The U.S. Education Department said Monday it will investigate whether Brown University had sufficient security and properly notified students after a mass shooting on campus killed two students and injured nine a little over a week ago.
The federal agency said it will examine whether the Ivy League university complied with the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to report campus crime statistics and publicly disclose their safety procedures.
“Students deserve to feel safe at school, and every university across this nation must protect their students and be equipped with adequate resources to aid law enforcement,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
Shortly after the announcement, Brown’s president said the university would commission its own outside reviews of the shooting and campus safety procedures and place its campus security chief on leave.
The shooter opened fire inside a large classroom as students were preparing for an economics final. Authorities launched a massive manhunt, but did not zero in on a suspect until five days later, when they linked the shooting to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and said the person believed responsible for both attacks had taken his own life inside a storage facility in New Hampshire.
On Monday, the Education Department suggested that “Brown’s campus surveillance and security system may not have been up to appropriate standards,” allowing the gunman to flee campus without immediately being caught or identified. In addition, the government said, many students and staff complained the school was slow to send out emergency alerts.
“If true, these shortcomings constitute serious breaches of Brown’s responsibilities under federal law,” the agency said.
University officials have defended their security procedures and response to the shooting.
Last week, Brown said in an email that its emergency notifications reached 20,000 people through phone, text and email minutes after the university learned about the shots fired on campus. Officials said there are more than 1,200 cameras on campus, but they cannot cover every hallway, classroom or other location on campus. The university also said it is common for many buildings on college campuses to be open during the day.
Brown President Christina Paxson pledged Monday to do more. In addition to commissioning the external reviews, Paxson said Brown will make a number of changes to beef up security, such as adding more cameras, panic alarms and police patrols. The school will place Rodney Chatman, its vice president for public safety and emergency management, on leave; for now, former Providence police chief Hugh T. Clements will serve in the role and oversee the after-action report.
“As we move forward as a community, we know the urgent priority is the safety and security of our campus,” Paxson said in a letter to the Brown community.
The Education Department review is the latest move by the Trump administration and conservatives to challenge Brown overwhether it could have done more to prevent the shooting.
Last week, a prominent Trump ally, Laura Loomer, said on social media that administration officials told her Brown may have violated a previous deal it struck with the government to comply with federal rules and regulations. The school said it is complying with the terms of the deal.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) wrote on X that Brown’s president needs to be “hauled in front of Congress for a hearing under oath” after the shooting.
And President Donald Trump joined in the criticism on Truth Social, saying: “Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!”
Hours before the Education Department announced the investigation, Brown said it retained a former U.S. attorney for Rhode Island, Zachary Cunha, to help the university deal with law enforcement agencies. “We work routinely with outside counsel whose expertise complements that of the University’s Office of the General Counsel,” Brown spokesman Brian Clark said in a statement.
This is not the first time the Education Department has investigated a university for a possible Clery Act violation after a mass shooting.
In 2014, Virginia Tech paid a $32,500 fineto close an investigation of its response to a 2007 deadly shooting spree. The Education Department said the university failed to adequately warn the campus community at the start of the rampage, which began after a student fatally shot a man and a woman in a dormitory.
Police said they initially did not believe the shooting threatened the rest of the university. But by the time Virginia Tech issued a warning hours later, the shooter had killed a total of 32 professors and students, injured dozens of others and taken his own life.
Laura Meckler contributed to this report.
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