Following a mass shooting at Brown University last month, Dartmouth’s Safety and Security is undergoing a “complete review” of its emergency preparedness plans, senior vice president for operations Josh Keniston said.
The review, set to be completed later this month, will aim to improve emergency “information flows” and address concerns prompted by the shooting at Brown.
On Dec. 14, 2025, a lone gunman opened fire on a study session at Brown, fatally injuring two students and wounding nine others. In the “immediate hours” after news of the shooting broke, Safety and Security increased patrols on campus due to the “lack of information” about the events at Brown, according to Keniston.
“Because of the lack of information [about the shooting], we wanted to make sure we had a strong Safety and Security presence on our own campus,” Keniston said. “We were also activating our communication lines with the Hanover Police Department.”
Later that night, senior vice president for community and campus life Jennifer Rosales shared a campus-wide email statement with safety advice for Dartmouth community members remaining on campus, alongside condolences for the victims at Brown. Peer institutions, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, sent similar messages to their campuses.
“We were shaken to our core,” Rosales said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Rosales added that the decision to send a campus-wide message focused on “ensuring that our community knew they were not alone,” especially because many people had connections with the Brown community and felt worried about safety on campus.
Noah Chanthaboun ’28, who was on campus at the time of the shooting, said that while the incident was “scary,” he did not think a shooting occurring at another Ivy League school necessarily “increased or decreased the chance of it happening here.”
“It was a fact I knew coming here that [shootings would be] something I’d have to be worried about,” Chanthaboun explained. “I wasn’t scared for my own safety any more than I had been previously.”
Declan Schilling ’28, who has a friend who attends Brown, said he was initially “preoccupied with whether they were okay.” However, he did not worry about a similar situation at Dartmouth because of the differences between the two campuses.
“Dartmouth is very different than Brown,” Schilling said. “Hanover is quite a bit smaller than Providence. I didn’t have particularly strong thoughts about Dartmouth.”
Schilling, who is from Maine, remembers the state being “shut down” by the manhunt for the perpetrator who fatally shot 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, in 2023.
On Dec. 17, three days after the shooting, community members hosted a vigil on the Green for the victims of the tragedy at Brown and their families. Sabik Jawad ’26 and William Jewett Tucker Center chaplain and director Nancy Vogele ’85 provided candles.
“We had nine people in total, two students from Brown. One came from Hanover, came with his two good buddies and his mom,” Vogele said. “The other Brown student was from Enfield.”
Vogele added that Jawad read the names of the two Brown students who died.
“Then we had about 15 seconds of silence to honor their memory,” Vogele said. “Then I opened it up to anybody who wanted to share thoughts, and the two Brown students did, and the mom did.”
The Hanover Police Department is “well-prepared to respond” to active shooter threats on campus, lieutenant Matthew Ufford wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“We routinely partner with the Hanover Fire Department and nearby law enforcement agencies to conduct interdepartmental tabletop exercises and practical exercises,” Ufford explained. “Safety and Security and the Dartmouth Emergency Management team are often included.”
He added that Hanover Police officers are familiar with the campus and coordinates with Safety and Security with response protocols, which allows officers to “deconflict and communicate effectively both during a crisis and in the preparation and training phases.”
“In addition, Hanover Police Department regularly partners with Dartmouth Emergency Management to teach civilians connected to the College about ‘hostile intruders’ and how they might respond as an incident unfolds,” Ufford added.
As for community members concerned about their safety, Keniston “encourages” installing the LiveSafe app, which allows users to report safety concerns to Safety and Security from their mobile devices. He also suggested residents enroll in the College’s DartAlert emergency notification system, which sends emergency alerts through calls, emails and text messages.
Vogele encouraged students to “remember you deserve to have support.”
“If you’re feeling isolated or overwhelmed or scared, you can reach out to counseling. You can come and talk to myself, or the other chaplain or ordained campus ministers,” Vogele said. “The most important thing is don’t suffer alone.”
Jackson Hyde '28 is a news reporter. He is from Los Angeles, Calif., and is majoring in Government modified with Philosophy.
