Brown University has canceled all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects for the rest of the fall semester, as it mourns two students killed in a campus shooting on Saturday, school officials said.
“In the immediate aftermath of these devastating events, we recognize that learning and assessment are significantly hindered in the short term and that many students and others will wish to depart campus,” the university provost, Francis J. Doyle III, wrote in a note to the school community.
Students are free to go home for winter break right away if they are able, he said. For those who remain, Brown will continue to provide services and support.
Mr. Doyle acknowledged that canceling the remainder of the semester, which had been scheduled to continue through Friday, will raise academic concerns for some students, and he promised that the school would follow up with more information about that issue.
“For the moment, we encourage everyone to focus on their own safety and well-being,” he said in the note.
Nine students were wounded in the attack, which took place in a classroom on the first floor of the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building on the Brown campus, which is on Providence’s East Side. Eight of the wounded students remained hospitalized on Sunday morning, the university’s president, Christina Paxson, wrote in a letter to the school community. One injured student was released from the hospital Saturday night, and left the building with relatives.
As many as 2,000 Brown students were evacuated from campus buildings on Saturday evening, as hundreds of police officers fanned out to search for the shooter. Many students were taken initially to the school’s Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, and then were relocated throughout the night to stay with friends or in hotels, Ms. Paxson said.
The police detained a person of interest in the shooting early on Sunday morning. A shelter-in-place order for the campus was lifted at 5:42 a.m. Sunday, according to a notice posted on the university’s website.
It is not the first time a university has canceled the last stretch of a semester after a tragedy. In April 2011, for example, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa canceled most classes and final exams after a tornado devastated much of the city, and commencement exercises were put off for several months.
Last week, Kentucky State University suspended classes and final exams after a campus shooting there left one person dead. That school’s fall semester had been scheduled to end on Dec. 19 as well.
Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
The post Brown Cancels Classes and Exams for the Rest of the Semester appeared first on New York Times.
