At a Tuesday meeting, the Office of Residential Life announced that it will shift its program and theme housing selection process to a randomized lottery, The Herald previously reported.
In the days following the announcement, many of these houses and other student organizations have condemned the decision and expressed concerns about their ability to maintain community. As part of the change, program and theme house leaders will no longer be able to select their residents.
The Herald spoke to affected houses — which include programs tailored to students of specific races, genders and other identities — about their thoughts on the change.
The change comes amid federal threats to diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education. But the decision has “nothing to do” with the University’s July 30 agreement with the Trump administration, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in a Wednesday email to The Herald.
Instead, the change aims to ensure that “all students who have an interest in the program or theme have the opportunity to be considered,” wrote Vice President for Campus Life Patricia Poitevien ’94 MD’98 in a Wednesday email to The Herald.
“Any undergraduate student, regardless of identity, is eligible to participate in a program house,” Clark wrote.
One day after ResLife announced the change, Brown Rise Up — a student group organizing against the Trump administration — launched a petition to oppose the decision. As of Sunday evening, the petition has received over 1,500 signatures.
Brown Rise Up condemned ResLife’s decision to update the policy “without consulting with program houses,” which have a “long-standing precedent” of structuring their own communities, the petition states.
“These unilateral actions are uninformed and consequently insensitive to the needs of the Brown community,” wrote Dakota Pippins ’29, a spokesperson for Brown Rise Up, in a statement to The Herald.
“We understand students have questions and concerns about these updates and appreciate the commitment they bring to their communities,” Clark wrote in a Thursday email to The Herald. “In the coming weeks and months, Residential Life will work closely with student leaders to gather feedback, address questions and support the continued strength of these student-led, mission-driven residential communities.”
The University did not directly comment on whether student leaders were consulted before the change was made.
On Thursday night, Harambee House — a “residential and community space” for Black students at Brown, according to the group’s Instagram — hosted a town hall to discuss the new policy.
“The main thing that I was worried about was the importance of preserving the community and our spaces,” Harambee House Co-President Madison Duff ’27 told The Herald after the town hall. She added that the new policy would allow students to join the house just for nicer housing, rather than their interest in the house’s mission.
In a Thursday email sent to the student body, the Undergraduate Council of Students wrote that it “strongly condemns” the University’s decision, arguing that the decision was made “without student input … effectively stripping these Houses of their ability to maintain their values, communities and identities.”
The UCS also plans to meet with the Division of Campus Life next week, according to the email and UCS President Talib Reddick ’26.
“Our goal is to let (the University) know that students have shown disapproval of this decision, to have a conversation with them in order to seek clarity and to work together on our next steps forward,” Reddick wrote in a message to The Herald.
Other affected houses include House of Ninnuog, Technology House, Brown Women’s Collective, West House and La Casita, among others.
In an email to The Herald, House of Ninnuog leaders Jeamilett Martinez ’28 and Javin Felipe ’26 wrote that the changes, “if implemented by the Office of Residential Life, would directly oppose the progress and demands made by generations of Native students at Brown.”
House of Ninnuog serves as “the only safe space for Indigenous students on campus,” the house’s leaders wrote, adding that the house initially formed due to “years of Native@Brown organizing and activism.”
“Undermining the autonomy of House of Ninnuog … makes it clear that the institution’s ‘commitments’ were yet another false promise,” they added, pointing to the University’s 2022 land acknowledgement as an example of an unmet commitment.
Martinez and Felipe explained “how the institution repeatedly uses false promises to absolve their participation in ongoing colonial harm,” citing how former Associate Professor of American Studies Elizabeth Hoover MA’03 PhD’10 incorrectly claimed to be Native American, as well as how the University “mishandled” transferring land back to the Pokanoket Tribe.
Houses also expressed concern about how the decision may impact members’ commitments to the programs’ respective missions.
In a statement sent to The Herald on behalf of West House, one of Brown’s Environmental Program Houses, President Dexter Vincent ’28 wrote that ResLife’s new policy brings up concerns for students who rely on the house’s vegetarian diet.
“If we cannot prioritize (vegetarian students) in our application process, they will not be able to feed themselves adequately,” Vincent wrote.
He also noted that West House members have specific responsibilities that help sustain the community, including cooking and cleaning together. “If our members are not seriously committed to our values, traditions and daily responsibilities, the house simply cannot function,” he wrote.
Brown Women’s Collective Co-Presidents Sevilla Montoya ’27 and Camille Deckey ’26 wrote in an email to The Herald that the “ability to welcome members” who value “inclusion and equity” is necessary to support the house’s cause.
In an email to The Herald, Tech House President and Chairperson Jaya Thekdi ’27 expressed concern that “students with strong interest may not be able to get a spot in our limited allotment.” Tech House is a program house geared toward students passionate about science or technology.
“We hope Residential Life will reverse this decision and extend to program houses the processes they have outlined for Greek Life,” Thekdi added.
The changes outlined by the University will not affect Greek Houses or those interested in the Substance-Free or Recovery Community, The Herald previously reported.
“I hope the University gives us a chance to have an actual conversation,” Duff said. “We felt like we just didn’t have any real voice.”
Hadley Carr is a university news editor at The Herald, covering academics & advising and student government.
