SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD VOLUME CLVIV, ISSUE 2
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
WHAT’S INSIDE
METRO
Pay-for-Success pilots in R.I. SEE HOUSING PAGE 4
ARTS & CULTURE
New season of ‘Single’s Inferno’: laughs, red flags SEE INFERNO PAGE 11
ARTS & CULTURE CLAIRE DIEPENBROCK / HERALD
The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity will continue to oversee employment-based affirmative action and bias incident reports, according to the Jan. 31 announcement.
Brown-RISD Exhibition
SEE EXHIBITION PAGE 10
New University office to oversee federal compliance, BPLO Union Recognisation investigations
UNIVERSITY NEWS
SEE POSTDOC PAGE 3
Compliance functions moved from OIED amid ongoing investigations, campus climate concerns BY SAMANTHA CHAMBERS UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
The University’s compliance and federal investigatory operations have been moved from the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity to the newly-created Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting under the Division of Campus
Life, according to a Jan. 31 Today@ Brown announcement by President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20. The transition is effective Thursday, according to Vice President for Campus Life Eric Estes, who will oversee the OECR. The office will inherit oversight of Title IV, VII and IX, along with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 from OIED. Collectively, these laws address discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct and accessibility accommodations. Staff involved with compliance will also move to the OECR.
OIED will continue to manage bias incident reports and employment-based affirmative action, but will refer reports “that may require further investigation” to Campus Life, according to the announcement. The transition comes amid 14 pending investigations into the University by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Of these investigations, three were opened last month — one pertaining to an alleged Title VI violation, and the two others on alleged disability-based discrimination and retaliation.
Estes added that the office transition will not affect ways the University processes information requests related to federal investigations. “In the event the University receives requests for information from regulatory and investigative agencies, Brown’s Office of General Counsel coordinates the University’s response,” Estes wrote. “That will remain the case moving forward, even as we have reorganized the ways in which various administrative units work together on campus to address reports of bias, discrimination and harassment.”
ARTS & CULTURE
SEE OECR PAGE 3
AFFINITY & ACTIVISM
ADMISSIONS
CCE stops inviting fos- PPE hosts panel on sil fuel firms to recruit affirmative action Agreement follows months of meetings with Sunrise Brown members BY ETHAN SCHENKER SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Center for Career Exploration will no longer invite fossil fuel companies to host on-campus recruitment events, according to a May 2023 email reviewed by The Herald from Matthew Donato, the executive director of the CCE, to leaders of climate activism group Sunrise Brown. Sunrise announced the change on a Jan. 13 Instagram post. Companies on the Carbon Underground 200 — a list of businesses with the largest holdings in fossil fuels — or those that fall under the “Oil & Gas Industry” category on Handshake are now
excluded from the CCE’s annual recruiting invitation email sent to employers each spring, Donato wrote in an email to The Herald. But companies may still request to participate in on-campus recruiting events and can continue to post jobs on Handshake. “Informed by student interests, we reconsidered what companies we were actively inviting to campus,” Donato wrote, noting that the CCE “has not modified its recruiting policies with regard to fossil fuel companies.” The change does not appear on the CCE’s website, and the decision to stop inviting fossil fuel companies to recruit on campus was not publicly communicated. This development falls short of a complete victory for members of Sunrise, who argue that the industry has a
SEE CCE PAGE 3
Panelists discussed issues of racial diversity, standards for admissions BY TOM LI AND SOPHIA WOTMAN METRO EDITOR AND SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics hosted a Wednesday evening event at which panelists addressed affirmative action and anti-discrimination policies in the college admissions process. Titled “After Affirmative Action: Democracy and the University,” the event constitutes another component of an ongoing national discussion of affirmative action following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race-conscious admissions.
Organized by the Center’s Democracy Project, the panel featured John Friedman, a professor of economics and international and public affairs; Logan Powell, the University’s associate provost for enrollment and dean of admission; and Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University. Bonnie Honig, a Democracy Project director and professor of political science and modern culture and media, moderated the panel. Honig began the panel by explaining the rationale for the event: “to look at how universities that care about diversity and equality should respond to (the Supreme Court) decision,” Students Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. “Universities are important parts
SEE PANEL PAGE 12
SEE BROWN-RISD PAGE 10
METRO
SEE BRIDGE PAGE 4