More Than 50 Harvard Affiliates Hold Vigil After Brown, Sydney Mass Shootings

More than 50 Harvard affiliates gathered Sunday night for a vigil on the steps of Memorial Church following fatal mass shootings at Brown University and in Sydney, Australia over the weekend.

The vigil, organized by the College, took place during the second week of final exams and came after two attacks that occurred less than 12 hours apart: a shooting during a final exam review session at Brown on Saturday afternoon and a separate shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney early Sunday morning.

During the half-hour vigil, speakers — including four Harvard chaplains and Harvard College Dean David J. Deming — stressed messages of interfaith solidarity and condemned violence.

Deming said the shooting at Brown, the nearest Ivy League school to Harvard, resonated deeply with the Harvard community.

“Violence anytime like this is a tragedy and affects us all,” he said. “I think it affects us, especially because Brown University is a sister campus. It is like our campus in so many ways.”

“Many of you have friends and family and members of the community who are affiliated with Brown or who are there now. I know I do,” Deming added. “And so this, maybe more than lots of other things, hits close to home.”

Two Brown students were killed after a masked gunman entered a lecture hall where students were concluding a final exam review session and opened fire Saturday afternoon. Of the nine students initially hospitalized, eight remain in the hospital — one in critical condition, six in critical but stable condition, and one in stable condition. Brown canceled all remaining final exams, projects, and assignments on Sunday.

Two hours after the vigil in Harvard Yard ended, Providence officials said a person of interest — initially detained early Sunday morning — would be released. They did not identify a new person of interest or suspect.

Less than 12 hours after the shooting at Brown, two gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah festival celebration at Bondi Beach, a popular tourist spot in Sydney. Australian officials described the shooting as a terrorist act and said at least 15 people, including one suspect, were killed, and dozens more were hospitalized.

Dean of Students Thomas G. Dunne said the attacks underscored the vulnerability of academic and religious spaces in an interview after the vigil.

“I think it is a very sobering reminder that this type of violence can happen anywhere and even with happy celebrations such as a Hanukkah party or students preparing for a study session,” he said. “It weighs heavy on all of us to think about how we all have to have this degree of vigilance and navigate these things as part of our daily lives.”

In response to the shootings, the Harvard University Police Department increased its security presence across campus, requiring a Harvard ID swipe to the Smith Campus Center and Science Center as of Sunday morning.

In a Sunday evening message to Harvard College affiliates — the University’s first communication about the shootings to students — Dunne wrote that HUPD and Securitas would focus their presence around final exam locations through Monday. He added that there was no credible threat to the University.

Dunne said in the interview that students should expect a “a more visible presence” of security and “increased staffing levels on campus,” but declined to provide a timeline for how long ID swipes would be required on the two academic buildings.

“Anytime that people are looking at security measures, I think it’s important to have people feel safe and to know where they can go if they have questions or need support,” he said. “But also there’s a lot of things that are planned that are not necessarily shared fully with the community because that is not the best practice of doing this type of work.”

“Students, as always, should have their HUIDs on them,” Dunne added, calling the measures “a pragmatic step” during the exam period.

Harvard deliberately increased security around the vigil itself, according to Dunne. Three HUPD vehicles were stationed near Sever, Thayer, and Weld Halls, forming a perimeter around the crowd.

“We said that it might be important to people attending that there’s an increased security presence, that may give them a greater sense of confidence to join us,” Dunne said.

Dunne also confirmed the College had reached out to Harvard students from areas affected by the mass shootings.

Other Harvard affiliates also organized gatherings to support students after the shootings. Economics 10A: “Principles of Microeconomics” — a large introductory course taught by Jason Furman ’92 and David I. Laibson ’88 — hosted a gathering Sunday afternoon to support those impacted by Brown shooting, according to a message sent to students. The shooting happened during a review session for Brown’s equivalent introductory economics course.

Eliot House Faculty Deans Bonnie Talbert and David F. Elmer ’98 wrote to House affiliates that they would open their residence as a gathering space Monday evening.

Rabbi Getzel Davis, the director of interfaith engagement at Harvard, closed the vigil by referencing the first night of Hanukkah.

“We are like those separate flames, distinct in our beliefs, but connected at our base by our shared humanity, and we burn with our distinct fires,” he said.

“We remind each other that we are not alone, and when the world feels cold, we can keep each other warm,” Davis added.