Laura Freid, executive vice president of public relations at Brown, said that the university will negotiate the amount of the fine this month--and that when those talks are over, the fine will likely be less than the proposed $500,000.

"They were wanting to send a strong message to higher education," said Brown spokesperson Mark M. Nickel.

In a press release, the agency praised Brown's response to the charges.

"We were disappointed by the number of violations we found at Brown, but we're also very encouraged by their responsiveness in addressing the problems and willingness to explore long-term solutions to ensure that these violations don't re-occur," said Mindy S. Lubber, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office.

After the May 1999 inspection, Brown's Office of Risk Management took several steps to address environmental concerns on campus.

It began conducting training sessions for more than 1,000 faculty, students and staff. The sessions were aimed at reviewing the EPA's findings and ensuring that participants knew about departmental hazardous waste policies.

The risk management staff also decided to assess the campus areas that the EPA inspected, including research laboratories, darkrooms, art studios and hazardous waste storage sites.