The University has a long history of student activism. Over the years, activism at Brown has taken the form of walkouts, sit-ins and campus building occupations.
On Wednesday, 20 members of the advocacy group BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now were arrested for trespassing after occupying University Hall as part of their demands that President Christina Paxson P鈥�19 P鈥橫D鈥�20 publicly commit to 鈥渋nclude and support a divestment resolution in the next meeting of the Brown Corporation,鈥� The Herald previously reported.听
The Herald went back through its archives to explore past student demonstrations and sit-ins at Brown.
In 1968, 65 African American students held a walkout to protest the University鈥檚 failure to increase Black student enrollment and financial support, The Herald at the time.
The students marched 鈥渄ouble-file from Faunce House to the Congdon Street Baptist Church,鈥� a Herald reporter wrote.
After three days, then-President Ray Heffner agreed to increase the percentage of Black women admitted to the University to 12.5% 鈥� at the time, women attended Pembroke College. He also agreed to designate $1.2 million to scholarship and recruitment efforts over three years to raise the overall percentage of Black students enrolled, .
In 1975, from the Third World Coalition University Hall for 38 hours to protest the University鈥檚 limited matriculation and recruitment of non-white students and faculty. The occupation, which was partially by what students believed was the University鈥檚 lack of seeing through its commitments following the 1968 walkout, coincided with by which TWC demanded that the University commit to increasing its recruitment of people of color.
The protest eventually culminated in negotiations and a finalized agreement, which included a commitment from Brown to 鈥渟trive for a 25 percent increase over the next three years in the number of Black (and Latinx) students applying and gaining admission to the University.鈥�
In 1985, 50 student protestors occupied the John Carter Brown Library for three hours, after about 150 students engaged in a sit-in at the admissions office.听
The University demanding the students leave by 5:00 p.m., but the protestors reached an agreement with administrators prior to the deadline. The agreement included requests for the University to create a 鈥渢ask force to look into establishing a new Third World Center鈥� and investigate 鈥淒irector of Police and Security John Kuprevich鈥檚 decision to hire plainclothes officers to watch the Third World Center,鈥� The Herald reported at the time.
The agreement also committed to implementing a 鈥渟tudent/faculty committee to examine Brown security鈥檚 treatment of minority students,鈥� The Herald wrote, adding that the agreement did not address most of the original demands for 鈥渕ore minority faculty, admissions, financial aid, support services and a less Eurocentric curriculum.鈥�
In , four students began a fast in Manning Chapel in a call for the University to divest from South Africa during its apartheid regime. The University the students, prompting them to end their fast. They were then reenrolled.听
The following year, 23 students were placed on probation after the campus group Students Against Apartheid disrupted a Corporation meeting to demand total divestment.听
In 1992, Students for Aid and Minority Admission University Hall, calling on the University to partake in need-blind admissions.听
鈥淲ithin minutes, all three floors (of University Hall) had been occupied, official business had ground to a halt and need-blind banners were draped out of upper-story windows of the鈥� building, The Herald .听
253 students were arrested and charged with five criminal counts: 鈥渄isturbing a public assembly general, disorderly conduct, two counts of willful trespassing 鈥� and prevention from carrying on employment,鈥� The Herald reported. The students disputed their charges and 鈥渦ltimately had to pay a fine to the University,鈥� according to the .
The fall of 2013 was wrought with protests before a scheduled lecture by then-New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly, due to his support of 鈥渟top-and-frisk鈥� policing, The Herald reported.听
Protestors gathered outside List Art Center during the talk and, when it began, attendees booed, 鈥渟tood with their fists in the air and began shouting in unison,鈥� prompting administrators to cancel the lecture after about half an hour.听
Community members addressed the protest over the following months through faculty and student discussions, teach-ins, the creation of a committee and the publication of two about the events that unfolded.
In 2015, The Herald reported that students of color occupied the rotunda outside of Paxson鈥檚 office during her office hours after the administration released a draft of its diversity and inclusion action plan. Though Paxson didn鈥檛 engage with the students present, she told them they were 鈥渄oing nothing wrong,鈥� and would 鈥渉ave amnesty for this action.鈥�
Katie Jain is a University 国产偷拍 editor from New Jersey overseeing the graduate student life beat. She is a junior concentrating in International and Public Affairs and History.
