UPDATED: (Brown launches Brown Ever True) As Brown Returns, a Campus Searches For Its Footing

UPDATE: Received Jan. 5, afternoon: Brown University president details Brown Ever True healing and recovery effort

The joint project of repair will bring together resources, programming and services focused on mental health, psychological wellness and ensuring a sense of physical security for the Brown community.

In the aftermath of a devastating attack in December, a campus-wide healing and recovery effort at Brown University will bring together resources, programming and services focused on mental health, psychological wellness and ensuring a sense of physical security for the Brown community.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson detailed the joint project of repair, called Brown Ever True, in a Monday, Jan. 5, message to Brown faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents and family members.

“There is no playbook for what we have been through as a community,” Paxson wrote. “There is no single source of truth for how any of us should heal. No ‘one path’ to begin again, or ‘right way’ to find peace, solace and joy. But we are Brown — the enduring strength of our caring and supportive community has long been a hallmark of who we are. Ever true.”

Brown Ever True will be a community-wide effort that brings together the ideas and contributions of academic and administrative units and student organizations, Paxson wrote. It will increase systems of support, building on the coordinated response from offices across campus that mobilized to provide services after the tragic violence on Dec. 13. And it will intersect with plans already in progress for enhancing campus safety and security.

At the same time, Brown’s recovery includes planning remembrances for Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, the two students killed in December.

“The outpouring of love and support for their families from the Brown and Providence communities has been deeply moving, and we continue to hold them in our hearts,” Paxson wrote. “As we process our grief for Ella and Mukhammad, we will memorialize them, as well as the experiences of the nine injured students, in a campus-wide service being planned for late January. While all the injured students now have been released from the hospital, they and so many others continue to navigate through very real challenges of coping with tragedy.”

Paxson’s full letter is published on the Brown.edu website and included below.

Announcing healing and recovery effort

Dear Members of the Brown Community,

There is no playbook for what we have been through as a community. There is no single source of truth for how any of us should heal. No “one path” to begin again, or “right way” to find peace, solace and joy.

But we are Brown — the enduring strength of our caring and supportive community has long been a hallmark of who we are. Ever true.

This is the core tenet of a new campus-wide healing and recovery effort I am announcing today. Called Brown Ever True, this joint project of repair for our campus brings together resources, programming and services focused on mental health, psychological wellness and ensuring a sense of physical security for our full community.

As we prepare for the start of the spring semester, I am deeply committed to the healing we will do together. I am committed to ensuring that students, faculty and staff have the resources and support you need to help us move forward. While the path to repair and recovery is different for everyone, no matter your unique path, it will be supported in a secure, inclusive and compassionate community.

At the same time, our recovery includes planning remembrances for Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. The outpouring of love and support for their families from the Brown and Providence communities has been deeply moving, and we continue to hold them in our hearts. As we process our grief for Ella and Mukhammad, we will memorialize them, as well as the experiences of the nine injured students, in a campus-wide service being planned for late January. While all the injured students now have been released from the hospital, they and so many others continue to navigate through very real challenges of coping with tragedy.

In this letter, I will share how Brown Ever True:

• Is a community-wide effort, bringing together the ideas and contributions of academic and administrative units and student organizations to help ensure that the initiative reflects what our community needs to heal and move forward.
• Increases systems of support, building upon the coordinated response from offices across campus that mobilized to provide services in the immediate hours, days and weeks after the devastating Dec. 13 attack on our campus.
• Complements our commitment to safety and security, intersecting with plans for the multi-pronged approach to enhancing campus safety and security that we announced last month, to be informed by community feedback.

I invite you to visit the new Brown Ever True website to learn more about the initiative.

A Campus-Wide “Roadmap to Recovery”

Brown Ever True will coordinate the work of the entire campus via a “Roadmap to Recovery” that offers a timeline of programming and activities. Recognizing that community healing takes time, and looks different for each individual, the initiative will focus on both short- and long-term recovery efforts, informed by medical and public health experts and scholars who specialize in trauma. It is modeled on approaches that have been effective on other campuses that have experienced similar tragedies.

Our whole-campus effort for Brown will involve numerous academic and administrative units, including but not limited to the Division of Campus Life, University Human Resources, the College, and the School of Public Health and other academic units. It will also welcome ideas and activities from student organizations. The initiative will coordinate existing resources and allocate new investments in a surge of support for our community in the coming weeks and months. This includes planning and overseeing both broad and targeted community-building efforts and communicating about these efforts to the entire campus.

The work of Brown Ever True is being coordinated by an operational team led by Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Matthew Guterl, working in close collaboration with partners across campus. The Brown University Community Council (BUCC) is serving as the designated advisory body for the initiative. In its established role as the representative forum for issues of community interest (with membership that includes students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni), the BUCC will convene regularly to discuss the Brown Ever True initiative and advise the operational team on the needs of the community.

Building on Expanded Systems of Support

Brown Ever True builds upon, rather than replaces, existing systems of support. It encourages community members to access a wide range of existing and new services that mobilized Dec. 13 and expanded to support members of our community over the Winter Break.

For students, Campus Life has led an extensive coordinated response, reaching students through trusted connections and expanded services across mental health, residential life, affinity centers, chaplaincy and student support services.  Over the break, students remained in close contact with student support deans and continued to rely on resources such as TimelyCare Teletherapy and BetterHelp to access mental health services from anywhere in the world. As students return to campus, familiar clinicians and staff from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and across Campus Life will be here to welcome them back and support their transition. As the Brown Ever True effort moves forward, support will shift from acute response to recovery, with a focus on healing, restoring a sense of security, and sustaining a strong sense of community for all students, faculty and staff.

I want to take this moment to thank the many amazing Brown alumni and families who have supported our students in informal gatherings and activities around the world during their time away from campus, expanding our community of support in so many ways. Our extended Brown family of alumni and parents and families will play an essential role in our path toward healing.

At the same time, University Human Resources is building on its expansion of resources in the Employee Assistance Program. Over the break, the program expanded to provide all faculty and staff an additional 12 mental health counseling sessions through the end of 2025. UHR is now working with Brown’s provider, Spring Health, to provide additional crisis counseling sessions for the 2026 calendar year. Resource and support tables and confidential on-site counseling sessions for faculty, staff and postdocs are available this week in a few critical locations. More information is available on the Brown Ever True website, and these will expand across campus as we approach the start of classes.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, partnering with faculty in the Warren Alpert Medical School, will continue to organize sessions like the “Resiliency, After” educational sessions held for staff and faculty before the break and the multiple, faculty-led “Together Now” sessions held for the full community. Brown Ever True will serve as a portal to access various community-driven efforts like these while also sponsoring broader campus activities and programming informed by public health best practices.

Security as Part of Recovery (including plans for Barus & Holley)

Brown is committed to building a stronger, resilient and sophisticated campus safety and security infrastructure. The safety and security of our community is not only a priority, but a responsibility aligned with Brown’s core institutional values.

Our values affirm that the University “holds itself responsible for generating the conditions necessary for every individual member of its community to thrive.” We recognize that a secure campus is a necessary condition for fulfilling our mission of education and research, and for all members of our community to feel a sense of security and belonging as they pursue knowledge in service to society.

A key step in the path to recovery is to engage faculty, staff and students and the local community in discussions about what it means to fulfill this responsibility for maintaining a secure campus, and Brown Ever True will help steward this work. We will provide meaningful opportunities for members of the campus community to share their experiences, perspectives and feedback about security infrastructure, staffing, and approaches, both in the context of safety and Brown’s values as a teaching and learning community.

I encourage all members of our community to read my Dec. 22 message to the community and the Dec. 30 letter providing an update on safety actions shared by Interim Vice President for Public Safety Hugh Clements. They provide important details about ongoing campus safety and security assessments, as well as the security actions and priority projects that have been accelerated for completion prior to the start of the Spring 2026 semester. These include transition to card access for the remaining buildings currently requiring keys for entry; installation of additional security cameras in key areas, including at Barus & Holley, pending the findings of the campus safety assessment; and expansion of panic buttons in critical areas, among other priority projects.

We know that resuming operations in Barus & Holley is particularly sensitive, and extensive work has taken place over the Winter Break to alter operations. This includes relocating a number of classes to alternate locations as well as expanding class schedules while we close portions of the building — some lecture halls, classrooms, hallways and adjacent spaces — by sealing and securing them behind new walls and emergency access doors. Most of the building remains generally closed while this work is ongoing.

Faculty, staff, postdocs and graduate students in the School of Engineering and the Department of Physics received a communication Dec. 23 outlining expectations and a timeline with regard to Barus & Holley, the Lassonde Innovation and Design Hub, and the Engineering Research Center.  The University has been in touch directly with the limited number of colleagues who will resume research in these spaces this week, sharing access to community support and related trauma-informed resources. General access to the buildings will resume Jan. 20.

Looking Ahead

We all should understand that real recovery is a gradual process. The effects of Dec. 13 may surface in uncertain ways. And “recovery” will at times seem elusive. At the same time, there is no question about the amazing resilience of our community.

In the face of unthinkable tragedy and loss, I have been inspired by our students, faculty, staff and alumni. The name of the Brown Ever True initiative was inspired by the ways many of you naturally invoked this phrase as a clarion call in the days after the tragedy. In countless emails, calls and letters I have received, members of our community have insisted that we must declare loudly to the world all that “we are.”

We are caring and we are steadfast. We are thoughtful and determined and strong. We have suffered loss, but our strength is the special character of our community. We are Brown.

And we are ever true.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson, President

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Published earlier TODAY

As students, faculty and staff return full time to Brown University, the school community has been taking steps since the disaster that took the lives of two and injured 9 more (1 still in hospital) and caused chaos that the campus and greater Providence may not ever recover from. Out of nowhere the story filled Rhode Islanders conversations and then it went national, then international – for days. As understanding eluded us then – it does so now.

As school begins in earnest today, Interim VP for Public Safety, Hugh T. Clements Jr issued this letter:

Dear Members of the Brown University Community, 

“I am writing to you today in my first days as interim vice president for public safety with a profound sense of responsibility, humility and resolve.

The Brown community has experienced an unspeakable tragedy. The recent act of violence that took the lives of Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and injured nine other members of our campus family has shaken us to our core. There are no words that can fully capture the deep sense of loss, grief, and pain many of you are feeling, while some also have natural feelings of anxiety and lingering fear. I want to say clearly and unequivocally: What happened on Dec. 13 should never happen again — at Brown or anywhere — and we must confront that imperative for our community with steadfast purpose.

As I step into this role, I do so fully aware that there are critical questions about the strength of our safety and security systems. Acknowledging those questions is not about assigning blame — it is about responsibility, learning, and improvement. My commitment to you is simple and unwavering: We will build a stronger, sophisticated and more resilient model of campus safety — together.

Safety requires more than visible security. It is built through preparation, transparency, trust and partnership. My vision for public safety at Brown is one that is community-centered, proactive and grounded in best practices, modern technology and clear communication. I am honored to serve with colleagues in Brown’s leadership who share this vision.

Elevated Public Safety Presence and Actions to Date

In the weeks ahead, Brown’s Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management (or DPSEM, which is the new name of DPS since the department restructured earlier this year) will continue to maintain an elevated and visible presence across campus.

This enhanced presence includes more safety and security officers across academic buildings, residential areas and events, while buildings also will continue to require card access, a key or displaying a University ID for entry.

We are increasing security staffing in phases, aligned with the ramp-up of operations and the increase of students, faculty and staff on campus as we transition from the lesser density of the holiday break and Winter Session, to the Jan. 6 end of the administrative Winter Break and resumption of medical school courses, to the start of the second semester on Jan. 21. To ensure coverage and support wherever it is needed, we are deploying a complement of DPSEM officers, coordinated mutual aid from partner agencies and well-trained private security resources.

At the same time, several priority projects are being accelerated for completion prior to the Spring 2026 semester. These include:

• Transition to card access for the remaining buildings currently requiring keys for entry (with assigned officers at those buildings until the technology transition is complete)
• Expansion of blue light phones with integrated cameras across campus
• Installing additional security cameras in key areas, including at Barus & Holley, pending final determinations arising from the Campus Safety and Security Assessment announced Dec. 22
• Expansion of panic buttons in critical locations to ensure rapid access to help when it is needed most
• Strengthened coordination among campus partners, local agencies and regional mental health resources
• Enhanced public safety training, staffing and operating systems for rapid and effective communications during emergencies
• Reinforced messages of available resources supporting crime prevention and emergency management (see the important information in the Resources section at the end of this letter)

These efforts are part of a broad and multi-pronged approach to campus safety that integrates prevention, response and communication across the University.

As President Paxson shared in her message to the community Dec. 22, we also are moving forward with two important security initiatives, both of which will be conducted by external firms commissioned by the Corporation of Brown University.

The first is an After-Action Review that will study the safety and security preparedness surrounding the Dec. 13 incident, as well as the emergency management response in its aftermath.

The second is a comprehensive Campus Safety and Security Assessment that will examine all aspects of our security systems, policies and practices, and incorporate community input. The Campus Safety and Security Assessment will build on the immediate actions underway this month.

Looking Ahead to the Spring Semester 

Even as we focus on the strength of proactive safety measures, equipping our campus community with the training needed to respond in the event of a safety threat is another top priority. During the spring semester, we will offer the Brown community new safety training and active-shooter preparedness training aligned with trauma-informed approaches. This will build upon the training the University has provided to individuals and departments in the past, which focuses on clear, practical guidance.

In addition, the University has pledged meaningful opportunities for students, faculty and staff to share concerns, ideas and feedback in the weeks and months ahead for what it means to maintain a secure campus. And you will see a public safety leadership team that listens and acts. Over the coming weeks, I will be active across campus listening, learning and working alongside colleagues to ensure that our approach is responsive, thoughtful and grounded in care for the people of this community and the values of Brown.

I want you to know this: Our goal is not to create a campus defined by fear, but one defined by preparedness, vigilance and mutual care. We are committed to maintaining a campus where every member of this community — students, faculty, staff and visitors — can learn, work and live with confidence that they are doing so in spaces that support a strong academic mission while also being secure.

I share the commitment expressed by President Paxson to take all possible steps to increase the safety and security of the Brown campus and protect against future harm for our community. I also know that rebuilding trust takes time, and it begins with consistency and truth. You have my promise that I will lead with integrity, transparency and an unwavering focus on your safety and well-being.

As I embrace the privilege of being a member of this extraordinary Brown community, I want to honor the victims of Dec. 13 by working with campus partners to bring about meaningful change. I hope to honor the injured by ensuring this campus is safer tomorrow than it was yesterday. And as students, faculty and staff, we can honor this community by standing strong together — resilient, compassionate and determined.

Thank you for the trust you place in this institution and in the work ahead. I look forward to engaging with you directly and often as we move forward.”

With resolve and respect,

Hugh T. Clements Jr., Interim Vice President for Public Safety

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President Christina Paxson

In her letter, which details much of what Clements’ letter outlines, noted that she has “written and spoken to hundreds of students, faculty, staff, parents and alumni since the tragic events of Dec. 13. The concerns our community has about safety and security are real. And I share them. As we work to heal and recover, our primary focus is to nurture a thriving campus by attending to the psychological and social health of all members of our community while we also demonstrate that Brown is still Brown — a safe, inclusive, caring community of talented students and scholars and dedicated staff.

But this work begins with taking all steps to ensure that our campus is a safe place to work, live and learn. We are unwavering in this commitment.

Sincerely, Christina H. Paxson, President

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US Dept. of Education investigation

U.S. Department of Education (the Department) announced it will conduct a program review of Brown University (Brown) in response to the December 13, 2025, shooting on its campus, which killed two students. The full announcement can be found HERE. U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said, “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. 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.”

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Personal Safety Alarms

Any student, faculty or staff member may obtain a Personal Safety Alarm (PAL) device to carry and use for alerting individuals nearby that they are in danger.

Information on how to obtain the alarm is available at the link below:

The personal alarm can be carried in a purse, pocket, or attached to a belt. It can be used in an emergency situation to call for help, draw attention to an unsafe situation, or to scare off an attacker.