Debates on whether to arm campus police, purchase new technology
CAMPUS SECURITY HAS COME under unprecedented scrutiny since the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in mid-April. People want answers about what went wrong and they want assurances that education officials and lawmakers are taking steps to ensure that this type of tragedy doesn't happen again.
Steven Healy, president of the 1,200-member International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, tried to provide some. Healy, who is also public safety director for Princeton, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in late April that better training for campus security and risk analysis should be on the agenda.
"Rampage shooters, which have always represented a potential threat, now move to the top of the list," Healy told the subcommittee.
Understandably, Virginia's lawmakers led the charge among state officials in reviewing campus security practices. Immediately following the shootings, members of the House and Senate proposed spending $250,000 on an emergency text-messaging service for the state's 29 public colleges and universities. Other proposed money would be used on antiviolence programs.
A few states, too, responded to the shootings. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) signed an executive order to study security on the state's 11 public higher ed campuses. The chancellor of Florida's university system, Mark Rosenberg, asked the state legislature for $1.5 million to pay for emergency alert systems that can send text messages to students in times of emergency. At press time, lawmakers in South Carolina were considering legislation that would allow adults to carry concealed weapons on public school campuses. Currently only Utah allows concealed weapons on campuses. Proponents argue that such laws would allow for better self-defense, but detractors worry about inciting more violence on campus.
SOUND BITE Lots of things that were seen as acceptable three months ago are no longer regarded that way. -Terry W. Hartle, senior VP, American Council on Education, on student loan scandals.
Colleges in other states have revisited the idea of at least arming their campus police forces. The University of Hawaii will be doing this. Students at Suffolk University (Mass.) circulated a petition asking that the campus police department be armed. IHEs from coast to coast also are considering technology upgrades. Healy has urged the consideration of emergency mass notification systems that can send text alerts and email messages. Many of these systems can also provide RSS feeds to university websites. -Jean Marie Angelo
Still Considering Virginia Tech
AS VIRGINIA TECH HAS BEEN RECEIVING "YEA" or "nay" responses from the 12,848 offers of admission mailed out on April 1, the campus tragedy that occurred 15 days later seems not to have discouraged high school seniors from choosing to attend the university.
At press time, Virginia Tech had received deposits from 5,215 freshman students, slightly more than the enrollment target of 5,000 set for the class of 2011, according to a media release. The freshman class comes from an applicant pool of 19,579 the largest application pool in the university's history. Virginia Tech did not draw from its wait list of 1,441 applicants.
Last year, 5,185 freshman deposits were received at this time. As it was this year, the freshman enrollment target was 5,000.
Less than five students turned down their acceptance letters because of the tragic events of April 16, according to Mark Owczarski, director of News and Information. Hundreds of parents have called to explain that even though their children chose not to attend Virginia Tech, the massacre in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and then turned a gun on himself was not the reason, he adds.
Empathy has accompanied explanations, says Owczarski. "There has been a tremendous outpouring of support [from people who] have decided not to come," he says.
Though the shootings may have had some parents thinking about having their children attend colleges that are closer to home, Mary Lee Hoganson, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, says that the majority of them look at the recent shootings as an anomaly. -Michele Herrmann
