Easing campus insecurity

New safety precautions will greet college students returning to some campuses this fall — part of the legacy of the Virginia Tech massacre in April.

Sirens to warn of emergencies, text-message alert systems, committees to monitor questionable student behavior and anonymous-tip lines are all tools some schools are implementing to better protect students.

Today, Virginia Tech will dedicate a memorial to the 32 victims fatally shot by a fellow student who then killed himself during a campus rampage. In the immediate aftermath of the killings, many college officials and state leaders raced to review policies and procedures to look for any safety gaps or shortcomings.

They’ve found as many questions as answers.

“Virginia Tech caused everybody to really take a step back and evaluate strategically,” said Stephen G. Shelow, director of the Penn State University police.

Anecdotal stories show some behavioral changes — attendance at national campus-safety conferences increased, and parents have become more focused on student safety during school orientations.

Federally, a Senate-passed bill to renew the Higher Education Act includes a new grant program to help campuses develop and improve safety and emergency-response plans. The House in June passed a gun law designed to keep mentally ill persons from illegally purchasing firearms. And a panel of federal agencies in June completed a report that examined several topics related to the tragedy, including communication and mental health services.

Several broad state and school reviews — of safety programs, mental health policies and other pieces of the puzzle — are ongoing.

One of those is a task force created by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to review the Virginia Tech incident in detail and issue specific recommendations. A report is forthcoming. In the meantime, the governor held a campus-safety summit last week for Virginia’s public and private colleges.

Paul Dillon, spokesman for the University of Maryland Department of Public Safety, said the school has a good safety program but, like other schools, is constantly trying to improve it.

Its Department of Public Safety includes about 80 to 100 trained police officers along with several key safety tools, including a threat-assessment system and campus cameras monitored around the clock.

“We’re never set,” Mr. Dillon said.

Spreading the word

Regardless of campus size or location, getting in touch with students, parents and faculty during a crisis is crucial to any alert system.

“Any time a tragedy occurs, you learn things. We learned a lot of kids aren’t using the phones in their [dorm] rooms anymore; they’re a cell [phone] community,” said Ray Thrower, director of safety at Gustavus Adolphus College and president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA).

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