PRESS: Download full statement here.
On December 13, 2025, a terrible tragedy befell the Brown University community when a gunman entered Barus and Holley and opened fire upon undergraduate students reviewing for a final exam. In the hours and days following the shooting, workers at Brown University and Brown University Health went above and beyond to address the needs of the Brown community. Dining workers stayed until the early hours of the morning to feed community members in the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center and came into work the next day to ensure students could eat. Library workers helped students shelter and find cover in Brown’s libraries. Nurses and support staff at Rhode Island Hospital worked grueling hours to treat casualties, after months of already being required by Brown University Health to regularly work 12-hour shifts. And Brown University Shuttle and RIPTA drivers helped evacuate students to safe zones throughout the night.
The tireless efforts of these brave and committed workers—of which the above are just a few examples—were essential in helping our community through these traumatic events. In recent weeks, we have seen an outpouring of support from students and community members for workers represented by our member unions. We appreciate the kindness and camaraderie of the community in these times.
In contrast, Brown University’s response has raised major concerns. The day after the attack, dining and facilities workers represented by the United Service and Allied Workers (USAW) were instructed to report to work as usual, without even words of comfort or appreciation from management. After the union raised concerns, Brown University subsequently promised time off for USAW workers who were on campus that day to cope with the immense stress and tragedy.
For three months, the university has continually brushed off attempts by the union to follow up on this commitment, even as its treatment of dining workers during the shooting has received scrutiny from the community.
The Brown University Labor Council calls upon Brown University to honor its promise. Flexibility and support was rightly given to students in the wake of the tragedy, but Brown’s frontline workers were denied such measures. At a time when we should be coming together as a community, the University administration is ignoring the workers who provided the most direct comfort and support for students on that terrible day in December.
We also call upon Brown University and Brown University Health to revisit their staffing policies. For years now, both institutions have been preoccupied with reducing budgets at the expense of frontline staffing. Workers make our campus and healthcare systems run. In moments of crisis, and during everyday operation, our community deserves fully staffed workplaces, not workers stretched thin and exhausted by cost-cutting measures.
The Brown University Labor Council stands with the workers affected by this tragedy who have since been let down by the University’s response. We call upon Brown University to address all demands made by the affected workers and uphold the promises made to them.
Workers—including the dining staff, facilities and library workers, bus drivers from TransDev and RIPTA, nurses, medical residents, and other healthcare professionals at our hospitals—are the ones doing the essential work to keep our communities healthy and safe. They are part of the university’s community, not a budget line for highly paid administrators to cut. It’s time for Brown to take care of its entire community, workers included, and make good on its promises.