Related Issue
June–August 2025
University News
Higher Ed Under Fire
How Brown is responding
By Dana Richie ’25 / June–August 2025
June 2nd, 2025
President Christina H. Paxson characterizes the federal government’s demands and funding threats aimed at higher ed as raising “new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance.”
Approximately three dozen of Brown’s grants and contracts had been terminated by late April, a number increasing every week, she said, and expenses for some non-terminated grants have also not been reimbursed, at millions of dollars per week.
National media have reported that the federal administration plans to freeze $510 million of Brown’s federal research funding. At press time in early May, Brown still had not received official notice of these cuts nor been served with demands like those Columbia and Harvard received, Paxson said.
ILLUSTRATION: TIM COOK
Brown has been active in partnering with other institutions and educational associations to advocate in court against cuts to research funding. The University is one of only 12 named plaintiffs actively suing the government over cuts to U.S. Department of Energy grant funding, and is also a named plaintiff in suits challenging National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health funding cuts. Paxson is one of hundreds of signers of a letter from university presidents opposing “government intrusion.”
Campus community responses in April included a student rally on the College Green in support of Do Not Comply, a new student organization fighting “a future where fascism controls our university and our country,” and an open letter signed by thousands vowing to stand by Brown as it defends its values “in the face of intimidation and attack.”
Paxson wrote to alumni and friends of Brown April 30 with a promise and a request. “Brown will always defend the ability for students and scholars to teach and learn without fear of government intrusion or censorship, which is fundamental to efforts to protect academic freedom,” she promised. The ask? “Help us build collective advocacy to protect Brown’s ability to fulfill its mission as a leading research institution.” Paxson noted a new “Brunonian Advocacy” web page and a new “Research Resilience Fund.”
The stakes are high. “The research funding cuts that Brown has already suffered are causing immediate harm,” Paxson wrote, and threatened cuts would be “devastating to Brown’s research community.”
One researcher affected is Philip Chan, a physician and associate professor of medicine and behavioral and social sciences, who lost three NIH grants totaling more than $3 million for his research on LGBTQ+ mental health and HIV testing and prevention medication. “The administration is essentially trying to erase a population,” Chan told the Brown Daily Herald. “That’s obviously very, very, very concerning.”
Brown relies significantly on federal funding—more than $254 million in the past year, an estimated 70 percent of which is for medical and health research. “Threats to this work have real-world consequences,” Paxson noted, disrupting clinical trials serving patients with cancer, heart disease, and other serious conditions.
Paxson also said that Brown is “deeply committed to following the law” and to “maintaining a campus that is free of all forms of harassment and discrimination.” She said she was proud of initiatives combating antisemitism, and noted that many were launched “before this became a major area of focus for the federal government.”
At least one international student and several recent grads have had visas revoked, according to BDH reporting. In March, physician Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor in the Warren Alpert Medical School, was sent back to Lebanon. On April 25, the Trump administration announced it would restore the legal status of international students currently in the U.S., but described it as only a temporary reprieve.
