ROOKE: Brown University Learned Nothing From Campus Assassination Of Conservative Student

Shortly before Christmas, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente allegedly opened fire inside a Brown University classroom while students were engaged in a final exam review session. Two people were killed, including Brown University College Republicans Vice President Ella Cook.

Brown University was rightfully criticized for its lack of student safety and for the profound operational deficiencies in its security apparatus. There was a nearly 20-minute delay in alerting the campus of the active shooter situation. Despite Brown University President Christina Paxson‘s contradictory claims, the administration failed to activate emergency sirens. Additionally, false information about a suspect in custody spread like wildfire, wrongful detention of an uninvolved individual, and a multi-day manhunt that only ended thanks to an online tipster on Reddit. This is not efficient law enforcement or robust campus protocols. It’s an objective failure to prioritize student safety.

Reporter: “You didn’t have cameras in that building. Just say it.”

Brown President Christina Paxson: “I do not think a lack of cameras in that building had anything to do with what happened there.” pic.twitter.com/RSfD4Cp4LM

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 19, 2025

A week after the shooting, Paxson placed Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman on administrative leave. In a statement announcing Chatman’s leave and other measures the university would be taking in the wake of the shootings, Paxson promised that she would be “taking all steps to ensure that” the “campus is a safe place to work, live, and learn.” (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

But this begs the question: If safety is Paxson’s and the university’s top priority, why would she hire Matthew Guterl to lead a post-shooting healing and recovery initiative? Guterl is the vice president for diversity and inclusion with a scholarly focus on race relations, civil rights, and empire.

Feckless @BrownUniversity Taps DEI Official To Restore ‘Sense of Physical Security’ on Campus. “Matthew Guterl is known for his memoir ‘Skinfolk’ and enjoys ‘writing about Neverland Ranch,’ according to his university bio” https://t.co/UfrcJNyH74 pic.twitter.com/5iWGfOBUEs

— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) January 7, 2026

His hiring is a textbook example of ideological prioritization over practical safety. This move will do absolutely nothing to address the glaring security failures exposed by the shooting that killed two students on campus, where the alleged shooter evaded capture for days, and went on to murder an MIT professor before dying by suicide.

A lack of diversity and inclusion did not cause these issues. They were basic failures in emergency communication, infrastructure usage, and rapid response. Yet, rather than appointing someone with expertise in law enforcement, crisis management, or physical security to address these issues, Paxson chose Guterl to head an operational team aimed at restoring a “sense of physical security.”

Guterl’s role appears limited to the soft, therapeutic, and ideological side of recovery, with zero bearing on preventing armed intruders, speeding up alerts, or ensuring sirens blare when lives are at stake.

🚨 Q: “With all due respect, six hours after the shooting, and you said you don’t know what was going on in that classroom?… Were they taking an exam, were they meeting for a club?”

Brown President Christina Paxson: “I don’t know.”

Q: “6 hours later. You’re the president.… pic.twitter.com/V9VK8LBgvx

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 14, 2025

Whether or not the shooter’s motive was political, the tragic incident occurred on an overwhelmingly radical left campus, killing a rare, visible conservative student leader. Paxson’s response lacked laser focus on hardening security or on accountability for the botched response. Instead, she doubled down on DEI orthodoxy by elevating its top diversity official to spearhead the effort, complete with office-coordinated educational sessions. (ROOKE: Influential Leftist Uses Christmas To Promote Her Deranged Ideology)

In the face of real violence and operational collapse, this is nothing more than classic performative illiberalism. Ideology trumps safety. Promoting Guterl won’t make anyone safer. It just reaffirms Brown’s commitment to far-left symbolism at the expense of actionable reform.

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