Memorial Resolution for Officer Sean Collier

Officer Sean Collier

The following resolution was presented by Faculty Chair Sam Allen at the May 16 Institute faculty meeting.

On the evening of Thursday, April 18 MIT suffered a tragedy, as Officer Sean Collier of the MIT Police Department was shot and killed in his vehicle outside the Stata Center. He was only 27 years old.

In the weeks since the shooting, members of our community who knew and worked with Officer Collier have spoken eloquently about his integrity, kindness, and commitment to law enforcement. We came together during a beautiful and heartfelt ceremony on April 24 to remember Officer Collier and to begin to heal as a community.

I have been struck by the outpouring of love and support the MIT community and the entire nation has shown for the officer, his family, and the MIT Police Department. In the aftermath of the shooting, the MITPD created a web page on which comments honoring Officer Collier have been posted. A few in particular caught my attention: The parents of a current MIT undergraduate wrote, “Dear family, words cannot express our gratitude for Sean’s service or our heartbreak for your loss. Your son protected our son. Sean will stay forever in our thoughts and prayers for his bravery and sacrifice. Blessings and love to your family.” An MIT staff member wrote, “Thank you, Officer Collier, and thank you to all of your fellow MIT law enforcement officers for putting your lives on the line for us each day. Because of you all I am able to come to work each day, knowing I am protected, knowing you are looking out for me, for all of us.”

I did not have the opportunity to meet Officer Collier, but I have been touched by the accounts I have read and heard of this young man’s commitment to MIT and to his community. He was active in the Police Department’s IT operations, the MIT Outing Club, and the Jimmy Fund. As others have noted, MIT was not simply Officer Collier’s employer: it was his home.

We as a faculty are as grateful to Officer Sean Collier for his outstanding service and dedication as we are to the entire MIT Police Department, whose contributions can on occasion be overlooked, but not overstated. Your work allows us to do our work; as “One MIT,” we are in this together, supporting MIT’s mission of serving the nation and the world.

Be it resolved that the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at its meeting of May 15, 2013, record our profound sense of loss on the death of Officer Sean Collier, and that we express our deepest sympathy to his family and to the MIT Police Department.

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