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UCS report says Brown lacks effective shared governance

The Council will present the special report to the Corporation's Committee on Campus Life on Jan. 30.

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The report recommends the University to add student seats to the Corporation.

The Undergraduate Council of Students’ Special Committee on University Governance claimed that students and faculty were not meaningfully included in University governance, advocating for student seats on the Corporation as one remedy.

The committee interviewed two dozen students, faculty and staff members, saying in their report that they found that there has been “broad-based disempowerment of faculty and students at Brown University.” 

UCS is planning to present its findings to the Corporation’s Committee on Campus Life on Jan. 30. 

University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald that “Brown has for generations maintained a robust set of opportunities and structures that enable students, faculty and staff to participate in the governance of the University.”

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The Special Committee tasked with authoring and researching the report was formed in November following the passing of a non-binding UCS referendum demanding student representation in the Corporation. 

According to the report, students lack access to binding votes on committees or remain on committees that only serve advisory purposes. The report also claimed there is a disconnect between “rule writers and rule enforcers.” 

This disconnect has also caused difficulties for students to “identify which University office or administrator they should contact about a concern,” the report continues.

Isaac Slevin ’25, chair of the Special Committee and UCS appointments director, echoed this sentiment in an interview with The Herald. 

“The issue was that students and faculty have no formal power to actually affect decisions that affect their day-to-day lives,” he said. 

The UCS committee advocated for “formal venues in which there is shared governance over policies that affect them.” 

The committee identified 48 community members to interview based on their “proximity to and knowledge of a topic.” Out of these members, “many had expressed discontent with key University decisions,” according to the report. 

In the end, UCS interviewed 24 community members.

Slevin emphasized that the “study was not meant to represent the entire student body.”

“This study was meant to represent the experiences of people in governance at this University and people who’ve tried to effect change,” he said.

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The committee opted against polling. Due to a range of stakeholders — which includes faculty, staff, administrators and students — the committee thought it would be “too reductive,” Special Committee Member San Kwon ’25 explained.

UCS President Niyanta Nepal ’25 will present the report to the committee of Corporation members.

“I hope that the (Corporation’s) committee is responsive to the report and outlines an avenue to continue pursuing the possibility of student seats on the corporation,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. 

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