By Dakin Andone, CNN
(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 Read more