Brown remains unwavering in our commitment to gender inclusivity even as we likewise remain committed to complying with the federal agreement Brown signed July 30, 2025. We have updated and expanded our "Sex and Gender Policies and Gender-Affirming Care FAQs" to ensure greater clarity regarding how this commitment extends to access to housing, restrooms, changing rooms and other facilities across Brown, including for trans and nonbinary members of our community. We know that the federal agreement continues to raise questions and concerns, and we have added detailed information about Brown's practices to the online FAQs we previously shared with the community Aug. 7. This is also accessible to members of the public who may visit our campus.

 

We encourage community members to read the full updated FAQs webpage and refer to it as an ongoing resource, and we also want to take this opportunity to stress some key points. With exceptions outlined in the expanded FAQs, Brown will generally comply with the agreement by expanding options to access facilities, not limiting them. The agreement does not address Brown's ability to continue to implement gender-inclusive measures on campus or to welcome and support our trans or nonbinary community members, including by providing gender-inclusive housing and restrooms and the ability to specify personal gender pronouns and chosen names in University data systems.

 

To comply with the agreement while sustaining our commitment to gender-inclusive practices, we will add more options for those who prefer single-sex facilities while maintaining our existing gender-inclusive practices. In on-campus student housing, we are expanding our housing options with new gender-inclusive spaces, while continuing to provide single-sex housing and single-sex floors with bathrooms reserved for the students assigned to those single-sex floors. Student-athlete facilities, including locker rooms, are restricted to team members and are separated by sex, building on existing NCAA rules and consistent with federal executive orders. 

 

The agreement now specifically requires Brown to make female-only housing, restrooms, showering facilities and single-sex floors available as an option to female students, and it requires Brown to provide single-sex athletic opportunities to female students, using the definitions of “male” and “female” reflected in Executive Orders 14168 and 14201. The agreement explicitly specifies the contexts in which we must apply these definitions by using the language “for the purposes of” to denote the facilities and activities where the government’s male and female definitions apply.

 

For academic and administrative buildings across campus, we are maintaining our gender-inclusive practices. In those buildings, facilities with signage indicating use for women can be used by all individuals who identify as women; facilities with signage indicated for men can be used by all individuals who identify as men; and facilities that do not indicate a gender or have gender-inclusive signage can be used by any individual, regardless of gender. At the same time, we continue to offer single-sex options for members of our community who prefer them.  

 

Here is an overview of our approach (again, with further details provided in the FAQs):

 

Brown remains fully committed to serving the needs of all students and community members in a manner consistent with our long-established policy of nondiscrimination, which includes sex, gender identity and gender expression. For questions about Title VI issues related to the federal agreement, you may also refer to the Federal Agreement FAQs: Title VI, Nondiscrimination and “DEI.”

 

While this series of FAQs appears on the Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting website, they were developed in collaboration with many support offices across Brown. We want to remind students, faculty and staff that colleagues across the University's senior administration, Division of Campus Life, the Warren Alpert Medical School, School of Public Health, the College, Graduate School, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, University Human Resources and many others continue to be partners in supporting the needs of our community.

 

Members of Brown’s senior administration continue to collaborate with departments in the relevant areas pertaining to the federal agreement to address how specific provisions apply to current policies and processes and how any changes will be implemented.