The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, approved a $1.95 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 in their May meeting, according to a May 27 Today@Brown message. With $1.89 billion in expected revenue, the new budget creates over $50 million in debt, up from fiscal year 2026’s $29 million deficit.
The FY27 budget follows efforts to reduce the University’s structural deficit, including laying off employees, freezing Ph.D. admissions and pausing net-zero emissions goals. The new budget also follows significant adverse impacts the University faced due to federal actions in 2025.
“As a result of these measures over the past several years, we have made significant progress reducing the structural deficit while maintaining investments in important academic priorities and navigating a number of short-term challenges,” President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 wrote in the message.
“Brown’s voluntary agreement with the federal government lessened, but did not eliminate the negative financial impact of federal actions,” Paxson wrote.
Paxson added that the increased operating deficit for FY27 — in addition to continued deficit growth projected in fiscal years 2028 and 2029 — was anticipated in the University’s financial plan, which was reviewed by the University Resources Committee. But according to Paxson, “deficits are projected to rapidly improve in the years to follow.”
The budget’s largest expenses are $830 million set aside for employee salaries, wages and benefits and $506 million for student financial aid — a 0.6% increase from last year’s financial aid budget.
The University also announced that architecture firm Höweler + Yoon was selected to design the proposed Department of Economics building on Brook Street — a planned development that has drawn criticism from nearby residents since they were notified earlier this year. Höweler + Yoon previously designed renovations of work spaces on the first floor of Brown’s John D. Rockefeller Library in 2016.
Paxson wrote that the project is still in an “early stage” and that “an ongoing public engagement process” will continue. She noted that there will be “a more than year-long design process” before the building is completed.
At the meetings, the Corporation also reviewed the University’s draft report on “Generative Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning at Brown,” and the recently appointed Associate Provost for Corporate Engagement, James Kellner, presented plans for the University to “invest in corporate engagement and partnership.”
The University also updated Corporation members on its plans following the Dec. 13 mass shooting, including renovating and repairing Barus and Holley and the two ongoing post-shooting security reviews. The results from the assessments and an implementation plan are set to be released in August.
In her message, Paxson noted that since fiscal year 2014, the University’s annual safety and security budget has grown by 67%, with over $65 million in spending for security technology such as cameras and emergency alert systems. 140 security cameras have been installed on campus since early December — with “additional planned installations underway,” she wrote — on top of a tripling in the number of cameras from 400 to 1,200 since 2012.
The meeting also saw the election of seven members to the Board of Trustees, and Logan Tullai ’25 was elected as a new alumni trustee after a voting process by recent alumni and graduating seniors.
Jeremiah Farr is a senior staff writer covering university hall and higher education.
