Brown says Barus and Holley classrooms closed since the Dec. 13 shooting will reopen in summer 2027

As of 5:27 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026

Brown University said Tuesday that the Barus and Holley classrooms, closed since the shooting on campus on Dec. 13, 2025, will reopen in summer 2027, after Commencement, following a full renovation.

"We have confirmed a schedule for the project with a delivery date of the Barus and Holley classrooms for Summer 2027, following Commencement," Russell C. Carey, Brown's executive vice president for planning and policy, wrote in an announcement to the campus on Today@Brown. The rooms will be available for Summer Session and Pre-College courses and programs in summer 2027, and for the 2027-28 academic year, he said.

Brown had previously aimed to make the rooms available during the current academic year, Carey wrote. In a May letter, President Christina H. Paxson said the goal was to have them ready for use in the middle of the 2026-27 academic year, while scheduling courses on the assumption the spaces would not be available.

Why the timeline moved

Carey said the project team developed a more refined schedule "informed by the complications of renovating a set of spaces of this age and scale in an active teaching and research building such as Barus and Holley." He said Brown also needed "to responsibly manage the construction budget and prioritize resources to the classroom program rather than, for example, night and weekend work to make an arbitrary schedule date."

The ongoing work of the Committee on the December 13 Memorial has also continued to "affirm the importance of taking time and care in the re-entry to these spaces for teaching, learning and events," Carey wrote.

What will change

The space is being renovated "to look and feel very different," with small recesses of social space, more natural light and new furniture and technology, Carey wrote. "Strong support resources will be in place when use resumes," he said, similar to what Brown provided when other parts of the engineering and physics complex reopened in January.

The shooting killed two students, WJAR reported. Courses and final exams for both semesters of this academic year have been scheduled on the assumption that the rooms will not be available, according to Carey.

What is not known

Brown did not give a specific reopening date or the cost of the renovation.