Elvy, a Labrador retriever and member of Brown’s Department of Public Safety, has left College Hill for Mount Pleasant.
Her departure to Rhode Island College was announced in a Today@Brown messaged by Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman. Her handler, Campus Police Officer Dustin Coleman, also left for RIC.
“We will greatly miss her presence at Brown,” Chatman wrote in the announcement.
Elvy arrived at Brown via a program called Puppies Behind Bars, which trains incarcerated individuals to raise service dogs that are deployed across a range of institutions. Chatman said he became interested in the program while looking for ways to diversify the services offered by the Department of Public Safety to include mental and emotional health.
As Chatman was reading up on comfort dog programs, Coleman expressed interest in adopting one.
The result was a success. Students, staff and faculty alike “would stop what they were doing and run over to greet Officer Coleman and Elvy” when they made appearances on the Main Green, he said.
“Whenever I did see (Elvy), it was super nice and I really enjoyed it,” Abria Hamberg ’25 said. “I have a dog at home so, you know, withdrawal.”
Hamberg used to sell tickets for the athletics program and would often run into Elvy and Coleman while at games.
“I know not every student likes dogs, but it’s just a nice thing to have,” she said. “I don’t know if it fosters any kind of campus unity, but to me it felt like it did. Everyone seems to love Elvy.”
Annie Ye ’26 echoed Hamberg’s sentiment, adding that she and her friends are “all big fans” of Elvy. “I first saw her walking through the halls in my dorm freshman year. I thought she was really funny, really cute,” Ye said.
Both Hamberg and Ye expressed hope that DPS would continue its comfort animal program by finding a successor to Elvy. Chatman confirmed that the department is “moving forward with the acquisition of a new dog,” but said the process may take some time.
Maya Nelson is a senior staff writer covering undergraduate student life. She’s interested in studying either English or Literary Arts and loves to read sci-fi and fantasy in her free time. She also enjoys playing guitar, crocheting and spending an unreasonable amount of time on NYT Spelling Bee.
