U.S. Department of Education conducting review of Brown University after fatal campus shooting

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced it will conduct a program review of Brown University in response to the December 13, 2025, shooting on its campus, which killed two students. The Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid will investigate if Brown violated Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act, otherwise known as the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires institutions of higher education to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid. 

USDE stated that “in the hours after the shooting, public reporting appeared to show that Brown’s 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. Additionally, many Brown students and staff reported 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.”

“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,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “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.” 

As part of the review, FSA has requested that Brown submit information by January 30, 2026, including: 

• Copies of the original 2024 and 2025 Annual Security Reports (ASRs), and any revised versions of these reports that were produced for the purpose of complying with the Clery Act, along with credible evidence of distribution and/or redistribution; 
• An “audit trail” showing all incidents of crime (organized by offense classification) for the calendar years 2021-2024 and an “audit trail” showing all arrests made by Brown University Public Safety and Emergency Management Department (BPS) or other state or local law enforcement agencies, and all referrals for disciplinary action against students or employees for violations of state laws and local ordinances related to the illegal possession, use, and/or distribution of weapons, drugs, or liquor that were included in the statistical disclosures contained in the University’s 2024 and 2025 ASRs; 
• A copy of the BPS’s activity/dispatch/call log for calendar years 2021-2025; 
• A copy of the daily crime log for calendar years 2021-2025; 
• A list of all Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications issued by the university during calendar years 2021-2025, with a brief description of the means or media used to disseminate the notices; 
• A copy of all of Brown’s policies and procedures, including any internal policies and procedures, related to timely warnings and emergency notifications, maintenance of a daily crime log, and emergency response notifications and evacuation, and a copy of any assessments of Brown’s campus safety policies and practices conducted since 2020; and 
• A complete set of BPS’s standard operating procedures regarding dispatch, response to calls, reporting writing, arrests including issuance of citations, and protocols for active shooter scenarios. 

According to the Department of Education, “The Clery Act requires colleges and universities receiving federal student aid to annually disseminate a public Annual Security Report to employees and students, which must include statistics of campus crime and details about the efforts taken to improve campus safety, including timely issuance of campus alerts and safety procedures to the campus community. FSA is responsible for enforcement of the Clery Act and may undertake an investigation of a specific incident or conduct a program review that examines systemic challenges with complying with the law. The Department may fine institutions of higher education that have violated the Clery Act and may require them to make policy changes to come into compliance with the law.”