When Jessie Deschenes ’24 opened yet another Today@Brown email early this fall offering a “community building opportunity for first years,” she was unsure about joining.

Just under one year ago, David Morales MPA’19 was in the midst of organizing a protest for climate justice with Sunrise Rhode Island. Now, he’s the District 7 state representative-elect, and he has no plans to stop advocating for progressive causes. 

Since accepting the position in summer 2019 as the University’s first Transformative Justice Program Coordinator, Dara Kwayera Imani Bayer ’08 and her team have led a series of education and training initiatives for community members on campus and in Providence. 

Juana De Los Santos joined the University’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity as the new director of equal opportunity and diversity last month. Jeana Horton also joined the office as an institutional equity investigator.

Bryce Blinn ’21, a registered Democrat, knows that his vote in the presidential election is crucial in his home state of Texas, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up. So, to make sure his vote was counted, he took matters into his own hands.

While the conditions that shape the “new normal” have made it exceedingly difficult for community members on campus to safely organize, they have only made activism and advocacy more urgent. 

Grasping at the Root, a newly-formed abolitionist coalition at Brown, recently launched the Campaign for Communities Without Policing, which raises demands to address carcerality, white supremacy and financial practices at the University.

The Undergraduate Council of Students held an information session during its first general body meeting of the semester and discussed the new UCS Equity and Inclusion Committee, project updates and upcoming UCS elections.

Against Racism in Medicine, a coalition which advocates for anti-racist practices in the medical field, released a petition Aug. 11 that calls for monetary compensation for every member of the University’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism. 

President Christina Paxson P’19 wrote that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s new guidance for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program is “nothing short of cruel” in a community-wide email sent Wednesday afternoon.