Ever True Roadmap to Recovery

The Brown community is ever true.

Brown Ever True is a whole-campus recovery effort, launched in the wake of a senseless act of violence that took the lives of two students and injured nine others on December 13, 2025. Brown Ever True coordinates the work of the entire campus via a roadmap to recovery intended to build our community’s sense of security and ensure that students, faculty and staff have a space to help us heal and move forward together.

The Brown community is ever true.

Community healing takes time, and looks different for each individual affected. Brown Ever True focuses on both short- and long-term recovery, informed by medical and public health experts and scholars who specialize in trauma. In the coming days, weeks and months, we’ll move toward recovery together, as a whole community.

As we hold our community close, we must regularly check on the well-being of one another. We must re-establish that the Brown campus – on College Hill and in the Jewelry District – continues to feel safe to learn, live and work. And, we must continue to celebrate all of the ways that Brown is still Brown.

The Brown community is resilient, caring and strong. We are ever true.

In Remembrance

Ella Cook, 19, was a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was interested in French and Francophone studies. She was an accomplished competitive pianist and served as a volunteer leader for the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham. At Brown, Ella served as vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University.

First-year student MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, was planning to become a neurosurgeon with a concentration in biochemistry and molecular biology to help realize his dream. Mukhammad was a U.S. dual citizen from Uzbekistan who graduated from Midlothian High School in Virginia where he was president of the school’s Model United Nations chapter and captain of the Scholastic Bowl team.

Read the President's Letter: Mourning the loss of two beloved students

President’s Video Message to the Community

As we look ahead, we are focused on dedicating significant, new and targeted resources to the repair and recovery of the whole campus — coordinating efforts to restore a sense of safety, sustain community, and ensure that students, faculty, and staff feel comfortable in all ways on campus.

Christina H. Paxson
Brown University President

Community Resources and Mental Health Support

Brown is focused on the mental health and psychological wellness of our community, and will continue to add information, resources and new support to address the needs of those impacted.

Find Resources

Safety and Security

The foundation of an inclusive and welcoming learning community depends on ensuring that all members of the Brown community feel safe and secure on campus. Throughout the spring of 2026 and beyond, we will engage in important campuswide conversations about how best to move forward together, in addition to taking all the steps necessary to re-establish feelings of safety and security for our community.

A high-priority, agile security review team co-led by Brown’s Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration and an external national campus safety expert has been established to evaluate and bolster Brown’s safety and security environment.

Activities include evaluating the following:

Overall security adjustments across Brown-occupied spaces on College Hill and in the Jewelry District with a focus on card access, doors and entry points, and camera coverage

Enhanced deployment of security personnel in visible and reassuring ways

Accelerating priority security projects, including expansion of blue light phones, panic buttons in critical locations and other projects

Identifying new enhancements to be initiated

Messages

View updates from the University regarding the events of Dec. 13, 2025