SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD VOLUME CLX, ISSUE 6
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27
Paxson details University response to Dec. 13 in first sit-down interview since shooting U. has aimed to balance healing, safety and celebrating campus strength BY ROMA SHAH AND JEREMIAH FARR UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR AND SENIOR STAFF WRITER On Dec. 13, the Brown community lost two students in an act of mass violence on campus. Just five minutes before the shooting took place, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 took off on a plane to Washington D.C. Typically, on a flight of that length, Paxson said she does not buy WiFi — she appreciates the brief break from work. “I get an hour, hour and a half to not have that bother,” Paxson said. That day, though, Paxson’s flight was diverted to Pittsburgh due to inclement weather. Because of the added time she would spend in the air, Paxson purchased the internet around 5 p.m. “So I get it, turn it on. My phone is blowing up,” she said. “Then I had to sit through that flight, get to Washington, turn around, come back to Providence right away.”
Now — just over two months later — Brown’s campus is attempting to strike a balance between grief and healing. The Herald spoke with Paxson for her first sit-down interview after the shooting to discuss the night of Dec. 13, the University’s response to the shooting and plans moving forward. The night of Dec. 13 The Providence Fire Department received the first call reporting the shooting at 4:05 p.m., and Brown’s Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management released its first alert at 4:22 p.m. The alert warned of an active shooter and directed community members to “Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice.” Members of the University community later learned that Ella Cook ’28 and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov ’29 were killed in the shooting. Nine other students were injured. Paxson declined to comment on the 17-minute gap between the first call to emergency services and the campus alert. She pointed to the not-yet-released third-party after-action review carried out by global consulting firm Teneo as the best resource to find information related to
the University’s response on Dec. 13. The shooting occurred in Barus and Holley Room 166, where a teaching assistant for ECON0110: “Principles of Economics” was holding an optional review session before the class’s final exam. In a press conference around five hours after the shooting took place, Paxson said she didn’t know what had been taking place in the room where the shooting happened. Paxson’s response was critiqued as seeming aloof or ill-informed. The University’s priority “was to make sure that our students and others in the community were safe, and to start the in-
SEE PRESIDENT PAGE 2 KAIA YALAMANCHILI / HERALD
DINING
BLIZZARD
Dining Services employees slept on army cots in Ratty, V-Dub during blizzard
Record-breaking blizzard brings 37.9 inches of snow to Providence
In previous years, employees were offered private rooms on campus or hotels
The blizzard is the largest in Rhode Island history, surpassing the Blizzard of ’78
BY EMILY FEIL UNIVERSITY NEWS & METRO EDITOR As a record-breaking 37.9 inches of snow fell on Providence on Sunday night, staff members from Dining Services slept on army cots in the Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Woolley Dining Hall. As essential workers, Dining Services employees were expected to come into work during and after the blizzard. The current contract between the University and the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island — which represents Dining Services — states that “in anticipation of severe storms, the University will provide sleeping cots and bedding for Dining Services employees who must remain on site for the evening.” The same provision is in the previous union contract that began in 2021. According to United Service and Allied Workers Business Agent Amy Cardone, it also appeared in contracts from 2018 and 2000. But for the past 15 to 20 years, employees have been offered stays at the Hope Club or nearby hotels during inclement weather, according to multiple employees. Vice President of Dining George Barboza confirmed that this had been the case in previous years. The switch to army cots deterred some employees from staying in dining halls overnight, six employees told The Herald. According to Barboza, 14 staff members — excluding management — stayed
on campus overnight on Sunday. But not all essential workers are sleeping on cots. According to University spokesperson Brian Clark, members of Brown’s Department of Public Safety have been provided hotel rooms during the blizzard. “Some emergency personnel from DPSEM have made use of hotel rooms as we’ve worked to maintain the essential presence of law enforcement and emergency responders on campus this week,” Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “Given variations in roles, work locations, responsibilities, collective bargaining agreements and other factors, we’ve deployed multiple solutions across units to keep essential services operational,” he added. Dining Services employees are not paid for the time they spend on campus overnight. According to Barboza, for each hour employees work during an administrative closure, they are given an hour of compensatory time — paid time off that can be used at a later date. But because Gov. Dan McKee declared a state of emergency in Rhode Island on Sunday, employees had the option to be compensated instead of receiving paid time off for working overtime, in alignment with their contract. Verney-Woolley Dining Hall Lead Cook Rabbit Hoffinger said he decided to sleep at his sister’s house nearby. He said that some employees decided not to come into work because they would be required to sleep on cots instead of being housed at hotels
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BY KELLY DING SENIOR STAFF WRITER A historic 37.9 inches of snow fell in Providence as of 1:31 a.m. Tuesday, as measured at T.F. Green Airport. The snowstorm is the largest recorded in state history, surpassing the long-standing record of 28.6 inches set by the Blizzard of ’78. The one-day snowfall record of 19 inches set in 1996 was also surpassed by over a foot on Monday, with 35.5 inches of snow recorded by 7 p.m. On Sunday, Gov. Dan McKee declared a state of emergency and issued a travel ban on all roads due to the severe weather conditions. The City of
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Providence also enacted a parking ban beginning on Sunday “to allow snowplows to clear roadways effectively,” according to an announcement from Mayor Brett Smiley’s office. These measures are “critical for public safety” because “they allow emergency responders to reach those in need and ensure Department of Public Works crews can clear roads as quickly and safely as possible,” Kristy dosReis, Providence’s chief public information officer for public safety, wrote in an email to The Herald. She strongly urged Providence residents to “stay indoors and avoid travel unless absolutely necessary,” and stressed the importance of dressing in layers when outside. She wrote that individuals should contact Rhode Island Energy when facing power outage
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