The 10 classrooms in Barus and Holley that have been closed following the Dec. 13 shooting will reopen in summer 2027. The classrooms will be available for Summer Session and Pre-College programming, as well as classes during the 2027-28 academic year.
The predicted date marks a delay from the University’s earlier goal of reopening by the middle of the 2026-27 academic year.
For some students and faculty, the University’s reopening of the classrooms has been seen as a difficult but necessary decision.
“I think obviously it is going to be tough for some people,” said Mariam Sufi ’29, who works in a lab at the Engineering Research Center and in the Brown Design Workshop for Brown Formula Racing. But Sufi added that she does not think the solution is to keep the rooms “memorialized forever” by never “returning to those places.”
“There’s no good solution,” she said.
Atticus Borggaard ’29, a mechanical engineering concentrator who works in the BDW, visits Barus and Holley around two to three times a day. Borggaard previously attended several introductory engineering classes in one of the building’s now closed lecture halls.
He said he finds himself “actively avoiding” the section of the building where the shooting took place. “The first time going back to the building was really weird,” Borggaard added. “It didn’t feel good.”
To aid healing efforts, the University created the Office of Student Recovery and Care in August. The office’s work focuses on “building relationships with students directly affected by the events of Dec. 13, understanding their individual circumstances and needs and helping coordinate connections to resources and support across the University,” Associate Dean and Director of the OSRC Brian Woods wrote in an email to The Herald.
“We recognize that students’ experiences and feelings about returning to the building will vary, and there is no single timeline or approach that will feel right for everyone,” Woods added.
Jianling Horton ’29, an astrophysics concentrator who spends a lot of time in Barus and Holley working and meeting with her research group, said she was not in the building during the shooting but has thought about how the reopening might affect those who were.
“It’ll always be in the back of my mind,” Horton said. “And I would assume, especially for someone there, it would probably be in the back of their mind as well.”
Luc Bastien ’29, an electrical engineering student, said he has spent less time in Barus and Holley this year because his classes are not located in the building, but he does not “feel scared going back.”
Bastien added that it may be difficult to balance student opinions when considering how to reopen the classrooms. “It’s a hard problem to navigate,” he said.
While Horton thinks returning to the classroom will be “a little bit of an adjustment,” she said she doesn’t want to “lose the space because (she thinks) that’s giving too much control to the situation.”
“I take comfort in the fact that we, as a community, are taking it back and taking our space back,” she said.
Phidias Brann ’30, a prospective mechanical engineering concentrator who was not at Brown during the shooting, said he had not given much thought to the classrooms’ reopening.
“At the end of the day, I mean, this building is for learning,” he said. “The classrooms aren’t being used for learning, and in my opinion, that’s kind of pointless.”
Professor of Physics and Engineering Gang Xiao said he was “really looking forward” to the classrooms’ reopening.
“Teaching here in this building has been part of my professional life ever since I joined Brown in 1989,” he said.
When he taught in Barus and Holley last semester, the first couple of weeks were “very emotional,” he said. “Even now, every time I go to the classroom, I just keep having this kind of memory of what happened.”
Still, Xiao said he wants to resume his usual teaching routine. “We need to get our life back,” he said. In his classes, he hopes students “can temporarily forget what happened, and … enjoy the beauty of science.”
“It’s a very personal type of feeling,” he said, adding that younger students may have a harder time processing the experience.
Professor of Physics James Valles, who works and currently teaches in Barus and Holley, said “it has not been easy” working in the building.
“Walking past this space that’s been closed off on my way into work, and not being able to go into it after so many years of just routinely moving through that space has been a novel, unpleasant feeling for me,” he said.
According to Valles, traffic in the building has fallen significantly since the shooting.
Following the closure, faculty have been scattered across campus, teaching in spaces including the List Art Building, Friedman Hall and MacMillan Hall. The location changes have limited the informal interactions that came from working in the same building, Valles said.
“You did run into faculty colleagues as you go to and from your classes,” Valles said. “That was always nice.”
Valles said the University “regularly consulted with faculty and staff in physics and engineering” about the renovations and reopening.
Looking ahead to the reopening of the classrooms, Valles said “people are going to react to it in different ways when it happens, and that seems natural.”
“I just hope we’re around for each other when that happens,” he added.
Miriam Davison is a Senior Staff Writer for University News covering Academics & Advising. She is a sophomore from Los Angeles, CA and plans to study tentatively the realm of International & Public Affairs and English, though her interests span from linguistics to history to music. In her free time, she plays on one of Brown's ultimate frisbee teams and likes writing silly poems.
