The day after the Dec. 13 mass shooting, a group of current and former Brown students launched a mutual aid fund for workers on Brown’s campus who were impacted by the shooting. Since then, the fund has raised over $21,000, providing aid to 48 employees, according to the organizers.
The fund aimed to cover unexpected costs in the wake of the shooting, including lost wages and sick hours. Employees were able to submit funding requests through a Google Form, Kenneth Kalu ’27, an organizer of the fund, wrote in a message to The Herald.
The funds were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Jo Ouyang ’26, one of the fund’s co-organizers. “In mutual aid organizing, we do not believe we should be categorizing people by priority or deciding who is deserving of aid,” they wrote in a message to The Herald.
Rosa Gonzalez, a cashier at the Sharpe Refectory who received funds from the mutual aid, called the process “really easy.”
The day after she submitted the form, Gonzalez received texts asking if she needed additional support, such as transportation or therapist recommendations. “It was really nice,” she added.
Gonzalez, who was working at the Ratty when the campus was on lockdown, said she was “a little bit too anxious” to stay at work on the day after the shooting, so she decided to go home early and take two days off later in the week.
Gonzalez said she had to use sick leave to take time off work — her last two sick days until May, she added.
Following the Dec. 13 shooting, the University did not make a formal change requiring only essential personnel to work, University spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Any employee, whether in an essential position or not, either worked a regular schedule or used one of the many paid time off options available to them,” Clark wrote.
The Ratty was the only dining hall to open the day after the shooting. Staff across all dining halls who were scheduled to work were required to report to the Ratty, Lauren Albanese, a cook at Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, said in an interview with The Herald.
Albanese was not on campus during the Saturday shooting but went to work the following Monday.
“It was just very overwhelming to be there with so many people, and for so many people to pretend like nothing happened,” Albanese said. “It was just too strange for me.”
After speaking to a counselor, Albanese decided to go home early. She ultimately did not submit a request to the mutual aid fund.
“I wasn’t there when it happened,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was impacted enough to take part in that, while there’s other people who are more deserving of it, who were actually there.”
Timothy Hilliard, a food service worker at the Ratty, was working during the shooting and returned to work the next day. He requested funds — which he received “within a week” — and used the money to help pay his rent, he said in an interview with The Herald.
Hilliard said he thought that the idea for a mutual aid fund was “amazing,” adding that he and his coworkers “didn’t think it was real” until the organizers contacted those who requested funds.
The organizers are grateful “for the trust the workers put in us to coordinate this fund,” Ouyang wrote. “The dining service, facilities, librarians and other workers are the backbone of our community.”
James Libresco is a senior staff writer covering staff and student labor.
Emily Feil is a university news and metro editor covering staff & student labor and RISD. She is a sophomore from Long Beach, NY, studying English and international & public affairs. In her free time, she can be found watching bad TV and reading good books.
