Brown University
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Brown University, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., and one of the eight Ivy League schools, which are widely regarded for their high academic standards, selectivity in admissions, and social prestige.
History
Brown was first chartered in Warren, Rhode Island, in 1764 as Rhode Island College, a Baptist institution for men that admitted students regardless of religious affiliation. The school moved to Providence in 1770 and adopted its present name in 1804 in honor of benefactor Nicholas Brown. Francis Wayland, president of Brown from 1827 to 1855, broadened the curriculum by expanding electives, adding modern languages, and improving laboratory equipment. Women were first admitted to Brown’s women’s college—later named Pembroke College—in 1891. In 1971 the university merged with Pembroke College, making Brown fully coeducational.
Brown University consists of an undergraduate college and graduate and medical schools. The Brown Curriculum was introduced in 1970—an unconventional approach to fulfilling degree requirements. Undergraduate students study within an open curriculum environment where they are expected to design their own interdisciplinary program of study, though most do so within one of more than 80 established academic concentrations. Total enrollment in 2025 was approximately 11,000.
Notable alumni
The alumni of Brown have been closely associated with many areas of intellectual, scientific, political, and artistic development. Notable alumni include philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., economist Janet Yellen, lawyer Kenneth Starr, chemist Stephen L. Buchwald, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, abortion rights activist Cecile Richards, musician and composer Wendy Carlos, actors Emma Watson and John Krasinski, This American Life host Ira Glass, astronaut Jessica Meir, political thinkers and leaders Charlotta Spears Bass, Aga Khan V, and Curtis Yarvin, and many editors and authors, including Nathanael West, Nicanor Parra, Lois Lowry, Edwidge Danticat, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Kevin Young, Ottessa Moshfegh, André Leon Talley, Chloe Malle, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Lynn Nottage, Jeffrey Eugenides, Marilynne Robinson, and Percival Everett.
Brown in the 21st century
Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice
Beginning in the early 2000s and continuing into the 2020s, more than 100 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and abroad—including Harvard, Emory, Yale, and the University of Virginia—have been investigating their institution’s historical involvement in and benefit from chattel slavery in the United States. Brown’s efforts were spearheaded by Brown University Pres. Ruth Simmons, the first Black American to serve as president of an Ivy League college, who convened the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in 2003 to examine Brown’s “historical entanglement with slavery and the slave trade.”
The committee’s 2006 landmark final report detailed the history of slavery in Rhode Island and Brown’s relationship to the slave trade. The report enumerated several places where the university directly benefited from the slave economy, including ownership of enslaved people by members of the Brown Corporation and the Brown family, use of enslaved labor to construct campus buildings, and endowment donations from those whose wealth was partially built on slaveholding. Concluding that “American slavery and the transatlantic trade that fed it were crimes against humanity,” the report issued 12 recommendations for accountability, including public acknowledgment and memorialization of Brown’s ties to slavery; establishment of a center for research on slavery and justice; and expansion of opportunities for communities harmed by the legacies of slavery and the slave trade.
Higher education attacks during the second administration of Pres. Donald Trump
During the second term of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump, a number of elite academic institutions were threatened with funding cuts unless they implemented key policy changes that, among other things, addressed accusations of antisemitism on campus and eliminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in admissions and hiring. As part of that campaign, beginning in April 2025, Brown’s federally sponsored medical and health sciences research funding was frozen amid federal reviews of its compliance with civil rights laws. After months of negotiation, on July 30, 2025, Brown and the Trump administration reached a settlement that restored the frozen research grants and resolved the three open federal nondiscrimination compliance reviews. For its part, Brown pledged to pay $50 million over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce development organizations and follow a set of guidelines to “restore fairness, merit, and safety in higher education.” In a letter detailing the settlement, Brown University Pres. Christina H. Paxson assured the Brown community that:
The University’s foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown. This is reflected in key provisions of the resolution agreement preserving our academic independence.
On October 1, 2025, the Trump administration sent a letter to nine colleges and universities—including Brown—proposing a broad “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that would offer the institutions preferential and priority federal funding based on compliance with a slate of policy changes. Brown formally rejected this compact on October 15, with leadership arguing that the compact threatened academic freedom and independence.
- Notable Alumni:
- Horace Mann
- Wendy Carlos
- Kevin Young
- Richard Fleischer
- Samuel Gridley Howe
- Related People:
- James Manning
December 2025 mass shooting
On December 13, 2025, as students studied for finals, a gunman entered a classroom in Brown’s Barus and Holley building and opened fire. Two students—a freshman and a sophomore—were killed and nine others were wounded. The gunman fled scene. On December 18 a suspect was found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire. Authorities identified the suspect as a 48-year-old man who had briefly attended Brown; officials said he died by suicide.