The feds are investigating Brown University’s safety after this month’s shooting. Here’s what’s at issue –– and at stake

(CNN) — With questions swirling about Brown University’s security after this month’s fatal shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, the Department of Education on Monday announced it would probe whether the school violated federal law.

The department said in a news release it would investigate potential violations of the Clery Act, a law the department said conditions the receipt of federal student aid on a college or university’s ability to meet certain safety standards.

“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the review.

Brown faced tough questions in the days after the shooting, which left two students dead and nine wounded, as the search for the suspect initially appeared to stall. Tips eventually led police last Thursday to a New Hampshire storage facility, where the 48-year-old suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Particular scrutiny was given to Brown’s security cameras, which seemingly failed to capture actionable images of the suspect. Officials also faced questions about the security of the Barus & Holley building, where the shooting took place and where the doors were unlocked when the gunman entered. And they have sought to clarify what a university spokesperson described as “misunderstanding” about the campus emergency alert system.

“The Trump Administration will fight to ensure that recipients of federal funding are vigorously protecting students’ safety,” McMahon said, “and following security procedures as required under federal law.”

Monday, Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, announced several steps the university was taking to learn from the shooting and bolster campus security. They include Brown’s own after-action review, during which its vice president for public safety and engagement will be on leave.

“The concerns our community has about safety and security are real,” Paxson wrote in a statement. “And I share them.”

This will not be the Trump administration’s first effort to scrutinize Brown: Six months ago, the White House reached a $50 million deal with the university to restore the Ivy League school’s federal funding amid the administration’s broader crackdown to align institutions of higher education with its ideology.

Now, the fallout from this month’s shooting on campus threatens to once again put the university at odds with the administration.

The Clery Act

The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act is named for a 19-year-old who was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University in 1986, according to the nonprofit Clery Center.

Her death was the catalyst for the law passed four years later that requires higher education institutions to publish annual security reports, or ASRs, about crime on or near campus, whether it has been adjudicated or simply alleged, according to the Congressional Research Service. It also requires institutions to provide “timely reports” about threats to students and employees that are reported to police or campus security.

Institutions that have violated the Clery Act may be subject to a fine and forced to make policy changes.

It’s not clear what areas specifically the Department of Education will focus on, but in announcing its review, the department cited “public reporting (that) 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.”

The department’s news release provided a link to a Fox News report highlighting a lack of sufficient security cameras.

“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,” a release from the department said. “If true, these shortcomings constitute serious breaches of Brown’s responsibilities under federal law.”

The Department of Education gave Brown until the end of January to submit a variety of records, including its 2024 and 2025 ASRs; a copy of the Brown police’s activity logs for recent years; a copy of its daily crime log; and a copy of all school policies and procedures “related to timely warnings and emergency notifications,” among other items.

Lingering questions over Brown’s security

Officials turned to the public for help in the search for the suspect after Brown’s security cameras apparently failed to capture footage that would shed light on the suspect’s movements when he left the Barus and Holley building.

The school has more than 1,200 security cameras on campus, in exterior and interior locations, a spokesperson previously told CNN. But a criminal affidavit against the deceased suspect says the Barus and Holley building is equipped with only two exterior cameras, despite having multiple entrances and exits.

The challenge was further complicated by the building’s location on the edge of campus, where the school converges with the surrounding residential area. That left police to rely mainly on videos from nearby residents as they tried to identify the suspect.

Additionally, officials confirmed that doors to the Barus and Holley building were unlocked the day of the shooting –– so “anybody could have accessed the building at that time,” as Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told CNN.

Separately, the university previously sought to clarify information about its emergency notification systems, which spokesperson Brian Clark said last week had been the subject of “some misunderstanding.” The primary system reached about 20,000 people “minutes after Brown’s Department of Public Safety was notified about shots fired on our campus,” the spokesperson said.

Paxson similarly said last week the school has two systems to activate in an emergency, and the primary one was “activated within minutes of the incident.” The second involves sirens, which were not deployed to avoid causing a rush of people into buildings.

According to the timeline previously described by officials, the shooting occurred around 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, with the first 911 call coming at about 4:05 p.m., per the mayor. The university’s first alert went out to the campus community at about 4:22 p.m.

Monday, soon after the Education Department announced its probe, Brown said it would place its police chief on administrative leave effective immediately during the school’s own after-action review of the shooting.

Rodney Chatman, whose fuller title is vice president for public safety and emergency management, joined the school in 2021 to oversee a department with two divisions, according to Brown’s website.

One is police operations, responsible for crime deterrence and investigation. The second is administrative services, which oversees building security technology and administers building access and security systems, among other responsibilities, the website says.

Clery Act used to penalize Virginia Tech

The Clery Act has previously been used to penalize a university in the wake of a campus shooting.

The Department of Education investigated Virginia Tech following the April 2007 shooting there, which left 32 people dead on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus in what remains the deadliest school shooting in US history.

Several years later, the Department of Education alleged Virginia Tech failed to notify students about the shooting in a “timely manner” as required by the Clery Act. At that time, the department said it would fine the university $55,000.

The university, however, appealed the decision, and while a judge later overturned the fine, saying it had not in fact violated the Clery Act, Virginia Tech ultimately paid $32,500 in fines to the Department of Education in April 2014.

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CNN’s Michelle Watson and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.