Students engage with an array of community and academic centers at Brown. A few of these important spaces on campus are highlighted below:

• The Brown Center for Students of Color (BCSC) is a space for various communities of color at Brown. Students and organizations use the BCSC to connect, explore individual identities, develop leadership skills, and build community. The staff and students of the BCSC have a distinguished legacy of programming that includes the Resistance Tour, Minority Peer Counselors, the Third World Transition Program during pre-orientation and the Heritage Series, as well as many more events throughout the year. If you have questions, please contact our BCSC liaison, Lawrence Alexander II.

• The Undocumented, First-Generation College, and Low-Income (U-FLi) Student Center is a communal, learning, and advocacy center for members of the Brown community who identify with the undocumented, first-generation college and/or low-income student experiences. The U-FLi center places explicit value on the strengths, assets and knowledge that U-FLi students bring with them upon entering Brown. Specifically, the center amplifies collectivism, resistance, self-reliance and reflexivity through intersectional programming and strength-based advising in order to provide students with the navigational tools to thrive at Brown. Programs offered through the center include the FLi Scholars Program, Undocumented Student Program, Class Dissonance Series and Undocu-Series. If you have questions, please contact our U-FLi liaison, Marie-Anne Barron.

• The Swearer Center for Public Service​​ connects students, faculty and community partners through community engagement, engaged scholarship and social innovation — three key perspectives that are the foundations of the center’s service work. Working with over 80 organizations, many of which are in the Greater Providence area, the Swearer Center considers both community needs and student interests to strengthen relationships that allow students to be thoughtful and intentional as they connect to the communities in and beyond Providence.

• Brown University's Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative (NAISI) is a cross-disciplinary initiative focused on teaching, research and engagement to increase understanding of the cultural traditions, histories, political experiences, and contemporary experiences and knowledge of Native American and Indigenous peoples. In addition to faculty that span departments across the University, the staff at NAISI include students and a Tribal Community Member in Residence that shares their time and work with the NAISI community during their residence at Brown. NAISI operates as both an intellectual and community space that allows students to come together in a dynamic way during their time at Brown.

The Office Of College Admission appreciates the meaningful work that community-based organizations and college access professionals do to support students in going to and getting through college. In addition to partnering with individuals and organizations throughout the year, we also welcome group visits to campus. 

As you advise your students, please feel free to share the following resources:

• Application Fee Waiver: Brown will automatically waive the application fee for any student who is enrolled in or eligible for the Federal Free or Reduced Price Lunch program (FRPL), as well as students who are enrolled in federal, state or local programs that aid students from low-income families (for example, TRIO Programs). Additionally, Brown will automatically waive the application fee for any student who belongs to a community-based organization or college access organization that promotes educational opportunity for low-income students. Applicants to Brown who meet any of these requirements should select the "Brown Specific Fee Waiver" in the "Brown Questions" section of the Common Application. Brown will continue to honor fee waiver request forms from the College Board, NACAC and school counselors.
• Book/Course Material Support (BCMS) Program: This program was developed to allow most Brown University Scholarship-eligible students to cover expenses for books and course materials that are required by instructors. The cost of these required materials will be covered by Brown.

We are proud to partner with QuestBridge, UStrive, the American Talent Initiative, College Horizons, LEDA, and more organizations that support students through the college process. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how we can work together, please reach out to our CBO liaison, Lawrence Alexander II.

Brown’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) reflects the University’s commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of University life. Most often, a reference to the DIAP is a reference to the institutional version of this document, but there are actually dozens of DIAPs at Brown – most departments, centers, and institutes across the university have created and maintain their own DIAP. The DIAP for the University as a whole was a community project that synthesized comments, ideas and suggestions from every corner of Brown’s community in two distinct phases. The DIAPs produced by individual departments and other University entities help to support the broader version by considering the specific challenges and opportunities experienced by those responsible for its implementation.

In March 2021, President Paxson convened a working group that sought to understand Brown’s history, relationship and commitments to the Native and Indigenous communities who stewarded the land where College Hill currently sits. Over a year of outreach, research and reflection led to the creation of Brown’s official land acknowledgement statement:

"Brown University is located in Providence, Rhode Island, on lands that are within the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. We acknowledge that beginning with colonization and continuing for centuries the Narragansett Indian Tribe have been dispossessed of most of their ancestral lands in Rhode Island by the actions of individuals and institutions. We acknowledge our responsibility to understand and respond to those actions. The Narragansett Indian Tribe, whose ancestors stewarded these lands with great care, continues as a sovereign nation today. We commit to working together to honor our past and build our future with truth."

This statement is meant to offer a starting point for meaningful engagement with Brown’s history and the five commitments made in May 2022 to create a foundation for strengthening relationships with the local Indigenous communities.