Brown University Spring Semester Starts In Wake Of Dec. 13 Mass Shooting

PROVIDENCE, RI — Brown University started its spring semester Wednesday just over a month after the school was rocked by a mass shooting that claimed two lives and left at least eight wounded.

University President Christina H. Paxson penned a letter Tuesday expressing "an intense desire to restore what makes Brown feel like Brown."

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"For some, that means a return to familiar rhythms and opportunities for connection. For others, it is the hope that space will open for healing, recovery and community," Paxson said in the letter posted to the university's website.

"For many, it is reclaiming what it means to be Brown in everyday moments. And those moments will not look the same for everyone," Paxson said. "We know that many on our campus may travel a long path to healing — that many are just finding their footing. This means dedicating ourselves to being thoughtful and caring for our colleagues, classmates, students and friends for whom a sense of peace will take time."

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A gunman fired at least 44 shots in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, killing two and wounding eight others the afternoon of Dec. 13. The Providence police and the FBI identified the shooter as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student and Portuguese national living in Miami.

Neves Valente was also linked to the shooting death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro, who was found mortally wounded in his Brookline home Dec. 15, with the feds calling the connection a certainty.

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Five days after the Brown University mass shooting, Neves Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit.

In the wake of the shooting, and after Neves Valente was found dead, the university placed Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman on administrative leave. The school replaced Chatman with interim Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police Hugh T. Clements, a former Providence Police Department police chief.

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The school also found itself the subject of a U.S. Department of Education probe into its safety and security measures.

A service was scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, to "memorialize the victims, while alumni, Brown parents and families, and others will be invited to participate at the same time via webcast," Paxson said in the letter.

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