The University hosted the second admitted students’ day, known as A Day on College Hill, for the Class of 2027 Friday. ADOCH events included a discussion about the open curriculum with Dean of the College Rashid Zia ’01, speed friending with other admitted students and tours of first-year residence halls.
Associate Provost for Enrollment Logan Powell estimated that approximately 560 students registered for each ADOCH program. He highlighted the increased financial support offered to attendees, including “expanding the travel grant program to be able to invite hundreds of low-income students to campus.”
Much of ADOCH was held on the Main Green — which was bustling throughout the day, with student activist groups hosting protests, tabling and showcasing art installations.
During ADOCH’s lunch period, Sunrise Brown and Students for Educational Equity hosted a rally calling for increased voluntary payments from the University to the city of Providence. Organizers hoped the rally would educate prospective students “about how activist culture is a real thing here” and also “put some pressure” on University administrators, according to See Co-President Niyanta Nepal ’25.
Starting on the Quiet Green and later marching to University Hall, the protest caught the eye of prospective students, many of whom said they were excited to see the presence of student activists on campus.
“I'm inspired seeing the students get together and support a common cause,” Maxwell Dassow, an ADOCH attendee, said about the protest.
For Gloria Kuzmenko-Latimer, another prospective student, the protest demonstrated that “people here are very vocal about the issues that are going on in the world.”
“I’m excited to be in a place where people seem to really care, and they recognize the good and the bad of where they are and try to improve it,” she added.
“They’re showing the incoming freshmen that this is what Brown is,” ADOCH attendee Maurice Silvera told The Herald while watching the protest.
On the Main Green, Brown Students for Justice in Palestine hung banners reading “End Israeli Apartheid” and “Brown Divest.”
According to Jack Doughty ’23, an SJP organizer, the installation was part of the group’s larger effort calling for the University to divest its endowment from “violent industries that perpetuate human rights abuses, both in Palestine and globally.”
"Brown is deeply committed to academic freedom, and we will continue to uphold the right of members of the Brown community to express their views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 wrote in a March 2021 letter to the University community. “We will not use the endowment to take an institutional position on this issue.”
“We want incoming and prospective students to be aware of what it’s like trying to actively engage in organizing” on campus, Doughty added.
Between two trees on the Main Green, the Dream Team — an on-campus organization dedicated to immigration advocacy and community-building — displayed a banner reading “No one is illegal on stolen land.” The organization hoped that its banner would allow admitted students who identify as undocumented to “know that there’s a space for them” at Brown, said a member of the organization who asked to remain anonymous because of their undocumented status.
Brown Votes and Brown Students for Israel also set up tables on the green.
“We want to spread information, share food, share flyers, talk about (the) culture of Jewish life and pro-Israel life on campus for parents and for students who are potentially coming to campus,” said Jillian Lederman ’24, president of Brown Students for Israel and former contributing writer for The Herald.
“It's a wonderful thing for admitted students to see how active and engaged current students are,” Powell said, adding that he hoped prospective students would “walk away with a clearer sense of what makes the Brown community so special.”
Brittany Narvauz, a prospective student, said that she most enjoyed the speed friending event, while attendee Hannah Park called Zia’s presentation on the open curriculum a highlight from the day. Other attendees cited the tours of Keeney Quadrangle and the local food trucks serving lunch as their favorite aspects of ADOCH.
Students who were unable to attend the event can explore virtual programming on the “Bruniverse,” an online platform for admitted students, Powell said.
Powell added that he hopes this event allowed students to “really imagine what their lives would be like as Brown students for four years.”
Additional reporting by Ashley Cai and Ryan Doherty.
Owen Dahlkamp is a section editor overseeing coverage for University News and Science and Research. Hailing from San Diego, CA, he is concentrating in Political Science and Cognitive Neuroscience with an interest in data analytics. In his free time, you can find him making spreadsheets at Dave’s Coffee.
