Archive A memorial for the the slain students and faculty stands on Viginia Tech's campus. On April 16, 2007, a guman shot 32 people and then turned the gun on himself. Many blame the deaths on an ineffective alert system.

It took nearly two hours before the first e-mail warning reached Virginia Tech students on April 16, 2007.

By then, a second round of shootings was taking place. The aftermath left 33 people, including the gunman, dead and raised serious concerns about how college campuses nationwide handle emergencies.

A year later, new initiatives are in place at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., including emergency text message alerts, e-mail alerts, surveillance cameras and electronic banners in classrooms.

“Every university and college across the nation paused and looked at how prepared their institution was and how they would react in that situation,” said Felicia Lee, vice president of student affairs and chair of the crisis management team at Trinity University.

Trinity adopted similar programs into its university emergency plan. TrinAlert sends text message alerts to students who voluntarily submit their numbers to the program. Additionally, an internal voice protocol telecom system delivers emergency information via the Internet.

 “Students know of the communication resources, and we encourage self-preparation,” Lee said. Trinity's crisis management team comprises various staff and faculty who are appointed to the position because of their areas of expertise.

The team also proposes what it deems are necessary updates to the plan.

“We are very confident about the procedures; however, we will still continue to make adoptions to the plans we have in place,” Lee said.

The University of Texas at San Antonio has both a text-messaging system and a reverse 911 systems in place for emergencies. Before the Virginia Tech events, safety groups at UTSA researched various alert programs in addition to a public announcement system.

“We are a public campus, and we try to foster an open community, but we are still proactive about our safety and our officers always seek the help of the students,” said David Gabler, assistant vice president for university communications.

 San Antonio College, Our Lady of the Lake University, St. Mary's University and the University of the Incarnate Word are all in the process of updating their campus emergency plans. At SAC, the plan covers a variety of possibilities including weather, hazardous waste and bomb threats.
 “We are making adjustments to how we help students with disabilities and different aspects of our response and notification procedures,” said John Hammond, director of public relations at SAC. The campus delivers most of its emergency information via maps, drills and information spread throughout the campus.

At OLLU, administrators are weighing various options, including the text message alert system.
“Some issues with the text message system is that based on the provider, it can take students anywhere from five to 30 minutes to receive the message,” said Jack Hank, vice president of student life. The university currently has a chain-of-command system in which campus police are the first response to an incident, followed by the San Antonio Police Department. Hank and other administrators would make the call to cancel classes or warn students to find safety on campus.
“We continue to evaluate the technologies available,” Hank said.

St. Mary's took a hands-on approach and passed out information cards to students, faculty and staff that detail ways to access information in the event of an emergency. The university also plans to create a  hotline for emergency information.

Incarnate Word is taking similar steps to ensure that “what we do makes sense. We don't want a reactionary plan,” said Lou Fox, special assistant to the president.

Along with technological alerts, the university also is considering placing dead bolts on classroom doors. UIW contacted MDI Security Systems to further examine the campus and evaluate the safety concerns in each building.

Though each university has different strategies, all expressed the hope events such as those at Virginia Tech and other universities would never happen on their campus.

“There is a challenge to find the best way to communicate with the students. ..... All we can do is be prepared,” Hank said.

Jenina E. Hernandez | 210SA