Aaron Regunberg: Brown Needs to Pay Up

Friday, February 17, 2012

Aaron Regunberg, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

As an undergrad at Brown University, I—like many of my student peers—have been incredibly disappointed by my school’s reluctance to make a more equitable and just commitment to the Providence community. I wanted to take this opportunity to send a message to the members of the Brown Corporation: we need to pay our fair share.

Over the last year, stakeholders from every part of Providence have come to the table to make major sacrifices for the sake of the common, public good. Five schools were closed, and all the children and families at each of those schools found themselves uprooted; all of the city’s municipal unions agreed to accept historic concessions, from foregoing raises to giving up benefits; the taxpayers were forced to shoulder yet another property and car tax hike, one which many simply cannot. Even Johnson & Wales, which has an endowment one-fifteenth the size of Brown’s, stepped up to the plate this week and announced it will triple its commitment to the city.

In the face of so much hardship and so much willingness to accept personal loss (even by folks who don’t have very much to begin with), how can we, at Brown University, one of the most elite and resource-rich institutions in the world, not commit to paying our fair share? How can I talk to my landlord, who—facing another property tax hike—has told me he may have to sell his home, and yet not ask Brown to increase its fiscal contribution to the city? How can I look at my former students from Asa Messer Elementary, whose school was closed because of lack of funding, and not think there’s something seriously wrong with the fact that their sacrifices are subsidizing my school’s special treatment?

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Of course, saying that our current financial relationship is unfair to the people of Providence is not to claim that Brown is the principle cause for Providence’s fiscal crisis, nor that Brown is the sole answer to its money woes. But I think it’s reasonable to say that the University can afford to do more (and do it, incidentally, without requiring students to lose their financial aid or workers to get laid off). In 2009 Brown paid its 14 highest-compensated employees $7,734,758. That’s just a little under twice as much as the entirety of the deal the City is currently asking for. If we can afford to give out that many six- and seven-figure salaries, then I think we can afford to throw down a bit more to keep additional Providence children from losing their schools. If we control $1 billion worth of property in Providence, on which we would owe $38 million without our exemptions, then I think we can afford to pay significantly more than the $3.5 million we currently give.

Brown likes to position itself as the social justice leader among the Ivies. But if we want that branding, then we’ve got to take some responsibility for what those values actually mean. We’ve got to be willing to put our money where our mouth is and be the good neighbors we like to pretend we are. And we’ve got to stop using the volunteer work that Brown students do in the community as a rationale for not paying our fair share. My student peers and I volunteer in Providence because we want to, and not in order to help Brown stay off the hook for its fiscal responsibility to the city.

But if doing what’s right isn’t a good enough rationale, there’s another important reason for Brown to pay its fair share. The fates of Brown and Providence are linked. If we think we can sit up on our hill and thrive while the rest of the city fails, we’re going to be in for a surprise later down the line.

Of course, the Brown Corporation probably isn’t paying much attention to these words. But just in case, I have to repeat once more: please do what’s right for Providence, and do what’s right for Brown. It’s time for us to pay our fair share.
 

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