- Ted, welcome back.

It's good to see you.

I wanted to start with the challenging times that Brown University is currently facing.

We know it's one of the most influential institutions in Rhode Island, and I wanted to focus on the conflicts that the university is facing with the Trump administration.

We are seeing this play out at other institutions, including Columbia University and Harvard, where we have seen the federal government pull back funding, citing alleged antisemitism.

And we know that the president has his eyes on Brown University as well.

- Yes, the White House confirmed to Michelle back on April 3rd that the administration plans to halt or freeze over half a billion dollars in research funding for Brown.

Yet two weeks later, as we record this, Brown tells me they still haven't received any official notification from the White House.

So they're in the dark a bit, but they're certainly bracing for what they expect is coming down the pike.

To put the amount in perspective, that's about double Brown's annual research budget.

So it's a lot of money we're talking about here.

We just don't exactly know what the effects would be until we get more specificity.

- And Brown University President Christina Paxson has not been commenting publicly about this.

Understandably, she probably wants to wait for official confirmation, but she has signaled her concern over the broader situation.

- Yeah, I think Chris Paxson, like all elite university leaders, realized when they saw what happened to Columbia, that they could be next and they needed to think about it.

She sent a campus message before we heard about the freeze for Brown.

But as all this was bubbling up, saying, you know, this raises profound questions in her eyes about academic freedom, these universities' independence from the federal government, what that relationship should look like.

They do want that federal research funding to continue to flow.

And we have now seen other schools since then, like Harvard, most importantly, take a different approach from Columbia.

Say they're not gonna play ball with the administration on this and comply even if they lose funding.

So that might make Paxson more likely to push back when it's official at Brown, but we just don't know yet.

- And Ted, this is one of multiple policy changes on federal funding that the Trump administration has made affecting Brown.

And we should point out, the university is fighting back.

- Yes, you had, first there was the NIH funding cut, which was they wanna lower the amount of NIH grants that is put toward general administration university.

That's been halted by a judge.

Brown just joined a lawsuit with other institutions suing the Department of Energy over their efforts to cut research grants.

So, you know, a lot of this is in flux right now.

Much of it paused in litigation, but it's certainly already led to disruption and confusion, I think.

- And all of this comes as the university was already dealing with other financial issues.

Earlier in the school year, they announced they are facing a $46 million structural budget deficit.

So this is just insult to injury.

- Yes, correct.

They've already had layoffs at Brown, minor layoffs, but some layoffs and there's this general belt tightening going on across the campus, administrative offices, academic departments being told to look for where they can reign in spending, maybe not fill in jobs, things like that.

- Which may surprise people because you think of Brown University and you think, "Oh, they have a large endowment.

They should be set."

- Right, and it is a large endowment, right?

We wouldn't wanna say other.

It's $7 billion, but of course it's an endowment, which means you can't spend the vast majority of it each year.

And then Brown sometimes, you know, it's in a funny place because they are very wealthy, certainly by Rhode Island standards, by any standards.

But compared to the peer institutions they compete with for faculty, for research like Harvard, like Yale, they have a much smaller endowment.

So they sometimes feel a little caught in the middle in that sense.

- And of course, it's not just the people at Brown who are worried, but I'm thinking about Rhode Island state officials who look at Brown and say, "This is such a linchpin for economic development strategy."

- Right, so much of the state's efforts on the life sciences rely on Brown bringing in these research grants.

It's a major employer, over 5,000 employees at Brown, capital projects like the new laboratory building in the Jewelry District.

They run the state's only medical school.

They're a key funder of the main hospital network.

So all of the effects, if Brown is really hurting in the coming months, could be felt, I think, by more people outside of Brown, too.

- Okay, let's switch gears now talking about Hasbro.

The Pawtucket-based toy maker has announced they will not be deciding whether they plan to move their headquarters until later this summer.

Let's take a listen to what Governor McKee had to say.

- We've made a proposal to them that I think is tough for them to walk away.

So it's an indication that they're still considering Rhode Island.

We want 'em to stay here and we're gonna continue to work with them to make that happen 'cause we wanna make sure that all the jobs are here, and Hasbro's been a great, you know, partner with Rhode Island for a century.

And hopefully that happens.

If it doesn't, we'll wish 'em well.

That won't stop us from continuing doing the economic development that we're doing right now.

- And Ted, people are speculating that this delay is partly being driven by the tariff announcements.

- I certainly think so.

I mean, Hasbro, they're toys and games.

So much of that comes from Asia.

And I tend to think that their executives felt that this was a time they really need to focus on dealing with that disruption, at least in the short term, rather than some kind of big relocation.

But we shall see.

- Okay, always good to see you.

Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.