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Ripples from Virginia Tech 03 July 2008 #150
Ripples from Virginia Tech
By Dr Dave McIntyre, Director, Integrative Center for Homeland Security,03 July 2008
On April 16, 2007, a senior at Virginia Tech who had previously been declared mentally ill by a state justice, killed 32 people and injured two dozen more in the deadliest attack by a single gunman in American history. Since then, many universities have made major changes in some areas – and not so much in others. I will tell you more, if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M.
The statistics complied by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact in a recent survey paint an impressive picture of nationwide university concern about another attack like Virginia Tech. [1] Three hundred and thirty-one schools responded – mostly from the Midwest and South, to include a mixture of two year and four year institutions, both public and private. An overwhelming majority – 87% -- said a committee or task force had re-evaluated their policies in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Their priorities in these safety audits tell an interesting story.
o 95% have examined or revised their emergency notification system. And one interesting discovery is that most students have largely abandoned telephones and even cell phones as the preferred means of communication. Text rather than voice is the way to reach them.
o 89% considered new security restrictions on campus facilities – although there is a real tension here, between providing safety in the unlikely event of attack, and maintaining the open flow of people and ideas that marks a university.
o 88% have relooked the operation of their campus police. This is the area that showed the greatest variation between schools, with some possessing entire police departments with special weapons and training, while others still use un-armed part time personnel.
o Interestingly, given the origin of the Virginia Tech incident, only a bit above 2/3 of schools relooked policies related to student mental health. And only one quarter added staff to address new security duties.
These last two points repeat a story seen over and over in the field of homeland security. Dangerous events are met by reorganization, restrictions on all people, and new expenditures for alert and law enforcement equipment. But targeting likely perpetrators, and adding full time staff – measures that could have a big payoff in prevention – are really hard to implement.
On July 9th, Val Davis, the emergency manager for the University of California at Davis, will visit the campus of Texas A&M to provide a summary of lessons learned by campuses around the United States. You can hear a July 1st interview with her on this subject at http://hlsinsideandout.org , and you can learn about her upcoming visit at http://homelandsecurity.tamu.edu.
This is Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week on Just a Minute, for Homeland Security.
[1] Chris Rassmussen and Gina Johnson, “The Ripple Effect of Virginia Tech: Assessing the Nationwide Impact on Campus Safety and Security Policy and Practice,” Minneapolis, MN: Midwestern Higher Education Compact, May 31, 2008. http://www.mhec.org/policyresearch/052308mhecsafetyrpt_lr.pdf