Communication, planning vital for students’ safety

Related Links

Virginia Commonwealth University Alert System
http://www.vcu.edu/alert/

University of Richmond Active Shooter Procedures
http://alert.richmond.edu/uralert.cfm

J. Sargeant Reynolds Security Guidelines
http://www.jsr.vccs.edu/security/guidelines.htm

Virginia Union University Emergency Plan
http://www.vuu.edu/AboutVUU/EmergencyPlanUpdated.pdf

John Tyler Campus Safety
http://www.jtcc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=147&Itemid=206

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By Sean Collins-Smith
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Published: October 10, 2008

In the past, when selecting a university, safety concerns on campuses took a backseat to sports and prestige. But with the recent series of school shootings—most notably at Virginia Tech—still fresh in people’s memories, the importance for students to feel safe and secure on campus is increasing.

The Richmond area colleges and universities have all revised their security policies after the recent incidents. Virginia Commonwealth University, with almost 32,000 students and 17,000 employees, has installed eight sirens in the major buildings on its two campuses, Monroe Park and MCV.

“The university administration has made a concerted effort to increase safety in our environment,” said Capt. Carlton Edwards, deputy chief of security operations at VCU and director of the VCU Medical Center Safety and Security.

Monthly tests are performed at VCU to increase awareness about the sirens to make sure that all students can hear them. “We do it, so people won’t get complacent in the environment,” said Edwards.

To keep everyone informed, VCU also installed a text messaging alert and an e-mail system as rapid responses, along with almost 300 campus phones that are part of the Emergency Reporting Telephone System.

“In the event of an emergency, texts will tell you what to do exactly for each situation,” said Sgt. Nicole Dailey, security specialist coordinator for the VCU Police.

According to Dailey, VCU has the largest university police force in the state and the third largest in the nation. That is why the text and email system is utilized – there are so many students, faculty, staff, and police officers that the university needs a unifying way to communicate with all of them.

Similar practices are in place at Virginia Union University. With a student population of around 1,500 – 700 of them live on campus – VUU has a smaller number of people to secure in case of an emergency than VCU. But the university still has to lock down 28 buildings in an emergency, something that was brought to light after the Virginia Tech shooting.

“We completely reviewed and revamped our emergency preparedness plan after that,” said Col. Arthur D. Roane, VUU’s chief of police.

According to Roane, the university invested in a text messaging system for the entire student body as well as faculty and staff. It also started to install surveillance cameras in various buildings on campus, and Roane hopes to train residential assistants and other university staff as much as the police officers.

“There are only 12 officers here, plus myself,” said Roane. “We need all the help we can get.”

John Tyler Community College with its two campuses in Chester and Midlothian has a challenge similar to J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, with its three campuses in Richmond, Henrico County and Goochland.

“Everything we can do at one campus, we can do at the other,” said Maj. Mary Savage, security chief at John Tyler.

“We recently got approval from the Virginia Community College System for a mass notification system to send out texts and emails in the event of an emergency,” she said. “We don’t have campus police, but we have a good relationship with Chesterfield County police, and we’ve provided them with emergency response plans for our campuses.”

Other, more centralized universities, like the University of Richmond, have specific online instructions for what to do in case a shooting is reported on campus. Included on their Active Shooter Emergency Plan is a bulleted list of procedures to be followed, along with six possible actions that the student may take if caught in an open area where a shooter is present.

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College spokesperson Malcolm Holmes said in an e-mail interview that the college has “developed and implemented fire prevention training and active shooter training for faculty, staff and students.” In addition, a communications device was purchased to enable campus police to communicate directly with local emergency responders.

Holmes also said that J. Sargeant Reynolds purchased “an emergency notification system that sends alerts to faculty, staff, student cell phones, pagers, Blackberries, PDA’s, and email addresses” in the event of a crisis around campus.