Standing on the College Green for Convocation earlier this month, watching nearly 3,300 new students begin their academic journeys, I was struck once more by what makes Brown students and faculty so unique: their relentless commitment to discovery. President Paxson put it best when she said that Brown students “search for truth … with open minds and open hearts.”

This is an inspiring North Star as I think about the important work we’ll undertake in the year ahead for our scholarly community. As I do at the start of each new academic year, I am sharing a selection of my core academic priorities — developed in close coordination with President Paxson — reflecting the ways Brown is strengthening our education and research enterprise while pursuing new discoveries and preparing our students to make a meaningful difference in the world.

In this letter, I outline efforts we will undertake this year in the following areas:

I. Advancing teaching and learning in the age of AI
II. Deepening our work in the humanities and social sciences
III. Re-affirming Brown’s commitment to the Open Curriculum
IV. Supporting collaboration in the applied sciences, computing and engineering
V. Fulfilling our bold aspirations in the life sciences and public health
VI. Modernizing corporate engagement and research infrastructure
VII. Preparing for Brown’s 10-year accreditation

I. Advancing a Vision for Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

As President Paxson noted in her start-of-year message, the rapid rise of generative AI presents exciting opportunities for how we research, teach and learn, along with important questions about academic integrity and intellectual rigor. 

Building on the final report of the Generative AI in Teaching and Learning (GAITL) Committee, this fall we are rolling out enhanced support for faculty and students, adding to the resources made available over the summer. In August, we released syllabus templates and an AI Policy Explorer Tool to assist instructors. This semester, the GAITL Phase 2 co-chairs Michael Littman, associate provost of artificial intelligence, and Ravit Reichman, associate professor of English, will host a series of town halls for faculty, students and staff to gather feedback on the GAITL report, seek input on the supports our community needs and explore university-wide AI policy options. At the same time, I will be leading targeted, small-group conversations with academic areas across campus navigating specific AI challenges. We will also have important conversations as a community about how we signal the integration, or exclusion, of AI into different classes. I will share more information about this work in the coming weeks.

In October, the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning and the University Library will launch the Seminar on AI Literacy (SAIL) to help instructors, working with teams that include students, align generative tools with their pedagogical goals. We are also expanding access to secure platforms like Google Gemini, LibreChat and Claude, alongside the Data Science Institute's new jobs board connecting cross-disciplinary researchers and students. 

Through these tools, convenings and resources, Brown will continue to lead in the responsible use of AI.

II. Deepening Our Humanities and Social Sciences Work

I strongly believe that the arts and humanities are foundational to cultivating the critical thinking skills that our world so urgently needs, as well as to promoting the full range of human knowledge on which all future growth depends. So, even as we expand our technical capacities, we must double down on the liberal arts disciplines that define Brown. 

One of our highest priorities this year is the launch of multiple exciting humanities and humanistic social sciences initiatives. I will highlight one here: The Premodern China Initiative (PCI), incubated in the Center for Global Antiquity, will support scholarly inquiry into China’s rich premodern past, from antiquity to the late imperial period. The PCI will serve as a hub for scholars of historical China across a wide range of humanistic disciplines while also fostering direct collaboration between our faculty and students and leading scholars based in Asia. 

We are also looking forward to celebrating the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology when it reopens in April 2027. The beautiful new space in the Jewelry District will be a model of the humanities and social sciences in action, combining academic inquiry and hands-on learning with community engagement and impact, including a collaborative exhibition with the Tomaquag Museum that will be featured at the opening. It is yet another reminder that object-based learning is a vital pursuit, even in an age of rapid technological change. 

Finally, we have launched two key searches for senior scholars who will have a lasting impact on the intellectual direction of our humanistic research on campus: one for director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and the other for the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Humanities. I look forward to sharing more about these searches later in the semester. 

III. Reaffirming Brown’s Commitment to the Open Curriculum

An evolving landscape requires us to continually refine how we support Brown’s student-centered model of learning, anchored by the Open Curriculum. Over the past year, Dean of the College Ethan Pollock and Dean of the Faculty Leah VanWey convened a multidisciplinary committee to assess how Brown should adapt the strengths of this model to ensure students continue to be empowered to make intentional choices in a changing world. 

This fall, the committee will expand its discussion to the full faculty. Following feedback from the full faculty, the committee will recommend changes to the liberal learning goals and advising structures to be included in the University’s reaccreditation self-study (see below) and implemented in the 2027–28 academic year. The focus of this work is to ensure that Brown’s signature approach to education continues to cultivate independent thinkers who can both navigate and shape the future with purpose.

IV. Supporting Collaboration in the Applied Sciences, Computing and Engineering

In the spring, President Paxson and I charged the Task Force on Facilitating Research in Applied Sciences, Computing and Engineering to evaluate opportunities to enhance and stimulate new, large-scale collaborative research activities. The Task Force made strong progress over the summer, and this fall it will continue to evaluate various models and architectures to support growth and maximize the impact of investments in research across these areas. This will include ongoing efforts to gather input from key campus stakeholders to help shape a set of core concepts and initial recommendations that will be shared with the Corporation of Brown University in February. 

V. Realizing Our Life Sciences and Public Health Aspirations

We eagerly await the opening of the William A. and Ami Kuan Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories in Spring 2027. This state-of-the-art research facility will be a vibrant home where scholars across disciplines come together to tackle major unmet challenges in human health.

Under the leadership of Senior Associate Provost for Life Sciences and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Mukesh K. Jain, we recently launched our first major interdisciplinary health initiative, the Starr Healthspan Innovation Alliance, which seeks to advance the science and medicine of aging. With $37 million from the Starr Foundation, this alliance brings together signature efforts at Brown and Brown University Health to endow two new geroscience faculty chairs, fortify our clinical trials capabilities and turn breakthrough discoveries in aging into life-changing therapies. We look forward to advancing additional interdisciplinary efforts that embrace excellence across the Brown community in the upcoming academic year. 

Turning bench science into real-world care remains core to our vision for the life sciences. Support for that commitment came just weeks ago in a $26 million federal grant renewal from the NIH to launch Phase 3 of Advance Rhode Island Clinical and Translational Research (Advance RI-CTR). This next phase will speed up scientific discoveries into practical medical treatments and health solutions for communities across Rhode Island. 

Finally, through its redesigned MPH and statistics curricula, initiatives like the Health Equity Scholars and Next Gen Scholars Program, and deep community partnerships, the School of Public Health is exceptionally positioned to steer the future of public health. I look forward to seeing Dean Francesca Beaudoin’s vision unfold as we expand our work in these and other critical areas.

VI. Modernizing Corporate Engagement and Research Infrastructure

We are also preparing to support faculty through partnerships with industry so as to expand and diversify their sources of funding. This fall, Associate Provost for Corporate Engagement Jim Kellner will lead the development of a new program expected to launch in Spring 2027 that will help faculty identify and develop corporate partnerships and will include hands-on mentorship and peer coaching. In turn, these faculty-led partnerships will help to expand existing internship programs and to create new recruitment pipelines for our undergraduates.

To advance our university-wide initiative to strengthen Brown’s relationships with industry partners, our Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations will soon become the Office of Corporate Engagement and Foundation Relations (CEFR), with an expanded mission to serve as a “front door” for companies seeking to partner with Brown. Watch for announcements with further details about all this work in the corporate engagement space in the months ahead.

VII. Preparing for Institutional Accreditation

Finally, this year will involve extensive preparation for Brown’s decennial accreditation review by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), scheduled for the 2027–28 academic year. The review centers on a comprehensive self-study report detailing how Brown fulfills NECHE standards. I will soon be inviting faculty, students and administrators to contribute to the self-study and will share additional details regarding committee structures and timelines in a separate communication soon.

Looking Ahead

We have embarked on this academic year with a clear appreciation of the vital role higher education plays in our world. In an evolving national landscape, Brown is exceptionally positioned to showcase the enduring value of a liberal arts education grounded in open inquiry and a commitment to discovery that leads to real-world impact. I invite our entire community to embrace the year ahead with the curiosity and spirit of exploration that define our campus, and I look forward to all that we will accomplish together.

Sincerely,

Francis J. Doyle III
Provost