Each year, on the Monday before Convocation, incoming freshmen gather with Brown faculty and administration in classrooms throughout campus to engage in “First Readings” seminars, a discussion centered around Brown’s summer reading project for incoming students.

B. Anthony Bogues, the Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies at BrownUniversity, has been named inaugural director of the University's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.

The Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence is making grants totaling $50,237 to four Providence schools to enhance literacy learning, promote nonviolence, and purchase performing arts supplies and computers.

At its February meeting, the Corporation of Brown University selected acclaimed American artist Martin Puryear to create a slavery memorial on the University campus.