For the 2026–27 academic year, all courses will be capped and the 10 classrooms in Barus and Holley that were closed for the spring semester will remain inaccessible, Provost Francis Doyle shared in a Thursday morning Today@Brown announcement.
“Because all classes will be capped, students and their advisors will need to think differently about pre-registration,” Doyle wrote, adding that additional instructions will be sent to undergraduate students mid-March. “Instead of pre-registering only for capped courses, it will be important for students to pre-register for all classes that they intend to take.”
The physical capacity of the classrooms that courses are assigned to be held in will continue to limit enrollment caps. Historical and estimated changes in enrollment will determine those room assignments, the announcement read.
Decisions regarding the future of the Barus and Holley classrooms — including memorialization — “will be made over time with care and in consultation and conversation with the Brown community,” Doyle wrote in an email to The Herald.
The closure of the Barus and Holley classrooms reduced the University’s already limited classroom space. On top of that, there are typically more students on-campus and more courses offered in the fall semester than the spring, which has prompted administrators to make numerous changes to the fall scheduling process.
Some changes aim to increase the number of medium and large instructional spaces. Some areas that were not previously classrooms, such as a space in the Sciences Library, are being repurposed into instructional space. In addition, some pre-existing spaces, such as Martinos Auditorium in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, are having their availability expanded for classes, Doyle wrote to The Herald.
Departments that have their own non-registrar-controlled spaces are also encouraged to use those rooms “whenever possible,” Doyle’s Today@Brown announcement read.
The Registrar’s Office also added a new time block for classes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4–5:20 p.m., nonvoting faculty may teach classes with anticipated enrollments over 40 students. The classes that occur after 4 p.m. usually enroll less than 40 students, Doyle wrote to The Herald, so there is available space for these larger classes.
The University extended the deadline by one week to Feb. 24 for departments to submit their 2026–27 academic year course offerings, according to the announcement, because of the “significant impact” of these changes on planning.
To improve course scheduling in the long term, Doyle will bring together a task force of students, administrators and faculty to “review the impact of these changes,” and “engage in a broader discussion of Brown’s current course schedule structure and classroom supply,” the announcement read.
Ivy Huang is a university news and science & research editor from New York City Concentrating in English, she has a passion for literature and American history. Outside of writing, she enjoys playing basketball, watching documentaries and beating her high score on Subway Surfers.
