Legacy admissions
Nearly two-thirds — 65.9% — of respondents said that Brown should not take legacy status into account in admissions, with 12.7% supporting consideration of legacy status. These results reflect a growing movement against legacy admissions both at Brown and nationally, with activism from student groups like Students for Educational Equity, an October UCS resolution calling on the University to end preferential admission for legacy students and a bill being debated in the U.S. Congress that would ban higher education institutions participating in federal student aid programs from awarding admissions preference to legacy students or students whose families are donors.
Almost a fifth — 18% — of legacy students said that the University should take legacy status into account for admissions, compared to 12% of non-legacy students. Just over 60% of legacy students do not believe that the University should consider legacy status, slightly lower than the 67% of non-legacy students who answered the same way.
Test-optional policy in admissions
Close to half of all respondents — 49.2% — would prefer that the University adopt a permanent test-optional admissions policy, while 22.2% expressed opposition to such a change. The University first announced the adoption of a test-optional policy for the class of 2025 in May 2020 before extending the policy for the 2021-22 admission cycle and the 2022-23 admission cycle. In a 2021 non-binding UCS referendum proposed by Students for Educational Equity, voted in favor of the policy being made permanent. Some public universities in multiple states, including the University of California system, have permanently removed standardized testing from admission considerations, and some private institutions including Davidson College have gone test-optional. While some Ivy League universities have extended their policies beyond the 2022-23 admissions cycle, none have adopted the policy permanently.
Taxes
Just over half — 51.6% — of respondents said that Brown should be paying more in taxes to the city of Providence, while 28.7% said they were unsure and 8.2% disagreed. With Brown’s arrangement with the city of Providence on optional payments set to expire next year, the city is reconsidering how much Brown should be contributing. In 2021, the University reimbursed Providence $13 million, 27% of the $49 million the University would owe if it paid full property taxes, The Herald previously reported.