In April 1992, Gymnastics co-captain Amy Cohen, Class of 1992, and twelve other Brown female student-athletes brought suit against the University for violation of the 1972 Title IX legislation that stipulated that there be no gender-based discrimination in any federally funded educational activity. Their actions were spurred by a 1991 announcement that four varsity sports, including volleyball and gymnastics, would have their funding cut. When the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal in 1997, Brown settled, restoring funding to women’s gymnastics and volleyball and elevating women’s lightweight crew, water polo and equestrian teams to varsity status.

In 1992, Students for Aid and Minority Admissions led an occupation of University Hall to demand that Brown move more quickly towards admission of students without regard to their ability to pay. After repeated warnings, 253 students who would not vacate were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Need-blind admission would not be instituted at Brown until 2003.

In 1994, the first WaterFire public art event took place in downtown Providence, with a series of bonfires lighting up the city’s urban rivers. What was planned as a one-time event has since grown into a tradition, with many fire lightings each year. Artist Barnaby Evans, who graduated from Brown in 1975 with a degree in biology and environmental science, created the installation.

In 1994, Women’s Basketball Coach Jean Burr’s team won the Ivy League title and the first automatic bid for an Ivy to participate in the NCAA main bracket.

In the Fall of 1994, the number of women attending Brown exceeded the number of men for the first time, with 3,714 female and 3,672 male students. This approximate gender ratio has continued through the admitted undergraduate class of 2018.

In his inaugural address, E. Gordon Gee, a Mormon who had received both a law degree and doctorate in education from Columbia University and then returned to his home state to serve as president of the University of Utah, set his purpose as president, “to give this private institution a world view, a world voice, and a public purpose.” However, in February 2000, after serving for only two years, Gee resigned to become chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Scores of Brunonians have competed in the Olympic games over the years. In the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, four Brown women competed for three different countries. Pictured are Tara Mounsey, Class of 2001, (left) and Katie King, Class of 1997, who won gold for the United States in the first Olympic women's ice hockey competition.

In 1999, the Women’s Crew captured Brown’s first-ever NCAA Team and Varsity Eight Championship, on Lake Natoma, outside of Sacramento, California.