Brown University Taps DEI Official To Restore 'Sense of Physical Security' on Campus

Brown University is launching a "campus-wide healing and recovery" initiative aimed at "ensuring a sense of physical security" following December's deadly shooting. The Ivy League school appointed Matthew Guterl, the vice president of Brown's Office of Diversity and Inclusion and professor of "Africana Studies," to lead the effort.

The initiative, dubbed Brown Ever True, offers expanded psychological services and provides "meaningful opportunities" for students to provide "feedback about security infrastructure," university president Christina Paxson announced Monday. It's being "coordinated by an operational team led by Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Matthew Guterl." His Office of Diversity and Inclusion will also organize "educational sessions held for staff and faculty."

Guterl is known for his "extensive expertise in the history of race-relations, civil and human rights, and empire," according to his Brown biography. He published a 2023 memoir, Skinfolk, about "growing up in a multiracial adoptive household" and is "presently working on a global biography of the queer, cosmopolitan, human rights activist, Roger Casement." He "continues to be interested in writing about Neverland Ranch," his bio states.

Brown's decision to tap Guterl to lead the initiative comes as the university and local authorities face fierce criticism over their response to the shooting.

The university took nearly 20 minutes to send an alert to students after the shooting started and never sounded its emergency sirens. It also told students a suspect was in custody shortly after the shooting, only to retract the claim. Paxson went on to argue that campus sirens would not be used "in the case of an active shooter," though the siren system's webpage says otherwise.

The shooter evaded authorities for five days. In that time, he made his way to Brookline, Mass., to murder a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor before escaping to a storage facility in New Hampshire, where he killed himself. Law enforcement officials initially took into custody a former Army infantryman who was not involved in the shooting. Ultimately, a homeless man who spotted the shooter, 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, pointed police in the right direction after posting about him on Reddit.

Brown, now facing a Department of Education review over its response to the shooting, placed head of public safety Rodney Chatman on administrative leave in the fallout.

It's unclear why Paxson didn't select a professor with relevant credentials to lead the initiative. The Brown University Community Council, a university-wide representative forum for discussing campus concerns, will serve as the advisory body for Brown Ever True. Just 3 of the council's 10 faculty members represent health-related departments, while the remaining members lecture in subjects including Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Guterl and Brown did not respond to requests for comment.

When Guterl took on his role as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's vice president in March, he told the Brown Daily Herald that he would shape DEI in higher education through "fearlessness, imagination and the support of the entire campus community." He stressed the importance of Brown's "ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion" in response to President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting racially discriminatory policies in higher education.

Such policies have taken hold at Brown. A February Washington Free Beacon report found that the university's medical school gave "diversity, equity, and inclusion" more weight than "excellent clinical skills" in its promotion criteria for faculty. Guterl's Office of Diversity and Inclusion is partnering with the school to organize the Brown Ever True "educational sessions."

In addition to the initiative, Brown's interim head of public safety, Hugh Clements Jr., announced that the school will install security cameras and panic buttons while broadening public safety training to incorporate "rapid and effective communications during emergencies."

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