EDITORIAL: It Is Now Time For Paxson to Resign
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL: It Is Now Time For Paxson to Resign
Paxson has served as President since 2012. Her early years were a bland juxtaposition to a series of bigger-than-life Presidents who preceded her.
Ruth Simmons, Gordon Gee, Vartan Gregorian, and Howard Swearer all commanded national reputations.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWhile Paxson has been a successful fundraiser for the university, she has always seemed to lack an understanding of the core culture of Brown and its values.
Her skills seem better suited to a private equity firm than to serving as an Ivy League president.
For someone who claimed expertise in healthcare, Paxson's bizarre announcement of a partnership with the for-profit and now bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings was perplexing at best and wildly misguided at worst.
“Together with Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns CharterCARE Health Partners in Rhode Island, we are prepared to discuss potential merger discussions with CNE. I am writing to share details of this plan, which we believe is in the best interests of our state, the region, and Brown,” Paxson wrote in 2018 in a letter to the Brown Community.
Paxson’s Prospect deal came a year after the largest pension fund failure in the state’s history, the St. Joseph pension fund collapse that left thousands in financial uncertainty.
She seemed immune to the impact of private equity on Rhode Island’s healthcare. Prospect was one of the entities responsible for the diabolical pension failure. But for her, it was just another deal.
For Paxson, her tenure has too often been all about the money.
Paxson sold the naming rights of the Brown performing arts center to a family that has been tied to environmental contaminations, allegedly misappropriated native art, and literally contracted a hit on a horse. Truly.
Her Ms.Pac-Man-like gobbling up of Palestinian money, unlike any other Ivy League president, raised even more questions about the school's well-documented anti-semitism.
GoLocal unveiled that Palestinian money flowed into Brown. Perverse.
Paxson’s handling of the Israeli-Gaza war debate on campus was an abomination.
Even the most ardent Brown supporters blasted Paxson.
A member of Brown University’s board of trustees resigned over the decision by the school to vote to divest from investments in Israel. He had served as a trustee since 2019.
Joseph Edelman, the founder of New York City-based hedge fund Perceptive Advisors, took to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal to announce his resignation after Paxson announced a deal with student protestors that ended the campus sit-in — in exchange for a vote by the Board of Corporation to take up a vote on divestiture.
“As a member of the Brown University board of trustees, I disagree with the upcoming divestment vote on Israel. I am concerned about what Brown’s willingness to hold such a vote suggests about the university’s attitude toward rising antisemitism on campus and a growing political movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel,” Edelman wrote in the WSJ.
Then, Paxson capitulated to the Trump administration and agreed to its demands impacting gender, women’s rights, and gay rights.
In a joint press statement issued, three groups — ACLU of RI, GLAD Law, and RI Center for Justice — criticized the agreement Brown University signed with the Trump Administration.
“Brown University’s agreement with the Trump administration is profoundly disturbing. We are especially alarmed by the university’s seeming willingness to use transgender people as a bargaining chip by adopting the narrow definition of sex from the administration’s discriminatory executive order that denies transgender people’s existence,” wrote the groups.
Paxson's agreement with Trump was simply a financial deal. She surrendered Brown's ideals.
The horrific mass shooting in December that killed two students and wounded nine others was the work of a deeply disturbed former Brown student. Paxson’s failed security system and poor leadership were further highlighted by her inability to answer the simplest questions during the press conferences. And then she lashed out.
Brown needs new leadership desperately. A leader focused on the core values of what made Brown so distinct. The endowment is at a record level — now above $8 billion, and the University has never been less stable.
The need for new leadership is not just about failed security — it is the result of a loss of values — selling names of buildings to those with unacceptable track records, failure to protect students from antisemitism, a deal with the Trump Administration that undercuts many of Brown’s core values, and finally, a fundamental failure to keep the students in her care safe.
It is now time for Paxson to step down.