Introduction

On April 30, 2003, the University invited seventeen members of the Brown community to serve on a Steering Committee, the purpose of which was to help the campus come to an understanding of the complicated question of the extent to which Brown University benefited from the Rhode Island slave trade. That history, over time, had been clouded by a succession of accounts that gave varying degrees of weight to the founders’ involvement in the trade. As a result, many alumni expressed uncertainty about whether such ties to slavery had actually existed and others asked whether Brown was deliberately concealing its relationship with eighteenth-century slave holders and slave traders. The Committee’s charge, then, was to make use of time-honored methods of scholarly inquiry to clarify this history for the benefit of the wider community.

Most Americans are well aware of the prevalence of African slavery in the South, but the role of New England states (including Rhode Island) in this traffic has received more limited attention in the teaching and study of American history. We hoped that the Committee would demonstrate how we might explore and make ongoing use of important historical documents in our collections, as well as identify outside experts to help us interpret this complex history and our place in relationship to it. In addition, by studying this question in the context of examples of varied historical injustices, the campus would be able to debate the legal questions, moral issues, and ethical choices involved in issues of retrospective justice.

Anticipating a variety of opinions on how to interpret Brown’s relationship to slavery, we set the goal of this effort as a broad study intended not to achieve consensus but to provide both factual information and critical perspectives. The search for this information could serve to deepen our common understanding of one of the most difficult aspects of our history. The Committee was to accomplish this by engaging in public academic events, scholarly conferences with Brown faculty and experts from across the country and around the world, lectures, and other traditional aspects of scholarship and intellectual exchange.

Finally, we hoped to form a Committee that would be recognized as broadly inclusive of conflicting perspectives and differing methods of analysis. Under the leadership of its chair, James Campbell, associate professor of American civilization, Africana studies, and history at Brown, the Committee spent the better part of three years studying this issue, hearing a range of views, examining historical documents, and ultimately producing a Report that was released in October 2006.

The University’s Response to the Committee’s Report

Following the submission and publication of the Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in October 2006, the University administration and community have taken several months to read, reflect on, debate, answer questions about, and respond to, the Committee’s observations and recommendations. Comments on the Report have been numerous and varied, reflecting a range of perspectives, conclusions, and suggestions. For the most part, those who took the time to respond to the Report expressed appreciation for the magnitude of the project and acknowledged the diligent efforts of the Committee to present a complete and accurate account of Brown’s history and its entanglement with the Rhode Island slave trade.

The Committee expressed an interest in setting the record straight. Perhaps nowhere is its impact on that goal more apparent than in the following excerpt from the letter of a fifth-grade teacher:

“I have already begun to teach my fifth-graders about the topic. It’s part of their history, and I feel it’s important they be aware of the historical roots of the region.”
– Email from Sandy Riojas, November 25, 2006

Some readers responded less enthusiastically to the Report, portraying it as an example of politics cloaked in academic respectability. Many of them considered it an untimely look backward that constrains forward progress. Still others suggested that the effort unduly emphasizes societal responsibility for the legacy of slavery over the personal responsibility of descendants of slaves to overcome the effects of discrimination on their own. Such reactions are an important dimension of the dialogue about the aftermath of slavery, but the Report reveals and documents well that racism, stereotyping, and discrimination continue to have significant consequences in American society. Some would urge that these ills be “forgotten,” but, as the Report points out, it is the acknowledgment rather than the forgetting of these factors that can impel us to improve society.

Given the emotions that the troubling history of slavery and discrimination is bound to elicit, one can well imagine the challenge that the Slavery and Justice Committee had in framing its Report in such a positive light. The Committee is to be commended for bringing this work to a successful conclusion. That success is marked by a number of achievements.

In commissioning the Committee’s work, we asked that this process be designed to involve the campus community in a discovery of the meaning of our University’s past while enabling us to incorporate that history into a common tradition. The Committee’s work accomplished this in numerous ways. First, by bringing together a range of experiences and perspectives to inform the process, this work took on an intensity, breadth, and depth that reflected well upon university life. By agreeing to enter an area long acknowledged as a zone of national discomfort and disagreement, the Committee modeled for the campus the benefit of intellectual honesty and fitness in enabling civil discourse under the most difficult circumstances.

In addition, by sifting carefully through the facts and interpreting important features of Brown’s history and culture, the Committee taught the community how to draw from that past a newfound sense of pride and commonality of understanding. If, as Brown’s President William Herbert Perry Faunce (1899–1929) asserted, “It is not only ivy that clings to ancient walls – it is memories, echoes, inspirations,”¹ then the Committee’s work issues a new summons to those who come after. The Committee has opened an important new chapter in the history of this University, one that compels us to embrace the full weight of its history and mission.

In considering the Committee’s Report and its recommendations, the University is aware that the recommendations include many suggestions of initiatives that are already underway. These are noted in Appendix C. The University has, over its long history, engaged in many programs in an effort to address important societal needs, remedy past discrimination, and create an environment for learning and research that reflects a strong commitment to social justice.

In spite of these past efforts, however, the opportunity to improve on what the University can accomplish is welcome. Consequently, we thank the Committee for providing us with this opportunity to reflect on the University’s wider social responsibility. The actions we are proposing in response to the Report incorporate a number of the Report’s recommendations, but also include measures not recommended explicitly by the Committee. This response is also meant to suggest a direction for the future and acknowledge that other worthwhile ideas may yet come forward to augment these steps. The loyal alumni who support Brown have already suggested many such possibilities and we expect even more in the coming years.

Brown, a private university, depends upon the substantial philanthropy that such supporters who believe in its mission continue to bestow on it. The University is assisted in its work by thousands of committed volunteers who are devoted to the education of the students who attend the University. These donors embrace the challenge of supporting study and research that leads to the improvement of life for millions around the world. Evidence of this commitment and philanthropic generosity among alumni and friends of Brown surfaced in many guises as the Committee’s work was underway. A number of individuals donated funds to support this undertaking; others made unrestricted gifts in anticipation of decisions that might be made upon conclusion of the Committee’s recommendations. This vigorous interest in contributing to the funding of the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations bodes well for the long-term success of any measures adopted and gives us hope that those initiatives that require fundraising will attract the needed support. This commitment of volunteers is also a part of the great work that “clings to ancient walls,” and will become part of the history yet to be recorded.

CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS

The following internal bodies have discussed the Report, some on numerous occasions:

• the Corporation;
• the President’s Cabinet;
• the Advisory Council on Admission;
• the Brown University Community Council;
• the Brown Faculty;
• the Undergraduate Council of Students Executive Board;
• the Advancement Committee of the Corporation;
• the Advisory and Executive Committee of the Corporation;
• President’s Staff Advisory Committee;
• the Media Relations Advisory Council; and
• alumni groups, including the Brown Alumni Association and the Inman Page Black Alumni Council.

The Slavery and Justice Report also received substantial national and international attention. As a consequence, a significant number of people responded to the Report. Many individuals (some representing groups) sent emails to the Committee’s website, directly to Committee Chairman Campbell, to individual members of the Committee, and to the Office of the President. Alumni, students, and parents asked questions and provided comments at Brown Club events around the country. As noted previously, these comments were invariably thoughtful, reflecting a range of concerns and observations about the Committee’s process and its recommendations. Most comments, however, seemed to reflect the sentiments expressed in the New York Times editorial of October 23, 2006; namely, that this activity and its Report were a fine example of what universities should be: a venue for tackling the most difficult, troubling, and seemingly intractable questions (see Appendix B).

The Committee’s work has now entered into the University’s history, where it will be available to future centuries of students and scholars seeking to understand how the community in this era responded to the questions raised by the Report. Even if this were the only outcome of this multi-year effort, it would be a considerable accomplishment. However, the Committee, through its analysis and recommendations, has given the Brown community much to consider as we seek to enrich our educational mission.

In 1835, the president of Brown University, Francis Wayland, speaking on “practical ethics” in a course on moral science, opined about slavery in the following way:

“The slaves were brought here without their own consent, they have been continued in their present state of degradation without their own consent, and they are not responsible for the consequences. If a man have done injustice to his neighbor, and have also placed impediments in the way of remedying that injustice, he is as much under obligation to remove the impediments in the way of justice, as he is to do justice.”²

In that context, the Committee has suggested a number of steps we might take to address present-day needs in the context of the University’s history. The Committee’s recommendations are outlined in Appendix A for ease of reference.

As a preamble to its recommendations, the Committee rightly stated that the University’s response “…should reflect Brown’s specific nature as an educational institution. What universities do best is learning and teaching… ”³ We agree with this observation. If we adhere to what is relevant to the unique mission of a research university, avoiding the temptation, as one commentary said, “to posture,” we will be the better for it. The long life of a university affords many opportunities to continue and add to such efforts. The question of Brown’s responsibilities vis-à-vis slavery and justice has endured since the founding of the University, and that question will endure still for some time to come. That we take this up in this time is a positive sign of the ongoing strength of concern at Brown with the rights and dignity of human beings.

The University’s Response: A Plan of Action

The impact of slavery and discrimination reaches into every facet of modern life, creating virulent social segregation, disparate economic conditions, crippling stereotyping and racial bias, and myriad other ills. Neither the University’s resources nor its expertise is sufficient to address all these areas of concern at a meaningful level. Even recalling Wayland’s admonition, we can rightly emphasize that the University should focus its response on those areas where it can, over time, have a meaningful and lasting impact.

Central to any program of action inspired by the Report is the acknowledgment of the history of the State of Rhode Island and the University and their connection to the institution of slavery. Neglect of any part of that history would be reprehensible for a university that argues for open discourse, fidelity to truth, and non-discrimination in its values and decisions. An action plan should, therefore, include efforts to memorialize both this process and the history on which it cast light. Moving ahead, without retracting what is already underway with regard to student recruitment, financial aid, mentoring, and community involvement, we endorse the following additional actions.

Memorials and Commemorations

1. Statement on the history of brown university

The University will commission a revision of its official history so that it presents a more complete picture of the origins of Brown.

2. Dissemination of the report

• In order for the Report to be more widely accessible, the University will commission and distribute an executive summary of the Report.
• The Office of Public Affairs and University Relations will be directed to publish the full Report in a format that makes it more readily available and free of cost to alumni, students, and others.
• The Office of Public Affairs and University Relations will maintain the Report’s website for a minimum of five years; the University will review the need for the website at that time and determine whether it should be maintained for an additional period under the present auspices. The Office will be encouraged to work with the John Carter Brown and John Hay Libraries to make available through the main University website documents of interest that bear upon this complex history.

3. Retention and presentation of archival material

• The Chair of the Committee, Professor James Campbell, will be asked to work with the directors of the John Carter Brown Library and the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization to develop a schedule of exhibitions to make relevant archival materials available to the public. Funds will be provided to make such exhibitions possible.
• Fellowships will be established not only to assure that these exhibitions can be appropriately curated, but also to ensure that knowledgeable individuals will be trained to staff museums, libraries, and historic sites with holdings relevant to slavery and memory. The Department of American Civilization and the John Nicholas Brown Center are invited to submit a proposal for fellowships for this purpose.

4. Memorials

• We will ask city and state officials to join us in forming a commission to determine how this history should be memorialized in the state, city, and on College Hill.
• Upon agreement with the city and state, members will be appointed by the Mayor of Providence, the Governor of Rhode Island, and the President of Brown with the charge to develop ideas for such sites, exhibitions, and memorials that commemorate appropriately the history and role of slavery in Providence, in Rhode Island, and at the University.

Academic Initiatives

5. Center for slavery and justice

The University will undertake a major research and teaching initiative on slavery and justice. A committee of experts will be appointed to explore how best to carry out such an initiative, the shape, cost, and scope of which is to be determined by the committee, in consultation with the Provost, the President, the Corporation, and the relevant standing committees of the faculty. Whether this results in a new center or the significant enlargement of an existing and coordinated set of programs should be determined through this process. This body should begin by examining the rich array of resources already available through the John Carter Brown Library, the John Hay Library collections, the Department of Africana Studies, the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization, the Department of History, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and other departments at Brown in an effort to draw upon what is relevant to this effort.

The development of this initiative will require the same rigorous review and approval process as other academic programs. The President and Provost will guide the process in such a way that it does not fall prey to the bureaucratic hurdles that can delay implementation. The recommendations of this committee should be submitted to the Provost, the Academic Priorities Committee, and the President no later than the end of the fall semester, 2007. Anticipating completion of this work, the President should authorize fundraising to begin in order not to delay implementation, once the initiative is fully defined.

6. Africana studies

The University will commit to strengthening the Department of Africana Studies. The President and the Provost will appoint a team of outside experts to assess the existing program and to make recommendations for what the department might do to improve and expand its offerings. Attention should also be paid to improving the facilities of the department.

7. The Brown–Tougaloo exchange program

The University will strengthen and expand its program with Tougaloo College under the aegis of the Advisory Council on Relations with Tougaloo College.

8. Historically Black colleges and universities initiative

The University will continue its program of providing technical assistance to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Begun in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this effort proved to be exceptionally valuable to Brown and its HBCU partners. We will expand this program to include other HBCUs and invite additional universities to assist in this effort. Assistance includes the provision of academic and administrative consultants to support strategic and financial planning, academic oversight, administrative review, governance revisions and assessments, and other needs as defined by HBCU boards of trustees and presidents.

Community Initiatives

The University neither has the resources nor the expertise to tackle the full range of social challenges that exist in Providence and Rhode Island. It can and should, however, apply its considerable influence and expertise to a coordinated effort to improve area schools. As the Committee pointed out, some of this work is already underway, in collaboration with the Providence School Department, but it may be too limited in scale to have the desired impact.

It can be argued that the differential experience of students in the schools reflects in part the lingering effects of discrimination and the persistence of economic disadvantage among certain populations. The importance of educational opportunity cannot be overstated if one wishes to address these disparities in a serious way. Brown University can and should share its expertise and professional development with the dedicated teachers of the Providence public schools as a way to help improve the quality of education and, thus, enhance the prospects for further educational and economic advancement among its students. In addition to the many programs already underway through which Brown contributes to Providence public schools, Brown will undertake two major new initiatives to improve the quality of education in urban public elementary and secondary schools.

Brown University, founded more than 240 years ago, largely through the generosity and efforts of many of Providence’s citizens, has in turn greatly benefited the city and the state by educating a significant number of leaders in the area and contributing to the health of local institutions. As a private university that is required to raise funds to support its students, teaching and research program, facilities and equipment needs, and other necessities of academic life, Brown has not been able to provide financial assistance to the city’s school programs at a significant and sustainable level. In fact, a considerable portion of the private donations made to the University (and the revenue that they produce) is legally restricted as to its use and, therefore, cannot be deployed for any but the original designated purpose.

Yet, as the Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice makes clear, in its earliest years, while still substantially a local university, Brown benefited substantially from the industry of the citizens of Providence. It still does today. The University has returned educational, economic, and cultural benefits to the city and the state, but it has also continued to benefit greatly from its location in the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island. One of the clearest messages of the Report is that institutions like Brown should take more responsibility for the health of their communities. As demonstrated by Brown’s President Francis Wayland, educational reformer Horace Mann, and so many others over the decades, universities and individual citizens should commit themselves in every age not just to contemplation of the good, but also to the doing of good, particularly as it concerns the basic rights of humanity.

In a sense, then, the greatest impact of the Report could ultimately be its powerful assertion of our ongoing duty to address some of the ills of our time. The extent of those ills should not deter us from action, but the University can take care to avoid diluting its focus by helping to overcome those challenges that are most related to Brown’s fundamental educational mission of teaching and research. There is little in society that correlates as closely to the University’s purpose and mission as kindergarten through twelfth-grade education. Few social needs are as pervasive in, or as corrosive to, the good of civil society as the lack of access to education and the persistently disparate educational conditions and outcomes of K–12 education.

The continuum of educational access that every child deserves is wanting today to a degree that compels action on the part of every college and university in the nation. It is appropriate, therefore, that Brown, in the context of its educational values and mission, promote the strongest public school environment in Providence, and, to the extent possible, in Rhode Island. The University will do so through the following additional programs.

9. Endowment for the education of the children of providence

Brown University is currently engaged in its largest fund-raising campaign in history, the goals and priorities of which were set in the context of the University’s own teaching and research priorities.

To help meet the urgent needs of children in the Providence school system who are seeking to improve their lives through education, Brown will raise $10 million to establish an endowment for the city’s schools. This endowment will be known as The Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence. The revenue from and the investment policy of the fund will be identical to the prevailing policy of the University with regard to endowment funds. The expenditure of these funds will be overseen solely by the Corporation of Brown University.

It may take some years to raise the full amount for this endowment, but because it is invested within Brown University’s endowment, it will generate a growing source of revenue to assist the city and the Superintendent of Providence Schools in their ongoing efforts to improve the quality of education in Providence’s K–12 public schools. Allocations from the fund will be determined by the University with the input of the Superintendent of Providence Schools.

10. Urban education fellows

Beginning in the 2008–2009 Academic Year, the University will offer free tuition each year to up to ten admitted students who, after receipt of a Master’s Degree in Urban Education Policy or a Master of Arts in Teaching, serve urban public schools in Providence and surrounding areas for a minimum of three years. While many schools throughout the state may have need of such assistance, the purpose of this program is to improve schools that serve especially disadvantaged populations. As the program gets under way and proves helpful, additional resources may be allocated for this purpose.

11. Continuing programs in support of the schools

The University will continue to support Providence public schools through existing programs. These efforts, detailed more fully in Appendix D, include:

• administrative funding for the Superintendent’s office;
• a dedicated Brown staff member to coordinate Providence school programs;
• CHOICES for the 21st Century;
• math/science programs;
• mentoring and tutoring programs;
• equipment funds;
• professional development for teachers; and
• diversity training.

12. Evaluation of Brown’s support

Brown will commit to the ongoing evaluation of these efforts by engaging an outside consultant to advise the University as to the ongoing effectiveness of existing and new measures.

Conclusion

We accept the summons of the Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice not to treat the small or limited scale of our involvement with the slave trade as a reason to deny any relationship to this part of our heritage. A number of Brown’s leaders and trustees were important figures in the abolitionist and civil rights struggles and that, too, must find its way into our history. The opportunity to take stock of what we have become and to judge whether we have been good stewards of the moral legacy of the best of our past has been a worthwhile effort.

We affirm our commitment to the fundamental rights of mankind and to the continuing effort to speak and act on behalf of those whose rights have been denied them. This, too, we believe, is the solemn duty of a great university.

APPENDIX A

Summary Outline of Recommendations of the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice

1. Acknowledgment

• acknowledge publicly the participation of Brown’s founders and benefactors in the institution of slavery

2. Tell the truth in all its complexity

• release the Report in print and electronic versions and circulate widely
• sponsor public forums
• include a discussion of historical links with slavery in first-year orientation
• commission a new history of the University
• lend support to other institutions that plan to investigate their histories

3. Memorialize and acknowledge the history through a “living site of memory, inviting fresh discovery without provoking paralysis or shame”

• create a slave trade memorial
• sponsor a competition for the memorial
• designate an annual day of remembrance on the campus

4. Create a center for continuing research on slavery and justice

• the center should include a full-time director, an endowed professorship, fellowships, internships, public programs, educational outreach, and adequate administrative support

5. Maintain high ethical standards in investments and gifts

• uphold strict procedures for the ethical review of gifts
• expand holdings in socially responsible funds
• support the work of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing with staff
• increase transparency and accountability for investment strategies

6. Expand opportunities at Brown for those disadvantaged by the legacies of slavery and the slave trade

• maintain a vigorous commitment to recruiting and retaining a diverse student body with a focus on African American undergraduate and graduate students
• strengthen outreach and resources to the most economically disadvantaged communities
• move to need-blind financial aid for international students
• pay particular attention to recruitment of students from Africa and the West Indies
• maintain a commitment to recruit and retain a diverse faculty and staff

7. Use resources of the University to help ensure a “quality education” for the children of Rhode Island

• create professional development opportunities for Rhode Island public school teachers, including the opportunity to enroll in one class per semester, without charge
• expand the number of course offerings and scholarships available in Brown Summer High School
• increase funding to the Master of Arts in Teaching Program, including full tuition waivers for those who commit themselves to working for at least three years in local public schools
• encourage Brown faculty to offer courses in the community
• invest resources in the Urban Education Policy Program
• coordinate efforts with other Providence colleges
• ensure administrative support for the sustainability of these outreach efforts

8. Appoint a committee to monitor the implementation of these recommendations

APPENDIX B

The Slavery and Justice Report received substantial national and international attention. Most comments reflected the sentiments expressed in the New York Times editorial of October 23, 2006.

The Times of London Higher Education Supplement also recently included a contribution that cites Brown’s Slavery and Justice Report as a model for the United Kingdom to use in commemorating its abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

APPENDIX C

Programs already in place that respond to the recommendations of the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice

1. Tell the truth in all its complexity

• Report released in print and electronic form;
• public forums held;
• website operating;
• national and international presentations scheduled.

2. Memorialize and acknowledge this history

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration offers an ideal time to acknowledge the legacy of slavery and discrimination. This program can be expanded under the guidance of the Director of Institutional Diversity.

3. Create a Center for Slavery and Justice

Brown has an exceptionally rich collection of archives, scholars, and courses of study for the interdisciplinary study of slavery and its legacy. The design and recommendation of such a center should be the task of scholars drawn from these departments and programs, as well as from experts invited from outside the University.

4. Maintain high ethical standards in investments and gifts

• Brown maintains rigorous standards, implemented in 2003, for the ethical review of major gifts.
• Brown provides donors with the opportunity to allocate their gifts to endowment to a fund that is proactively managed for social/environmental impact.
• The University will continue to support the work of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing.
• Brown will continue to include in the investment manager selection process a screen for high ethical standards and a full understanding of the manager’s investment strategies.

5. Expand opportunities at Brown for those disadvantaged by the legacies of slavery and the slave trade

Brown has a vigorous recruitment program that brings to the University a strong pool of African American and other minority applicants. The Admission Office has a program of outreach launched several years ago that has resulted in record numbers of applicants and matriculants. The Class of 2010 includes the highest percentage of minority students in the history of the College (33%), and the highest number of African American students in more than seventeen years. At the same time, Brown’s specific mission requires successful applicants to demonstrate exceptional academic potential and past achievement.

• The number of enrolling African American students has remained within 6.7–7.3% over the recent past.
• The Admission Office works to identify students who fall into the range of exceptional accomplishment. The University’s recent implementation of a need-blind admission policy, to which the Corporation is committed, allows the Admission Office to admit students without regard for their financial circumstances, and provides financial aid to meet the full demonstrated financial need of every admitted student.
• The Sidney Frank Scholars program offers loan-free financial aid packages to the admitted students with the greatest financial need.
• The University is currently raising additional endowment support to improve the financial aid program overall, including that for international students.
• Recently, the University committed to a significant increase in financial aid for international students that will make increased resources available to students from Africa, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world.

The University has a stated commitment to diversity in its faculty and staff:

• the number of minorities on the Brown faculty has increased 39% since 2001–2002, from a total of eighty-five to a total of 119;
• the number of Black faculty has increased just over 50% in the same period; the number of women has increased 24%, from 168 to 208;
• the creation of the position of Director of Institutional Diversity in 2002 has greatly aided the visibility and efficacy of these efforts.

6. Help ensure a “quality education” for the children of Rhode Island

Brown University has been working with the Superintendent of Providence Schools to accomplish this end. In the last several years, the following new programs have been instituted, and the University has:

• helped fund a full-time liaison for campus-schools initiatives in the Office of the Superintendent;
• hired a full-time employee at Brown to develop, facilitate, and monitor assistance to the schools;
• created a master’s program in Urban Education Policy and recruited a national leader for this effort;
• agreed to offer professional development courses for teachers in areas of need as designated by the Superintendent of Providence Schools;
• actively sought grant support to provide targeted enrichment efforts in the area of math and science in the public schools, including a five-year, $3-million program under the direction of Professor Tim Herbert and a pending math initiative at Hope High School sponsored by Brown and Texas Instruments;
• advanced numerous programs through the Swearer Center for Public Service, the Watson Institute for International Studies’ CHOICES for the 21st Century program, and various academic departments.

7. Appoint a committee to monitor the implementation of these recommendations

The University created the Brown University Community Council as a vehicle for the monitoring and implementation of programs of wide community interest. That body has reviewed the ongoing work of the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice and is a suitable body to continue monitoring progress on recommendations.

APPENDIX D

Education and Community Outreach Programs at Brown University

Artemis Project

Department of Computer Science

The Artemis Project is a five-week summer day camp for rising 9th grade girls in the Providence area. It is run by four Brown undergraduate women, in connection with the Computer Science Department. Artemis is designed to encourage and inspire young women in science and technology. The students learn both concrete computer skills and abstract computer science concepts through a variety of projects and activities in a positive and encouraging environment.

ArtsLiteracy Project

Department of Education

The ArtsLiteracy Project (ArtsLit) is dedicated to developing the literacy of youth through the performing and visual arts. Based in the Education Department at Brown, ArtsLit gathers an international community of artists, teachers, youth, college students, and professors with the goal of collaboratively creating innovative approaches to literacy development through the arts.

Brain Awareness Week

Department of Neuroscience

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a series of events held around the world to increase public awareness about the brain. Brown’s BAW activities are organized by Professor John Stein in the Neuroscience Department. Through BAW, Brown students conduct presentations and hands-on activities in local schools.

Brown–Providence Public Schools Education Outreach Partnership

President’s Office

While Brown’s education outreach programs serve students and teachers in several communities, the University is particularly committed to connecting its expertise and resources with the needs of the Providence public schools. To strengthen the relationship between the University and the Providence Public School Department, in 2006 President Ruth J. Simmons provided support to create the Director of Education Outreach position at Brown and the University Liaison position in the School Department.

Brown Summer High School

Department of Education

Brown Summer High School, founded in 1968, is a four-week program that challenges students to engage their minds in tackling big questions. Courses offer students innovative learning environments where they work in small groups, participate in discussions, conduct laboratory experiments, and engage in hands-on activities. As active participants in the learning experience, students develop essential skills in reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking. Brown Summer High School draws its faculty from Brown University students enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching and Undergraduate Teacher Education programs. These teachers-in-training work in teams with experienced teachers from local schools and Brown Teacher Education faculty. The program is open to students entering grades 9–12.

CHOICES for the 21st Century

Watson Institute for International Studies

CHOICES for the 21st Century is an educational outreach program of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Through its curricular resources, professional development programs, and special projects, CHOICES engages secondary level students in current and historical international issues and contributes to a renewal of civic engagement among young people in the United States.

CityBrothers

Swearer Center for Public Service

CityBrothers, a program of Brown’s Swearer Center for Public Service, pairs boys from middle schools in Providence and Pawtucket with volunteer college mentors. The program’s focus is around weekly campus visits and special events and activities. In fall 2006, the Swearer Center partnered with the Providence After School Alliance, an initiative of the Mayor’s office, to offer the CityBrothers program to students at the Bridgham and Gilbert Stuart middle schools in the West End of Providence. CityBrothers also serves students at Goff Junior High School in Pawtucket.

CityGirls

Swearer Center for Public Service

CityGirls, a program of Brown’s Swearer Center for Public Service, pairs girls from two Providence middle schools with volunteer college mentors. The program includes weekly college campus visits and special programming to encourage academic enrichment, leadership, and community service. In fall 2006, the Swearer Center partnered with the Providence After School Alliance, an initiative of the Mayor’s office, to offer the CityGirls program to students at the Bridgham and Gilbert Stuart middle schools in the West End of Providence.

Classroom Module Program (“BrownOut”)

Center for Advanced Materials Research

The Center for Advanced Materials Research coordinates the Classroom Module Program. A module is a presentation, with hands-on demonstrations, on a variety of topics in science. With the assistance of the Center’s staff, who help align the modules with the Rhode Island science curriculum, Brown students create and present modules in K–12 classrooms throughout Providence and Rhode Island. The presentations are free of charge and available to public, parochial or private schools, as well as science clubs and organizations.

College Guidance Project

Swearer Center for Public Service

The College Guidance Project works with the guidance offices at Hope and Central to provide increased individual attention to seniors applying to college. Volunteers work closely with guidance counselors to track the progress of college-bound students, offering workshops and individual advising to help them through the process.

Community Health Clerkship and Field Experience

The Warren Alpert Medical School

The Community Health Clerkship is an applied learning experience designed to help develop in Brown University medical students the knowledge, skills and perspectives of community health that are necessary to become a complete, highly competent physician. It is hoped that the clerkship will help foster in students an informed sense of social responsibility and help students develop the skills needed to become strong patient advocates and community leaders in areas important to the public’s health. As part of the clerkship, medical students must complete a field experience in the community that will allow them to focus on a specific public health issue. For the past few years, The MET School in Providence has served as a field experience placement. Medical students work with MET students and staff on projects that contribute to teaching and learning at the MET and provide medical students with a deeper understanding of community health issues. Past project topics include sexual harassment in schools, HIV/AIDS prevention, and school-based preventative health.

Community Outreach through the Performing Arts (COPA)

Swearer Center for Public Service

COPA uses the arts to build community through after-school classes at Providence Housing Authority sites. Teams of Brown volunteers teach workshops in creative writing, dance, theater, and the visual arts. With the conviction that effective teaching is an art form, volunteers work as a community of teachers and learners.

CS92: Education Software

Department of Computer Science

CS92 is a unique course in Brown’s computer science department which offers Brown students the opportunity to create instructional software for local K–12 classrooms based on the requests and specifications of classroom teachers. Since 1990, students in the CS92 seminar have created software for numerous teachers from a variety of Providence schools, including Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, Nathan Bishop Middle School, and Classical High School.⁶

Diversity Professional Development for Providence Teachers

President’s Office, Education Alliance

At the request of the Superintendent of Providence Schools, President Ruth J. Simmons allocated funds to support the Providence School Department’s efforts to provide teachers with professional development on issues of diversity. These funds will allow staff at Brown’s Education Alliance to work with School Department staff on reviewing current diversity professional development initiatives and developing new initiatives.

Empowering Your Future

Center for Advanced Materials Research, Engineering

Empowering Your Future is a one-day conference for middle school girls and their parents and teachers. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Materials Research and the Division of Engineering at Brown. The conference is intended for girls in Grades 8–10 and exposes them to real-life applications of math and science in a fun and educational environment. The conference also features special information sessions for parents and accompanying adults, focusing on helping girls with study skills, and on financial aid and other college-preparatory concerns. This is an excellent opportunity for girls and their parents or accompanying adults to find out more about the possibilities that science, math, and engineering offer. Additionally, teachers who attend are able to get new ideas they might use in their own classrooms.

Flow Radio

Swearer Center for Public Service

Flow Radio provides teenagers with the opportunity to learn about radio broadcasting through the production of a one-hour weekly radio show on issues important to local youth. Participants develop hands-on skills and an understanding of media.

GK–12 Science Education Program

Departments of Geology, Engineering, and Physics

For the past few years, Professor Timothy Herbert has worked with graduate students in Geology on conducting weekly science lessons in two classrooms in the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. Recently, funding was secured from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the form of a GK–12 grant to help this outreach program continue and expand to several other elementary and high schools beginning in July 2007. Brown graduate students from several departments, including geology, physics, and engineering will lead classroom activities in three elementary schools as well as after-school activities in five high schools in Providence. The graduate students engage Providence students in hands-on, inquiry-based activities designed to increase students’ understanding of and interest in science. The NSF funding also supports training and paid summer internships for Providence teachers and students to participate in research projects with Brown graduate students and faculty.

Girls Math and Science Initiative

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Girls Math and Science Initiative offers intensive science education for middle school girls at Sophia Academy. Brown volunteers work weekly with girls in 5th through 8th grade to introduce girls to the physical sciences through experiential and interdisciplinary activities.

Go Kids!

Swearer Center for Public Service

Go Kids! is an obesity prevention program that works in collaboration with Head Start, utilizing the parent and children curricula of the Children’s Aid Society. Through a yearlong series of lessons, the program seeks to convey the most crucial aspects of obesity prevention.

Hope High School–Brown Partnership

Brown University and Hope High School, located within blocks of each other, have a long history of collaborating on a variety of teaching and learning initiatives. To formalize this relationship, in fall 2006 Brown and Hope signed a partnership agreement that outlines several key projects, including math and science education, college access programs, and out-of-school learning opportunities for Hope students.

John Hope Mentoring Program

Swearer Center for Public Service

The John Hope Mentoring Program supports children ages six through twelve in the John Hope After School Program. The program focuses on the educational, social, and emotional needs of children through one-on-one relationships with Brown and RISD college students.

Language Arts Program

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Language Arts Program supports after-school writing clubs at Providence elementary schools. The program seeks to help children find joy in writing, recognize their individual talents, and develop tools of expression, initiative, and creativity.

Let’s Get Ready!

Swearer Center for Public Service

Let’s Get Ready! provides free SAT test preparation for 11th and 12th graders at Hope and Central High Schools. Students participate in the program for one semester leading up to the SAT test.

MET Family Literacy Program

Swearer Center for Public Service

The MET Family Literacy Program, a partnership with the MET School, offers classes two evenings per week to students and parents. Classes include ESOL, GED preparation, computer literacy, and Spanish.

Observational Cosmology Lab Experience

Department of Physics

For the past two summers, Professor Gregory Tucker has taken local high school teachers into his Observational Cosmology Lab where they are given the opportunity to conduct research and develop lessons that can be integrated into after-school science programs. Professor Tucker also involves undergraduate and graduate students in physics in these teacher training sessions and after-school activities. Providence’s Central High School and Health, Science and Technology Academy have participated in the past.

Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education Project

Swearer Center, Department of Geological Sciences

OLEEP, a partnership with the MET School, facilitates the development of high school student leadership by connecting experiences in the wilderness and in the city. Through one-on-one mentoring, weekly workshops in the school and community, and camping, backpacking, and ropes course trips, the program develops individual awareness and skills as well as a community in which Brown and MET students learn from each other.

Pawtucket Teaching and Learning Review

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

The Teaching and Learning Review for the Pawtucket Public Schools is currently the Annenberg Institute’s largest commitment to school reform in Rhode Island. The T&L Review convenes a local team of education and community leaders, facilitated by Annenberg staff, to identify ways in which a district can enhance the quality of supports it provides to promote high-quality teaching and learning.

Physics 11

Department of Physics

Physics 11: Inner Space Outer Space is a freshman seminar that explores topics on the frontiers of physics, particle physics, and cosmology. The course culminates with Brown students bringing hands-on, interactive lessons on a variety of topics into local high schools. In the past, students have conducted lessons in classrooms at Hope High School, School One, The MET, and Lincoln School.

Pre-College Enrichment Program in Science

Swearer Center for Public Service

PCEP offers 9th and 10th grade students at Hope and Central High Schools engaging academic enrichment. Students meet on the Brown campus and work in small mentoring groups to develop relationships throughout the year.

Project ARISE: Advancing Rhode Island Science Education

Summer and Continuing Studies

Project ARISE is an NIH-funded professional development program for Rhode Island high school science teachers. This program is designed to engage teachers and students in inquiry-based approaches to learning about science and improve the understanding of the relevance of science to everyday life. The goal of the program is to develop the tools and perspective that will enable high school teachers to integrate high-level concepts in molecular and genomic biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience and physiology into the high school classroom. Teachers participate in a summer professional development institute and then are provided with materials and support throughout the school year. The first cohort of high school teachers will begin in summer 2007.

Project Eye-To-Eye

Swearer Center for Public Service

Project Eye-To-Eye pairs learning disabled Brown students with learning disabled children from the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. The pairs share experiences, offer academic support and engage in art activities.

Providence Science Outreach (PSO)

Swearer Center for Public Service

Providence Science Outreach seeks to enhance science education for Providence public school 5th graders by making science accessible and enjoyable. Teaching teams work for a full year in a classroom, facilitating weekly sessions that emphasize hands-on experiments.

Providence Superintendent’s Research Council

Education Department

Professor Ken Wong, Director of the Education Department’s Urban Education Policy Program, chairs a group of local university researchers who conduct research on issues identified by the Superintendent of Providence Schools. The primary purpose of this group is to provide the Superintendent with research-based knowledge and data-analysis that can be used to inform key decisions and improve standards-based performance system-wide in the Providence school system.

Providence Youth Council

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Providence Youth Council convenes youth leaders on a weekly basis to discuss policy issues and solutions for the city. Council members engage in action-research projects that address specific challenges facing Providence adolescents and their families. The PYC also seeks to develop communication and teamwork skills of the Council members, as an investment in their future as leaders. The Council is a partnership with the Office of the Mayor and the Rhode Island Foundation.

REACT RI

The Warren Alpert Medical School, R.I. Area Health Education Center

REACT RI is a Youth Health Service Program of the R.I. Area Health Education Center. Participating students from local schools attend weekly trainings in healthcare-related issues and work fifteen hours per week at healthcare placement sites, including Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, The Miriam Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital for Specialty Care, and Chad Brown Health Center. The students work at these sites in different capacities and are exposed to a myriad of health professionals. A primary goal of the program is to interest students in pursuing health careers. Specifically, the program encourages young people from underserved communities to become health professionals, and to return to work in those communities.

READY: Raising Expectations and Discovering Our Youth

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

The Annenberg Institute is a partner in Providence’s effort to redesign its four high schools, known as Raising Expectations and Discovering Our Youth (READY). The Institute is a member of the initiative’s leadership team, which meets regularly to set policy for the effort, and has contributed resources and expertise to help the district develop and carry out its redesign plans. READY is one of seven high school redesign efforts nationwide that are funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York through its Schools for a New Society initiative.

Research Experience for Teachers

Center for Advanced Materials Research

The primary mission of the RET program is to build relationships with high school teachers in order to introduce modern engineering into their curricula, to engage teachers in an exciting research environment, and to develop with them teaching modules that can be used in high school and college classrooms. The program works primarily with science teachers. However, teachers in fields such as art, economics, and math are considered through a team-teaching approach.

Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education: Taskforce on Underrepresented Students

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

The Annenberg Institute partnered with the Rhode Island Office of Higher Education in co-chairing a statewide task force to address the underrepresentation of low-income and minority students in Rhode Island’s public colleges. The task force identified key recommendations and associated action steps to be undertaken by the state, the three public colleges, K–12 school districts, and community partners to create stronger pathways for students to succeed. Key recommendations include: the need to significantly increase the amount of need-based financial aid funded by the state; equitable access to high school-to-college transition programs (e.g., dual enrollment); continuing to develop a data and accountability system that allows for the tracking of students through the K–12 system into postsecondary education and beyond; the provision of supports tailored to the particular needs of adult students; and the development of a statewide developmental education policy.

Rhode Island Debate League

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Rhode Island Debate League sponsors both policy and parliamentary debate programs at area middle and high schools. The League is a partnership with the Open Society Institute, the Rhode Island Foundation, the Providence and Woonsocket Public Schools, and the Olneyville Community Schools. Students conduct in-depth research in preparation for competitive debate. Brown students work with high school teachers to coach students in research, public speaking, and creating effective arguments. Participants are encouraged to use their voices as instruments for public action and personal development. Teachers are offered professional development opportunities to use debate in their classrooms.

Rhode Island Department of Education’s Progressive Support and Intervention Program

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Annenberg Institute staff, at the request of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), participate in the work of action teams supporting the development of RIDE’s Progressive Support and Intervention (PSI) program, a blueprint for change for schools in several low-performing districts designated by the state’s assessment system as “in need of improvement.” The Institute is also assisting RIDE in the design of a website for PSI to give local educators access to high-quality resources to support reform.

Rhode Island Department of Education’s Student Identifier Initiative

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

The Annenberg Institute is working with the Rhode Island Department of Education to develop a state-assigned student identifier that will enable schools and districts to track student progress over time.

Rhode Island Network

Computing and Information Services

Brown University’s Computing and Information Services Department has worked with a host of organizations to create the Rhode Island Network (RINET). RINET allows Rhode Island teachers, students, and librarians to bring information from around the world to their classroom through the internet. By working in partnership with the University of Rhode Island, the R.I. Department of Education, the Department of State Library Services, WSBE Channel 36, and NYNEX, RINET has addressed a range of technical, financial, and training issues to ensure that the network will be easily accessible in all classrooms. Brown faculty and staff created network designs, suggested techniques to run the network effectively, and prototyped the system. Brown has also provided computer accounts to teachers involved in collaborative projects, assisted with training, loaned its facilities for RINET use, and made its public computer services available to users of the network.

Rhode Island Space Grant Science Education Outreach Program

Department of Geological Sciences

The Rhode Island Space Grant (RISG), a consortium of local colleges and universities based at Brown, works with local K–12 teachers and schools through a variety of science education outreach programs, including the “The Teacher Partnership Program,” “Science En Español,” and the “Hot Topic” workshop. During each of the past two years, RISG Fellows and Scholars from Brown and other local colleges and universities have given over 200 classroom presentations (reaching approximately 6,000 children each year) on a variety of science topics to K–12 grades in schools in every community throughout Rhode Island. Economically disadvantaged urban public schools frequently have limited science resources. RISG has set up more formal “partnership” programs with several such elementary, middle, and high schools in Providence.

Risk Watch

The Warren Alpert Medical School, Injury Prevention Center

Risk Watch is a school-based injury prevention curriculum developed by the National Fire Protection Association. Since 2000, the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital has piloted and implemented Risk Watch at elementary, middle, and high schools in five districts throughout Rhode Island, including Providence.

Sarah Doyle Women’s Center Internships & Training

Sarah Doyle Women’s Center

The Sarah Doyle Women’s Center hosts interns from the Feinstein High School during the school year. Feinstein students are required to do an internship in order to graduate. The Center is also a site for information on gender issues and conducts trainings for Brown students and community members, including teachers, through partnerships with the Swearer Center, local schools, and other community agencies.

SummerPrep

Department of Education

SummerPrep is a three-week summer enrichment program for approximately 100 urban elementary students, located at the Community Preparatory School in South Providence. Students attend the morning academic enrichment program free of charge and are enrolled in classes of up to eighteen students in rising grades 2 through 6. Classes are taught by a team of two Brown Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) students who are supervised by a mentor teacher. The curriculum developed by the MATs, with the help of Brown elementary MAT methods, instructors, and mentor teachers, includes instruction in community building and leadership, literacy, math, science, performance and visual arts, and physical education. Admission to the program is on a first-come, first-served basis, with students primarily coming from Providence and others from Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Cranston.

Swearer Classroom Program

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Swearer Classroom Program is a literacy mentoring program in which a Brown volunteer works one-on-one with an elementary school child. The program’s focus is dual: to build relationships through reading, acting on the belief that supportive and sustained work on literacy skills fosters an environment in which students feel confident in their abilities, both academic and social. Mentors work with a student for about an hour, usually once a week during the school day in the student’s classroom. Mentors work with two schools: D’Abate Elementary in Olneyville and Asa Messer (and its annex school) in the West End of Providence.

Talent Quest

Admission Office

Talent Quest is a Brown program designed to assist students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in the college selection and application process. Talent Quest’s main goals are: 1) To enable Brown to build and maintain an ongoing relationship with a selected group of high schools and community-based organizations around the country, and 2) To reach out to talented students in grades 9–12 at selected schools and community-based organizations that provide college access support services. Talent Quest is in the process of establishing relationships with several schools and community-based agencies in Rhode Island that work with large percentages of low-income students.

Teacher Training Workshop

Center for Advanced Materials Research

The Teacher Training Workshop provides middle and high school teachers with professional development through a fifteen-hour training session on the area of materials science. The Brown faculty who participate hold degrees in a wide range of science and engineering fields, including materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, and math. This diversity is reflected in the materials that are presented in the workshop, which cover a variety of different topics. Many of the materials presented have been used in K–12 classrooms, and some of the materials were developed by local middle and high school teachers, in collaboration with Brown faculty. Some of the materials presented in the workshop are also designed to give teachers an introduction to advanced materials research that is being conducted at Brown and elsewhere. Professional development credits from the Rhode Island Department of Education are awarded to participating teachers.

TeachScheme

Department of Computer Science

The TeachScheme project addresses the growing divide between the high school and college computer science curricula. The project reaches out to teachers who wish to understand and incorporate an innovative teaching method of introductory computer science into their high-school classrooms. The program is a five-day intensive workshop alternating between the lab and the classroom.

Urban Education Policy Program

Department of Education

Students in the Urban Education Policy Master’s Program complete summer research projects and year long internships in local agencies — including the Providence School Department — that work in urban education. These research projects and internships are intended to give the UEP students practical experience in the field and the opportunity to contribute to local urban education reform.

Vartan Gregorian Elementary School–Brown Athletics Department Partnership

Department of Athletics

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee heads up a partnership with the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. Varsity teams are assigned to classrooms and team members provide tutoring and mentoring to students on a weekly basis. The Athletics Department honors outstanding students in each classroom at its annual All-Sports Banquet.

Write Project

Swearer Center for Public Service

The Write Project offers girls in grades 5–8 at Sophia Academy a student-centered, expository writing experience. The program uses small groups and one-on-one interactions to improve students’ skills and confidence in writing. The role of the tutor is to listen and provide a safe forum for young writers and translate their ideas into a piece of writing appropriate to the task.

Youth-led Media

The Warren Alpert Medical School, Injury Prevention Center

The Injury Prevention Center works with local youth to create injury prevention media components, such as newspaper inserts, billboards, movie theater ads, and bus shelter ads. All works are developed by youth, for youth with many pieces reaching thousands of individuals. The IPC has had multiple contests within Providence schools to develop injury prevention posters with the winners becoming billboards within the city. The IPC, through a grant from the Mayor’s office, is currently leading a group of young artists in developing movie theater ads and bus shelter ads directed at youths on the topics of substance abuse and injury prevention.