The Trump administration is probing whether Brown University violated a federal law that requires colleges to meet campus security standards in the wake of the recent mass shooting on campus.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that the Office of Federal Student Aid will be conducting an investigation to determine if the Ivy League school violated Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act, also known as the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires colleges and universities to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid.
The probe comes after two students were killed and nine others injured on Dec. 13 when a lone gunman burst into an engineering building where students were taking exams. The shooter, later identified as former Brown graduate student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, went on to kill a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at his home before turning the gun on himself in a storage facility in neighboring New Hampshire, authorities said.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the department investigation will determine if Brown “upheld its obligation under the law to vigilantly maintain campus security.”
“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,” she said in a statement. “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.”
In a statement about the investigation, the department cited eyewitness accounts from students and staff that Brown’s campus surveillance and security system “may not have been up to appropriate standards” which “allowed the suspect to flee while the university seemed unable to provide helpful information about the profile of the alleged assassin.”
The federal agency said other accounts by students and staff suggested that the university’s emergency notifications about the active shooter were delayed, “raising significant concerns about their safety alert system.”
“If true, these shortcomings constitute serious breaches of Brown’s responsibilities under federal law,” the agency said.
Brown President Christina Paxson announced Monday that the university is convening a special commission to investigate campus safety and security, the events leading to the shooting and the overall response to the attack.
More security cameras will be installed across the Providence campus, including at the Barus & Holley engineering building where the shooting occurred, she said in a letter to students, parents, faculty, and staff.
Authorities say the six-day manhunt for the shooter had been hampered by a lack of usable surveillance video footage in the building, despite security cameras in the neighborhood.
In the meantime, Brown University Police Chief Rodney Chatman has been placed on leave, Paxson said.
“For our students, staff, faculty, parents and alumni — I understand the anxiety, fear and stress following the shooting. I understand the gravity of the concerns about safety that follow a tragedy of the magnitude that Brown has suffered,” she said in a statement. “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.”
