Title VI investigation into Brown expanded by Health and Human Services
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Brown University said that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has expanded a Title VI compliance review of the university’s response to protests outside a graduation ceremony in May 2024.
In a letter to the school community obtained by ABC 6 News Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey and Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Matthew Guterl said the investigation, which originally was specifically about the protest outside the Warren Alpert Medical School’s graduation ceremony, had been expanded to include “the entire university and to cover the time period from Oct. 7, 2023, to the present.”
Protests were held outside multiple graduation ceremonies at the school.
The letter said that the Office for Civil Rights will collect both documentation from the university and interviews with community members.
“We are confident that our actions in response to the May 2024 protest — which occurred outside the church where the medical school ceremony was held and on an adjacent public sidewalk — were in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the letter reads. “We also expect to demonstrate how Brown is resolved in its cross-campus efforts to ensure a community where all individuals feel safe and valued and where no instance of antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination or harassment based on race, color or national origin is tolerated.”
Multiple protests have taken place at the university over its relationship with Israel.
The full letter can be read below:
Dear Members of the Brown Community,
The University has been notified that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has expanded a Title VI compliance review of Brown’s response to a May 2024 protest outside the Warren Alpert Medical School’s graduation ceremony. That review now has broadened to include the entire university and to cover the time period from Oct. 7, 2023, to the present.
Over the coming weeks, HHS will collect information through documentation from the university and interviews with members of the community that the agency has identified as having information that might aid its investigation. Brown is unwavering in its commitment to creating an environment free of any and all discrimination and harassment, and we will demonstrate this in the University’s response.
We are confident that our actions in response to the May 2024 protest — which occurred outside the church where the medical school ceremony was held and on an adjacent public sidewalk — were in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We also expect to demonstrate how Brown is resolved in its cross-campus efforts to ensure a community where all individuals feel safe and valued and where no instance of antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination or harassment based on race, color or national origin is tolerated.
Our efforts to confront and address antisemitism were previously recognized in a voluntary resolution agreement the university reached in July 2024 with the Office for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education. As part of that agreement, the university agreed to continue efforts that already were underway at that time to expand programming and initiatives aimed at strengthening education and understanding about Title VI (the statute that prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color and national origin, including shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, by entities that receive federal funding).
Those efforts have been ongoing, along with work completed over the past 18 months to streamline and clarify processes for addressing unacceptable behavior under our policies; create opportunities to engage in constructive dialogue across difference; and support our ongoing commitments to academic freedom and freedom of expression that are embedded in the foundation of our teaching and learning community. We will continue to demonstrate our commitment to concrete actions — including, most recently, campus-wide nondiscrimination training — to create an environment for our students, staff and faculty that is free of discrimination and harassment, and to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state laws.
As we have shared with our community many times over the past several months, Brown’s primary focus has been and will continue to be on supporting the needs and safety of our students, faculty and staff.
Sincerely,
Russell C. Carey
Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy
Interim Vice President for Campus LifeMatthew Guterl
Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion
