Two violent incidents this week—an active shooter attack at Brown University and the fatal shooting of an MIT professor at his Brookline home—have compounded concerns about campus and researcher safety, police reports and university statements show. Brown’s suspect remained at large as law enforcement released video and offered rewards; multiple students were hospitalized. Separately, MIT officials confirmed the death of plasma‑physics researcher Nuno Loureiro and opened a homicide investigation. Campus leaders face immediate operational questions: shelter‑in‑place protocols, mental‑health supports, communications with families and coordination with local and federal law enforcement. Higher education administrators should reassess crisis playbooks, mutual‑aid agreements and research‑laboratory security planning as institutions enter a sustained period of heightened threat response.