Brown University: What Happened
Our Reverse Q&A event was set to take place on May 12th. It would have been the final stop of our tour across American college campuses. We partnered with the AHA Foundation, and we were working with a Brown University student enrolled in their Critical Thinking Fellowship Campus Program, until this happened…
Our event venue, Brown Risd Hillel (not associated with Brown University), was confirmed on March 31st. On April 25th, the AHA student fellow, Jedry, started marketing the event by putting up flyers around campus and a LinkedIn event page. A few hours later, he received a phone call from a Brown University administrator asking about the event details. The next day, April 26th, Jedry received an email from a Brown Risd Hillel office manager stating that there are "many unexpected Hillel-related events and we can no longer provide a space for your event."
When Jedry questioned what events took precedence over our confirmed event, he was told that "we are excited to be hosting a number of study breaks for finals season." Jedry again asked for clarification because the event was scheduled before Brown University scheduled study breaks. Instead of an email explanation, on Wednesday, April 27th, AHA received a call from the Executive Director of Brown Risd Hillel requesting a meeting. From this call, we learned that the reason for the cancellation was allegedly due to internal mistakes made when processing and confirming the request form. We were offered three different reasons for canceling our event.
We are currently two weeks from this event and are forced to make a decision. Due to the cancellation of the event space, the difficulty finding a new location during finals, financial repercussions, and careful deliberation of other factors, we made the painful decision to not pursue the Reverse Q&A at Brown University.
Thank you to Jedry, AHA, and all those involved in planning this event; we are disappointed, but now need to pivot. We will be using this time productively and conducting outdoor events at other universities, so stay tuned!
Here’s our final Reverse Q&A, which has not been canceled!: Dartmouth College, May 4, 7 PM at Moore Hall room B03.
I checked Hillel's website and they don't have a "contact us" link which is a shame. And what a sneaky and cowardly maneuver on the part of Brown. These college administrators act like they are living in a totalitarian society in which free speech could result in death--and in a sense, I suppose they are if you consider the ways that the new jack-booted liberal watchdogs destroy people professionally and personally if such people don't acquiesce to their ideological edicts.
Glen Loury at Brown might have helped. He's a staunch advocate of what you're trying to do.