Dear Friends and Members of the Brown Community,

It is with great pleasure that I write to report that the Corporation of Brown University has enthusiastically approved the reappointment of President Christina Paxson to a second five-year term, effective July 1, 2017.

While this wonderful news comes at a time of heightened uncertainty in federal policy relating to American higher education, the Corporation could not be more confident that President Paxson’s steady hand, clear vision, energetic leadership, and boundless passion for Brown will continue to move the University forward with vigor and purpose.

Under President Paxson’s leadership, Brown has strengthened its sustainable academic excellence by: (i) enhancing its exceptionally talented campus community of faculty, students, and staff with a broad range of backgrounds; (ii) executing on a strategic plan that is firmly grounded in Brown’s particular dexterity in collaborating across disciplinary boundaries; and (iii) building Brown’s financial resource base to promote and maintain excellence, and capitalize on new ideas and emerging opportunities.

President Paxson has demonstrated a deep commitment to building a stronger and more inclusive campus community. She has led Brown with wisdom, sensitivity, and balance in confronting difficult issues facing institutions of higher education in ways that have positioned Brown as a national model. At the same time, she has built closer collaborations with the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island, and has established Brown as a hub of entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth.

During her first term, President Paxson has achieved a remarkable number of noteworthy accomplishments. Included among these are:

• Launch of the Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown strategic plan, establishing a vision for Brown for the next decade and beyond;
• Opening of the School of Public Health, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, the Brown Institute for Translational Science, the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, and a revitalized and expanded Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs;
• A quickly rising new space for the School of Engineering, a new building for Applied Mathematics, and other facilities to support groundbreaking research and innovative teaching;
• Growth in financial support for low- and middle-income students — with an average need-based undergraduate scholarship of $47,940 for the Class of 2020 — as well as new and expanded forms of support for graduate students;
• A 21.6 percent increase in the endowment, including almost $300 million in gifts and $914 million of investment gains, enabling the investment portfolio to contribute $643 million to University operations and support a larger share of the operating budget;
• Significant growth in new awards for research, from $98 million in FY 2013 to $221 million in FY 2016. This includes a $17.5 million grant to renew Brown’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, an $11.5 million award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and $10.8 million from NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences;
• Serving as an important catalyst for economic vitality in Providence’s Jewelry District, anchoring the South Street Landing development and a recently announced Innovation Center;
• Establishment of new master’s programs, including Health Care Leadership, Cybersecurity, Data Sciences, Science and Technology Leadership, and Social Analysis and Research, among others, as well as the nation’s first Primary Care-Population Medicine dual-degree program, offered by the Warren Alpert Medical School;
• Creation of the BrownConnect mentoring and internship platform, which provides students with increased summer research opportunities and internships from alumni and parent employers;
• Implementation of educational innovations that include the Engaged Scholars Program, linking the classroom and community through experiential research, projects, and internships, and the creation of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship;
• Launch of the $3 billion BrownTogether comprehensive campaign, the largest in Brown’s history, to build investment in Brown’s priorities and sustain academic excellence;
• Creation of Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University through an inclusive campus-wide process, now a national model;
• Creation of the First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center, developed in collaboration with Brown students; and
• Upgrading our athletics facilities, including in-progress renovations to the football complex and other spaces in the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, resurfaced playing fields within a renewed baseball/softball complex, and an extensive renovation planned for the Marston Boathouse.

As President Paxson completes her first term and prepares to enter her second, she has demonstrated a deep commitment to preserving and enhancing Brown’s core of education and research. The resounding success of President Paxson’s first term has put Brown firmly on course to achieve the important and inspiring ambition that she has set for the University — to pursue Brown’s mission at a higher level of distinction and to elevate Brown’s stature as a leading university that unites innovative teaching and outstanding research with the aim of advancing knowledge in ways that serve society.

President Paxson would be the first to remind us that none of this would have been possible without our talented students, who are at the center of everything we do; our extraordinary faculty, whose deep commitment to the discovery and communication of knowledge is the very essence of Brown; a superb senior leadership team and staff, who inspire us every day with what they do to move Brown forward; and our incredible alumni, parents, and friends, whose support and encouragement is so essential to Brown’s mission and so deeply appreciated.

Christina Paxson has proven herself a leader of exceptional ability and enormous energy who has delivered in spectacular ways for Brown. On behalf of the Corporation, I am pleased to express our profound gratitude to President Paxson for all that she has done, and will do in the years to come, to ensure that Brown pursues its mission at the highest possible standards of excellence, and in so doing becomes of even greater value to the community, the nation, and the world. We look forward with great excitement to President Paxson’s continued leadership, fully confident that Brown’s best days lie ahead.

Sincerely,

Samuel M. Mencoff
Chancellor