UW–Madison focuses on safety post-Va. Tech

It's been almost one year since Seung-Hui Cho went on an April 16, 2007, rampage on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., killing 33 students and staff and wounding 26 others.

At UW-Madison, students grieved with a candlelight vigil, a listening session, a bell ringing ceremony and a large white sign bearing condolence messages on Bascom Hill.

For campus administrators, reminders of the tragedy are everywhere. The seismic impact of the event, magnified by more recent shooting events at Louisiana Technical College and Northern Illinois — and even the April 2 murder of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann — amplify the focus on safety and security.

"The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a watershed moment for all of us in higher education and the nation," says Chief Susan Riseling of the University of Wisconsin Police Department (UWPD), author of the UW System President's Report on Campus Safety. "Much like Columbine, it shocks us to believe someone is capable of such senseless violence.

"We have made significant strides in detection, prevention, warnings [and] response capabilities in the last year," she adds. "Each incident that has followed we have used to continually improve our efforts."

Numerous campus units have reviewed and revised their operations to protect the campus community from a similar event. However, it is also important to remember that there are no guarantees, and even the best planning can be ineffective against someone determined to cause violence.

The most important area noted in Riseling's report deals with prevention: the idea that the best response to any threat is to prevent it from ever coming to fruition. One of the best ways to learn of and prevent a threat is through extensive communication among administrators and to and from members of the campus community.

On other campuses, there have typically been "red flags" of troubling behavior that preceded a violent act. With Cho at Virginia Tech, several campus units there were independently aware of red flags, but information was not shared in an effective way.

"When it comes to preventing violence, we encourage the reporting of troubled or disruptive people through the channels able to assist the person," says Karen Soley, UWPD captain for field services. "The important message is to share information."

The idea is to get a troubled individual the resources and support he or she needs to be successful, and in some cases, make a informed assessment of their behaviors.

The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which covers student educational records, does not extend to observable behavior a student may display in class or elsewhere and should not be an impediment to coordination among instructors, administrators and police, Soley says.

She encourages everyone to be aware of the signs of a person in crisis who might be displaying behaviors that could include chronic depression or mood swings, perceptions of injustice, isolating behavior or hostility or frequent allusions to violence.