PROVIDENCE — Brown University issued a release Monday outlining three immediate actions the school is taking in response to the Dec. 13 mass shooting that left two students dead and nine others injured.
Brown President Christina Paxson said the school as initiated a rapid response team to focus on immediate safety measures to ensure the campus remains secure during winter break and ahead of the Spring 2026 semester.
The university will also hire outside experts to conduct an after-action review of the shooting, as well as a campus safety and security assessment of the campus. The after-action review will look at campus safety conditions leading up to the incident, how the school responded on the day of the shooting, and how emergency response efforts were handled afterward.
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The safety and security assessment will consist of an “on-site physical security assessment of the perimeter of buildings, access points, cameras and technology, and other infrastructure conditions.”
Paxson also announced Brown Police Chief Rodney Chatman has been placed on administrative leave as the school conducts its assessments.
Brown Rapid Response Team to Implement Security Measures
Paxson says Brown’s rapid response team is focusing on the implementation of new safety measures and “building on safety and security projects the University had launched prior to the Dec. 13 shooting.” Many of the improved security measures will be in place before the school resume full operations after winter break. Others will be phased in before the start of the spring semester.
The team will focus on the following areas:
- Physical Safety and Staffing Visibility: The campus will sustain its increased presence and patrol of police, public safety officers, and security guards. It will also prioritize a visible security presence across buildings, pedestrian corridors, and gathering areas.
- Card Access Expansion: The buildings that have key-based access will be converted to card access with priority given to academic and mixed-use buildings.
- Camera Coverage: Additional security cameras will be installed across campus — including Barus and Holley, where the shooting took place — as well as building entrances, common areas, and circulation spaces. New blue light phones will also include integrated cameras.
- Panic Alarms and Duress Systems: The university will expand panic alarms with focus on front-facing service areas and late-night operations
- Events, Athletics and Known High-Population Activities: Events taking place during the spring semester will continue to be assessed “as part of an event security review launches for high-profile events earlier this fall.”
- Operational Ramp-Up and Population Return: The school is preparing for significant increases in safety and security staffing to support increasing population density as it “work[s] toward resuming full academic and residential operations.”
Paxson also says a dedicated team is working to consider how operations in Barus & Holley will be altered, including relocating spring classes and lectures as the School of Engineering and Department of Physics complex remains closed.
Brown University’s After-Action Review, Campus Safety and Security Assessment
Paxson says both the after-action review and campus safety and security assessment will be “governed by a committee of the Corporation of Brown University, which will approve the selection of the external organizations conducting the assessments.”
“We anticipate the Comprehensive Safety and Security Assessment will review the University’s current safety and security systems and approaches, including policies, procedures, staffing, technology and training,” she writes.
Department of Education to Investigate Brown University
The Department of Education also announced in a press release that it would investigate whether the school violated the Clery Act. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the Trump administration “will fight to ensure that recipients of federal funding are vigorously protecting students’ safety and following security procedures as required under federal law.”
The department is requesting various documents as part of its investigation, including annual security reports, records of reported crimes and crime logs from recent years, and a list of timely warnings and emergency notifications issued by the university dating back to 2021, CNN reports. All documentation must be submitted to the department by Jan. 30.
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The press release also alleges the university’s surveillance systems “may not have been up to appropriate standards,” and that Brown community members reported delayed emergency alerts.
While Brown has said it has an “expansive network” of security cameras, including more than 1,200 across campus, Brown spokesperson Brian Clark previously stated that “security cameras do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory and office across the 250+ buildings on campus.”
There is no security footage showing the gunman in the Barus and Holley building.
“I do not think a lack of cameras in [Barus and Holley] had anything to do with what happened there,” Paxson said in a press conference last Thursday.
