Brown University’s head of public safety is now on administrative leave as the Ivy League school undergoes two outside reviews of its security practices and its response to the Dec. 13 mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine others.
University President Christina H. Paxson wrote in a message to the Brown community Monday that Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman would be on leave “effective immediately.”
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Hugh T. Clements, a former Providence police chief, will assume daily oversight of campus policing and serve as the interim vice president for public safety. Paxson noted that Clements will report directly to her.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education also announced Monday that it will conduct its own review of Brown’s security practices, with the feds interested in the university’s potential violations of the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which allows universities compliant with security standards to receive financial aid money.
The Corporation of Brown University, the governing committee of the school, will approve the “external organizations” who will ultimately carry out an After-Action Review and a separate Comprehensive Campus Safety and Security Assessment,” Paxson wrote.
“A thorough After-Action Review is an essential part of any recovery and response following a mass casualty event like the one that has devastated our campus,” Paxson wrote. “A review like this is standard…These reviews must be both thorough and comprehensive, and the University is committed to sharing key outcomes of both reviews with our community and the public.”
The After-Action Review will look back at the Dec. 13 shooting and examine how Brown responded before, after, and during the event. This review will look at Brown’s emergency response and its coordination with law enforcement in the days that followed the violence that took place in the Barus and Holley building.
Still, Paxson noted, “The response of Brown’s Public Safety officers to the Dec. 13 shooting has been praised by the other law enforcement agencies that assisted Brown on that terrible day. There is no question about the bravery, dedication and commitment of Brown’s Public Safety officers in their rapid response to the scene of the shooting. Our officers were first on the scene mere minutes after the shooting, and their actions saved lives.
The “Comprehensive Campus Safety and Security Assessment will more thoroughly scrutinize Brown’s current safety and security policies, from procedures and staffing to technology and training. Building access, camera coverage, and other security infrastructure will be included as part of this review.
“I understand the gravity of the concerns about safety that follow a tragedy of the magnitude that Brown has suffered,” Paxson wrote. “I want to assure you of Brown’s deep commitment to take every possible action to increase the safety and security of our campus, with the goal of protecting our community from future harm.”
The school will also set up a “rapid response team” to focus on immediate measures ahead of students’ return to campus for the spring semester, which begins on Jan. 21, according to the Brown website. Paxson wrote that full university operations will resume on Jan. 6. Winter session courses began Monday and will run through Jan. 20.
Paxson’s letter noted that going forward, the university’s Office of the Registrar website will require Brown credentials to access information on classroom and exam locations.
The more immediate security measures will include increased police patrols and presence, expedited conversions of buildings with key-based access to card-based access, the installation of additional security cameras (including at Barus and Holley), and an expansion of on-campus panic alarms.
A news release from the Education Department cited concerns that “campus surveillance and security system may not have been up to appropriate standards, allowing the suspect to flee while the university seemed unable to provide helpful information about the profile of the alleged assassin.”
The feds said Brown must submit information – including annual security reports, crime and dispatch logs, and records of emergency notifications – to the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid by Jan. 30, 2026.
“After two students were horrifically murdered at Brown University when a shooter opened fire in a campus building, the Department is initiating a review of Brown to determine if it has upheld its obligation under the law to vigilantly maintain campus security,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.
Of the nine students with gunshot injuries hospitalized after the shooting, “all but two” had been discharged from Rhode Island Hospital as of Monday evening, Paxson wrote.
Alexander Castro is a staff writer for the Rhode Island Current.
