Rethinking Campus Security

Even Before The Virginia Tech Massacre, Officials Planned New Measures To Keep Students Safe

(CBS)  Ringing bells — that is supposed to be the signature sound of a college campus. It has been shattered today by gunfire, as it has been on or near a dozen other campuses in the past year and a half, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

"This is very difficult, because it is an open society and open campus," said Charles Steger, Virginia Tech's president. "The best thing we can do is report what people are suspicious but we can't have armed guard in front of every class every day."

Even before the shooting at Virginia Tech, administrators across at colleges across the country were being forced to rethink security. And at many schools, they're starting with the students themselves.

For the first time this year, the Common Application, an admissions form used by some 300 colleges, asks potential students whether they've been convicted of a crime or have been disciplined at school. The idea: is to weed out the bad seeds before they disappear into the student body.

"Crime and campus security was one reason some of our members asked that we add a discipline question. Liability concerns was another reason," said Rob Killion, executive director of the Common Application.

Critics say screening students does little more than limit access to higher education to kids with a rocky past, but after today…

"I think it may be harder to make the argument that you shouldn't be asking that question anymore," said Killion.

Still, it does nothing to protect a wide open campus from an outside threat. At the University of North Texas, campus police are trained just like a big city force.

"We have a critical response team on campus which is very similar to a swat team," said Ed Reynolds, deputy police chief at the University of North Texas.

Perhaps just as good as reaching students quickly, would be warning students quickly. A handful of companies, like e2Campus, now offer instant messaging services, where with the click of a mouse a campus administrator could alert students on their cell phones or PDAs within minutes.

Nearly two dozen schools have signed up in the last six months.

"As you well can imagine, anyone receiving a sensational message like this would have told everybody within earshot and taken the appropriate action," said Nick Gustavsson of e2Campus.

The cost — about a dollar per student per year — is a bargain when you consider it might buy students enough time to get out of the line of fire.

[morgan101us]

There are systems that can alert 25,000 at once via sms or text messages. www.campusalert.net

I am sure these systems could be set-up at campuses all of the U.S.

[charlesdjohn]

There is an old saying that goes something like this, %u201CGod made men, but Sam Colt made men equal.%u201D

Allow me to translate this for the left wing gun ban crowd...

Psycho's are a fact of life. They have existed on the planet for as long as man has existed! They prefer to assault smaller more helpless individuals who they perceive as the lesser threat to their aggression.

Therefore it is the right, the duty, of citizens to own and bear arms that gives peace loving normal seemingly helpless individuals the ability to protect themselves and their families in times of dire need.

The well armed, overly well fed law enforcement officers usually, as in this instance, show up after the fact.

I even watched a video shot with a student cell phone which clearly showed police officers with firearms and body armor standing just outside the building doing nothing while you could clearly hear the gunman inside the building killing people.

You bet on the police, I am betting on my 1911...

[booyaw_77]

Cameras make people paranoid.

[lisagoddard]

Having every student "pack" a gun is not the solution. Having every student have a "badge" that they would need to "swipe" to gain access to their dorm, building where there classes are held, etc. would be more beneficial. Also installing security cameras would be good. Doing background checks on foreigners would be difficult. Install the "badge" system. And if any student is having "difficulty" not only send to counselor but "delete" their access until satisfactory results from counseling session(s).

[tucano2]

It seems obvious we need a legal requirement that all American Citizens age 18 and up carry a concealed pistol or revolver. In the VaTech matter perhaps there would have been only the shooter's death from 32 bullets.

[bgj1552]

No a pyscho prevailed,ask anyone in the military or law enforcement how to stop this.
Answer- luck

[bizzzz-2009]

To bgj1552
The cameras cost could be part of the tuition expense, not an expense paid by the town. Did your hang-wringing, common sense prevail yesterday?

[bizzzz-2009]

The Common Application mentioned in this article would make sense if the students told the truth about having a criminal past. The problem is most criminals aren't truthful.
Plus, how are you going to run a background on someone from South Korea?
Those student visas are great aren't they? This country already outsources it's manufacturing, telecom, manual labor, etc. Why not bring in our psychopaths from overseas as well?

[bgj1552]

You're talking about securing a small town.And which of the 100 bldg's should have security cameras.
Yes this is tragic but use some common sense

[lisagoddard]

I think adding the liability question is a good thing. But what about an alarm system. We have alarms to alert us when a tornado has been spotted. Why not the same type of signal (with a different alert sound) to alert a college campus of a "lockdown"?

[kenbest3]

What missing was the heroic off-duty cop
who saved a lot of people in the recent mall shooting.

Cops should be jumping in the building, shouting,
screaming, firing warning shots to divert the gunman attention toward themselves.
Instead they just hide behind a tree. And that
big beer belly is not helping.

SWAT team is for show. By the time they put on uniform, bullet-proof vests, the shooting is over.

[kinich74]

I visited last year a campus in Mexico, the Monterrey Tech in a very large city that recently has been on the news because of recent violence, it had very tight security. The campus was walled and closed to outsiders and not only were I.D.s required to go in but to actually go from one part of the campus to another, a building devoted exclusively to Communications is off limits to Engineering students and so on.
Then I visited a school in Merida, a city that has literally no crime rate even at the US level, despite the fact its one million large, anyway I visited both the State U. and a private university, the Universidad del Mayab, also closed campus, in the later an ID is required and visitors are watched closely by security, in the other there is no central campus, but each campus (School of Engineering, School of Medicine, etc) has superstrict watch, the School of Medicine had even a trained sniffing dog.
And this came from a third world country where many of the same students of the schools I saw would gladly come over if they could. Honestly were not in the 1950s anymore, we need to take action.

[samthetvcat]

The campus 'police' when I went to college didn't even carry guns. Not sure if this is correct, but I thought I heard on one news report that 911 calls made on campus get rerouted to these campus 'police'. Even if these campus 'police' carry real guns and stuff, it seems like a shooting would probably be WAY out of their league. Perhaps 911 type emergencies ought to remain within the jurisdiction of the local police on all campuses if they aren't already . . .

[wiredwilly]

You don't need more security, you need less insane people.