Do you approve or disapprove of the way Christina Paxson is handling her job as the president of the University?

Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Undergraduate Council of Students is handling its job?

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39.4% of respondents had no opinion about how President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 is handling her role at the University. This figure represents a substantial decrease from the fall 2022 poll, in which 53% of respondents neither had positive nor negative feelings about Paxson’s handling of her job as president. The percentage of respondents who strongly approve decreased from 4.7% in the fall to 3.9%, while the percentage of those who strongly disapprove increased from 4.9% to 7.7%. Slightly more respondents somewhat disapprove compared to the fall, and significantly more respondents somewhat approve — 28.4% compared to 16% in fall 2022.

Paxson celebrated her 10th anniversary as the University’s president in 2022. Her administration has implemented the Building on Distinction plan, expanded financial aid through the Brown Promise and by eliminating home equity from financial aid calculations, and launched a new Operational Plan to invest in research in addition to the University’s expanding research presence off College Hill. This month, Paxson was elected to the board of the directors of the American Council on Education.

This semester’s poll showed that first-year students were more likely to have neither positive nor negative feelings about President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20. Seniors were more likely to approve of Paxson's performance, with 41% reporting somewhat or strong approval.

With a resurgence of on-campus activism in recent semesters, many groups have launched campaigns that demand the University revise its gift acceptance policies and cut its remaining ties with the fossil fuel industry. In 2020, the University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies recommended that the University divest its endowment from “any company that profits from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” a call around which student activist groups have recently resumed activism. Paxson recently told a conference that she rejects calls to use the endowment as “a tool for political advocacy.”