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Ed Yeates reportingThe Illinois shooting is following all too closely to the one at Virginia Tech, and it's focusing attention again on campus security across the country, including here in Utah.
Like many other campuses, the University of Utah is reviewing and implementing measures to both prevent and secure potential problems.
At the University of Utah, new techniques for communication will allow multiple agencies, on and off campus, and the families of students to be notified instantly when an emergency occurs.
The university has also extended crisis management and a preventive outreach program hoping to identify students in three different categories who might need help or intervention. Are they troubling, disrupting or threatening? On the lowest rung, when a student is troubled, perhaps it begins as a financial issue, or a death in the family, perhaps bad grades or social isolation. Lori McDonald, associate dean of students at the University of Utah, says, "We want to reach out to those students and see what's going on in their lives right now. Do they need any assistance with something? Can we help?"
At Salt Lake's Community College, 550 inside locks on all classroom doors will be installed by the end of this month.
Most are already in place, allowing professors to key lock the door from the inside of the classroom should trouble be brewing outside. "There will be policies in place whereby, through training, faculty will be given specific instructions on when it is appropriate to use it, how to use it, and what to do in case of an emergency," says Salt Lake Community Vice President Mason Bishop.
Salt Lake Comity College is also implementing new communication technologies, similar to the University of Utah, where faculty, students, staff, and anyone on campus can talk to someone immediately. Mason says, "We can alert people through their BlackBerrys, through text messaging, through their e-mails, and that's a big procedure we're undertaking right now."
While you can't completely stop everything that might happen, local campuses want to try and minimize the threats by intervening early.
