Before coming to Brown, I knew that higher education was under threat from an increasingly polarized political climate. But, before beginning my tenure as first-year representative on the Undergraduate Council of Students, I did not anticipate how deeply students themselves could shape an institution.
Participating in meetings, advocating for student needs and watching policy decisions unfold in real time made clear that our leverage is real. That clarity crystallized when Brown students united to oppose President Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Our collective action did more than contribute to the halt of a harmful proposal. It affirmed a truth too often ignored: Students are not passive recipients of policy. We are political actors with the ability to set priorities, shift outcomes and remind the University who it ultimately serves. Even as the external threats to Brown appear to have subsided, we cannot become complacent. We must continue to exercise our voice.
Student power is not a new force on College Hill. Brown’s own history has been built with it. The Open Curriculum, now treated as a pillar of the University’s identity, did not emerge from administrative foresight. It was born from student activism in 1969, when undergraduates demanded an academic model grounded in autonomy, intellectual risk-taking and educational freedom. The New Curriculum, as it was then known, was not a gift. It was a concession won through organization, pressure and the insistence that students deserved a voice in how they learn.
That same influence exists today, even if we sometimes forget it. The threats facing higher education are not abstract. They are immediate and coordinated. Brown’s recent attempt to weaken affinity housing is one such example. In this climate, student engagement is not optional. It is the only meaningful counterweight to political and institutional overreach.
The aftermath of the compact showed why this matters. Once the policy was rejected, the energy that had unified and electrified my classmates seemed to have evaporated. Many assumed the battle was over. That complacency is not just mistaken. It is dangerous.
Across the country, lawmakers continue to target universities with restrictions on teaching, limits on diversity initiatives and rhetoric designed to delegitimize higher education itself. Attacks seen in state legislatures, such as in Ohio and Florida, are just the tip of the iceberg. Universities are not walled-off enclaves. They reflect the pressures and tensions of the world beyond the Van Wickle Gates. We must stay aware and active. Silence is not evidence of stability. It is evidence of vulnerability.
The growing national narrative that higher education is elitist, ideological or out of touch is not just misinformed — it is strategic. It is a political project aimed at weakening spaces where questioning, dissent and cross-cultural inquiry still thrive. Students are the first line of defense against that project. When we organize, speak and challenge unjust decisions, those attacks lose their power. When we disengage, they win.
My time in student government has made this clearer with every passing moment. I entered with practical goals, including expanding halal dining and securing free printing. Yet, even these routine policy debates revealed a deeper truth. A seat in student government is more than procedural. It symbolizes a collective ability to steer Brown’s priorities, to defend what makes this place worth fighting for and to insist that education remain a public good rather than a political casualty.
Complacency is simply not an option. The stakes extend far beyond Brown’s campus. They reach into the core of what it means to learn freely in a democratic society. Engagement may be inconvenient. It may feel exhausting. But democracy depends on ordinary people choosing to participate even when participation is difficult. Students are no exception.
The path forward is clear. Use your voice. Vote in student elections and in local, state and national ones. Hold elected and University leadership accountable, including those of us who claim to represent you. Interrogate decisions that threaten transparency, equity or academic freedom. Speak when it feels uncomfortable and especially when silence seems easier.
Above all, do not abandon the influence you hold. Brown’s history proves that students can reshape the future of this University. The Open Curriculum is proof. The rejection of the compact is proof. The story of higher education is not written by administrators or politicians — it is written by students who refuse to be silent. This means responding in referendums, utilizing petitions, writing op-eds and using the resources at hand to make your voices heard in times when it feels like the opposite is happening.
That history is still unfolding. It is ours to write, but only if we choose to stand up and write it.
Demetrius Davis ’29 can be reached at demetrius_davis@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and submit other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
