University News

During a heavily-attended Tuesday faculty meeting held over Zoom, President Christina Paxson P’19 and Provost Richard Locke P’18 discussed future operations, including reopening campus for the fall and contingency plans for potentially continuing online learning next semester.

University administration and faculty discussed grading policies at this week’s faculty meeting, a topic which has been widely debated by community members since students evacuated campus.

The University has spent $21,800,000 on refunds of room and board and parking charges, as well as student wages, E-Gap Funds for travel and a line of credit for Brown Physicians, Inc., in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and students’ evacuation from campus.

Due to the sophomore meal plan requirement imposed June 2019, several Environmental Program House members argue that their houses are now unable to meet their mission without more sophomore meal plan exemptions. The University granted eight meal plan exemptions for sophomores in each EPH for the 2020-21 academic year.

President Christina Paxson P’19 and Provost Richard Locke P’18 will each be taking a 20 percent pay reduction this fiscal year. This decision accompanies salary freezes for faculty and staff.

The University will continue paying 81 percent of student workers as Brown transitions to remote learning, despite its recent announcement of $20 million in COVID-related expenses.

Jason Carroll ’21 was elected president of the Undergraduate Council of Students and Akilesh Raman ’22 was elected as chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board in this year’s elections, Elections Board Co-Chairs Alex Song ’20 and Mary Stack ’21 announced in a Zoom video conference open to the student body Monday night. 

Reflecting on notions of equity, choice and transparency in the context of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, students expressed mixed reactions to the temporary academic policy implemented by the University that will allow students to change their grade options from April 13 to May 1. 

The University calculated that costs associated with the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will exceed $20 million in the current fiscal year, according to a community-wide email from President Christina Paxson P’19 sent this morning.

The Herald’s Spring 2020 poll was conducted over the course of two days from March 10-11, the two days before the University announced its transition to remote learning and limited on-campus housing, as previously reported by The Herald.