Brown University President Christina Paxson announced Monday that she will step down at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, after a tumultuous period that has seen her navigate both a hostile administration in Washington and a mass shooting on her campus.
Paxson is the longest-serving president in the Ivy League, which represents eight of the top U.S. universities. She has helmed her university since 2012, the longest tenure of any active Ivy League president.
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Paxson inked a controversial deal with the Trump administration to preserve Brown’s research funding. Under the deal, Brown committed to investing $50 million over the decade to Rhode Island work development programs and complying with Trump’s admissions and transgender athlete policies. The Education Department unfroze $510 million for the school in return.
“Congratulations to Brown University on the settlement made with the United States Government,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social last July. “There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else! Woke is officially DEAD at Brown. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Paxson referenced the settlement, which came shortly after the One Big Beautiful Bill increased taxes on certain university endowments, in her resignation message. “While the federal landscape remains volatile for all colleges and universities, Brown is receiving major grants for pioneering research that will lead to tremendous innovation for this country,” she said.
Over the past several years, Paxson has dealt with on-campus anti-Israel student protests, which have embroiled campuses across the country.
Brown’s protests after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks were smaller in scale than those at peer institutions such as Columbia and Harvard. Still, Paxson was forced to sign an agreement with student protesters in April 2024 to end an unauthorized encampment at Brown.
Protesters had previously staged a sit-in outside Paxson’s office, urging the school to divest its endowment from “Israeli military occupation.”
One of Paxson’s highest-profile crises came when an intruder shot and killed two undergraduates while they were studying for an economics exam in December. The perpetrator evaded police for days, with the university canceling the remainder of its fall term and sending students home early.
A 48-year-old suspect, who had once studied at Brown, died by suicide in a New Hampshire storage unit as authorities scrambled to find him.
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The university announced that it will appoint a replacement after Paxson serves through the 2026-27 academic year.
Her resignation coincided with an unrelated letter that the Education Department released on Monday. In the letter, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called upon university boards and presidents to “reaffirm their commitment to serving the American people.”
