Any Brown community member – students, faculty, staff and campus visitors – who has experienced or witnessed an incident of bias, discrimination, harassment, retaliation or sexual violence is encouraged to visit the reporting an incident webpage to learn more about reporting options. Filing a report notifies the appropriate office that an incident is alleged to have occurred and allows our team to reach out with resources and to help you navigate options. Below is a synopsis of the review process. 

Trained staff will review your report to determine if any University policies may have been violated, and refer it to the appropriate office for next steps.

• If your report involves a bias incident, the Bias Review Team (BRT) in the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity will reach out and work with you to develop a course of action (read more below).
• If your report involves an incident of discrimination, harassment or sexual misconduct, an administrator from the Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting or the Title IX and Gender Equity Office will contact you for next steps as outlined below.

Step 1 – Bias Incident Report Assigned to Bias Review Team (BRT)

Upon the receipt of an incident form, staff members from the Office of Institutional Equity & Diversity (OIED) and the Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting (OECR) will determine if the report falls under bias, discrimination or harassment. If the report is determined to be bias, it will be assigned to the Bias Review Team. A report can be submitted via an incident report, email at equity_reporting@brown.edu or call (401) 863-1800.    

Step 2 – Outreach to Harmed Party

A member from the OIED team will send an outreach notice to the harmed party within 48 hours of receiving the report. The outreach notice will include a list of resources available to that individual based on their standing within the university (i.e., student, faculty, or staff). Once a BRT member has been assigned to a report, a follow up email will be sent to the harmed party with an invitation to meet with the BRT member.

Step 3 – Bias Review Team (BRT) Weekly/Bi-Weekly Meeting

1. A BRT member is assigned to a report and a follow up email will be sent to the harmed party with an invitation to meet with the BRT member.
2. If the harmed party agrees to meet, the designated BRT member will be tasked with meeting with the harmed party, gathering any relevant information not provided in the original report, and transcribing notes to be reviewed with the remaining BRT members.

Step 4 – BRT Member Meets with Harmed Party

BRT members will meet bi-weekly (or weekly during peak reporting) to discuss the bias incident reports submitted to OIED since the last meeting.

If a meeting with a harmed party from a previous case has occurred, BRT members will be asked to debrief on information obtained during their meeting with the harmed party. If a harmed party did not wish to meet, the team will discuss potential next steps.

Step 5 – Course of Action Developed

After the Bias Review Team has debriefed on a specific report, next steps will be established. Next steps may include a referral to a relevant stakeholder or a specific department (e.g., Campus Life, University Human Resources, the Dean of the Faculty, the Office of the Provost…etc.) to determine appropriate conclusive action.