curricular lessons we can only complete in concert.
As students open their inboxes this week to find a link to anonymously complete the survey, it’s beyond important that they complete it. The University creates a new framework for diversity and inclusion only once a decade, so students taking this year’s campus climate survey have a rare opportunity to shape Brown’s next chapter at a time when so many are gravely concerned about the future.
Six minutes is all it takes. Six minutes to play a role in shaping the environment for our campus. Six minutes to compel us to do better. Six minutes to capture the University’s attention and influence change.
I urge all students to take the survey seriously so that we can do right by our community.
Matthew Guterl is vice president for diversity and inclusion and chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. He can be reached at matthew_guterl@brown.edu. Please send responses to this op-ed to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
