Area colleges, universities talk about campus security

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[April 09, 2008]

Area colleges, universities talk about campus security

(The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 9--NORMAL -- In hopes of preventing another campus shooting, Central Illinois colleges and universities, like their peers across the United States, are trying to do a better job of identifying and helping troubled students and organizing emergency response plans.

Illinois State University in Normal, which created its own Behavioral Intervention Team last summer, will host a regional seminar Thursday and Friday for its student affairs staff, crisis responders and university police. The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management's Behavior Intervention and Threat Assessment Institute is sending experts to lead sessions at the two-day event.

The talks will cover information sharing, aggression management and mental health intervention techniques.

Some ISU administrators had been meeting informally about campus security and related topics for several years -- long before the shootings Feb. 14 at Northern Illinois University and last year at Virginia Tech, said Brent Paterson, ISU student affairs associate vice president.

But the Virginia Tech incident led to the creation last summer of ISU's Behavioral Intervention Team, which works to recognize unhealthy or dangerous behavior on the Normal campus. The goal is to help with students with such problems before a crisis develops while remaining true to privacy and confidentiality rules.

"One part was that we wanted to help students who are acting out in different ways connect to student resources," he said.

The team, including representatives from dorm life, academics, counseling, mental health and police, also produces a regular update for key personnel about "students on our radar," he said.

Connecting different areas of campus and sharing information and resources are essential for safety, experts said.

"If you look back at the Virginia Tech situation, the aftermath, there were several people who knew that student (gunman Seung-Hui Cho) had problems, but because of privacy and different issues, they didn't talk to others about it," said Lee Todd, president of University of Kentucky, a campus which now has top administrators meet weekly regarding "students of concern."

High schools have been doing this sort of thing for years because of shootings, but only since Virginia Tech, when Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide, have colleges begun to follow suit, said Mike Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International, a leading campus safety firm.

Nearly all Central Illinois campuses, for example, now have some emergency communication system in place that uses phone messages or e-mail to reach employees and students.

At Illinois Wesleyan University, campus leaders felt they had a good plan in place already, said Kathy Cavins, vice president of student affairs for the Bloomington campus. "But after NIU and Virginia Tech, we assessed our plan. If we had a threat, what would we do?"

In November, IWU hired a security company to study the campus and recommend any improvements.

While ISU and IWU have on-campus counseling centers, the smaller Eureka College contracts for counseling services from within the community. Eureka's residential housing staff and other college faculty and staff members have training to watch for possible dangers.

"All the schools are doing different things. But everyone is trying to find safety improvements and to see what works best for their campuses," said Ken Baxter, Eureka dean of students.

Still, Baxter says there is no fool-proof way to secure a campus.

"The guy at Northern, from what I read, was a model citizen and didn't really show any signs of a possible threat," he said.

On Feb. 14, former NIU student Steven Kazmierczak fired a shotgun and two handguns at students in a lecture hall in Cole Hall at NIU, killing five students and wounding 18 others before killing himself.

At Lincoln College, officials started an electronic notification system for staff following Virginia Tech, said college spokeswoman Jean Ann Miller. But after the NIU case, Lincoln College President John Hutchinson convened an all-staff/all-faculty meeting to discuss emergency preparedness, she said.

Miller agreed with others in the area that while Virginia Tech's shootings shocked everyone, it was the NIU episode that made people realize a tragedy could happen here too.

"It was like that's terrible, but that will never happen here. Northern was different. It changed the landscape," she said.

Heartland Community College in Normal is a nonresidential campus, but security also is visible there. At the start of each semester, instructors explain to all students how to handle any perceived threat, said college spokeswoman Janet Hill-Getz.

Heartland students also have access to trained help through the coordinator of personal development services. That area can confidentially refer Heartland students to area resources, she said.

At the state level, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich created a statewide campus security task force shortly after Virginia Tech. The group had nearly completed its report in February, but regrouped to interview NIU officials and see if any lessons could come from that.

The state report comes out this month.

Last week, leaders of the task force addressed the Illinois Board of Higher Education meeting at ISU. Some of the panel's findings include: a significant increase of college students being prescribed psychotropic drugs; the lack of on-campus counseling centers at many colleges and universities; a need among universities to adopt emergency communication procedures; and the need for campuses to seek legal advice on privacy laws.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CAMPUS SECURITY: On April 16, Virginia Tech will mark the one-year anniversary of a shooting massacre on its campus. Shortly after that tragedy, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich created a statewide campus security task force. The group's report, covering findings based on data from nearly 90 Illinois colleges and universities, will be released later this month.

Last week, leaders of the task force met at Illinois State University in Normal to discuss the group's findings. Three committees examined different aspects of security threat assessment and provided several findings and recommendations.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS:

Campuses should:

-- Develop and emergency notification system using voice mail, text messages and e-mail together to reach students and employees.

-- Train students, faculty and staff to know meanings behind different warning systems (such as sirens).

-- Have campus police and security officers identify risks on campus and work with off-campus agencies to develop an all-hazards plan in place. Work with other agencies off-campus to make plan.

Legal issues

-- Illinois attorney general's office staff found a myth exists on campus that information can't be exchanged regarding student concerns. Better training is needed to understand exceptions to privacy rules.

-- Each campus should have a primary point to take in concerns about harmful or potentially dangerous students.

-- Consequences of violent behavior or weapons possession need to be clearly defined in student codes.

Mental health services

-- In past 20 years, there has been a high increase in diagnosable mental health issues. For example, in 1994, 9 percent of Illinois students took prescription psychotropic drugs, by 2006 that figure was closer to 25 percent.

-- The traditional college age range -- 18 to 24 -- also is the same age range when many serious mental issues emerge.

-- The committee recommends more counseling centers on campuses. More than half of campuses surveyed did not have on-site centers.

-- More education and awareness training is needed for campus staffs to recognize signs of mental illness. Campus environment shouldn't stigmatize or penalize students seeking help.

-- Campuses should have a well-known zero-tolerance policy for violence in which students are held accountable. Campuses should work to reduce isolation and promote peer activities.

SOURCES: Mike Chamness, Illinois Terrorism Task Force chairman; Jennifer Welch, Illinois Attorney General's office policy director; Lorrie Rickman-Jones, director of mental health, Illinois Department of Human Services.

To see more of The Pantagraph, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pantagraph.com

Copyright (c) 2008, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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