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The tragedy at Virginia Tech was shocking in its brutality. But even as we stood stunned, absorbed by our grief, those of us in security and school positions across the country knew that our individual skirmishes in the war on terror had just reached new intensity.  And, once again, as we have so many times in recent years, we were going to need to rethink and reframe everything we thought we knew about protecting people, buildings, and information.

As Dot and I offer the following thoughts on how other colleges and universities could use the lessons of Virginia Tech to limit risk, our intent isn’t to second guess decisions made in the heat of the moment, but rather to consider what could be done differently now, in light of the information provided by this tragic lesson and others like it.

Streamline decision making. Working with police, administrators took about two hours to assess the risk, determine that a general alert should be issued, craft a message, and decide how to deliver it. In hindsight, some consider this to be too long. Art Botterell, a disaster technology specialist, was quoted as saying “There is always the question of what kind of capability you have, but the part of the process that is hardest is the decision making.” We wonder whether VT lacked clearly defined, documented processes. But so that we aren’t too harsh in our judgment, we should consider the logistics involved and how challenging it would be to shut down that particular campus. The school has 25,000 students in more than 100 buildings, across 2,600 acres. It’s as big as a medium-sized city. If there was a perceived domestic violence shooting, would you expect a whole city to go into lockdown? Probably not. But should a school? The answer used to be no.

Consider best use of technology. Once authorities decided to issue an alert, there was another delay before the students actually received the message because of how the message was communicated. The alert was sent to the students’ college email accounts. In hindsight, this practice had two flaws. First, many students don’t use their campus email address. Second, the current generation of college students doesn’t really rely on email in general. (In fact, way back in 2005, the Pew Internet and American Life study found that young people viewed email as a tool to communicate with old people or for formal communication.) Meanwhile, students were communicating with each other using every immediate communication tool available including cell phones, text messaging on cell phones, IM, and online journals (blogs).

Thankfully, some relatively new tools will help other schools reach students more quickly. In fact, some schools were already in the process of implementing alert systems that allow a school to text message the students' cell phones, using technology that was inspired by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. While these tools are amazing (and relatively inexpensive at less than $1 per student for even small schools), they still have their limitations. Most alerting tools seem to push information in only one direction, from the administration to the students, but don’t allow the students to send information back. How valuable would it have been for officials to have text messages and maybe even pictures, providing details about the shooter’s whereabouts or about those injured? Standard 911 systems seem slow and cumbersome in comparison. Various emergency agencies around the country have already commissioned big money toward the development of these next generation interactive tools.

Meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley recently took the first step to move from one-way alerts to interactive emergency communication, launching a site called People Locator . The site will allow individuals to enter emergency information including the location and status of students and staff members, and the information can be viewed by family members, friends, and other members of the public. I went to the site to check it out. While the approach is a step in the right direction, I’m not quite sure that the site has enough relevance yet to compel students to use it. I wonder if the project is moving toward an emergency wiki where community members could share information with each other or with authorities as an event unfolded. [What’s a wiki? It’s a wildly collaborative, constantly updated, web-based form of documentation. Learn more in Dot’s post, Organic documentation for organic software.]

Establish a permanent web page for official security information. In passing, I want to note that UC Berkeley also has established a permanent Emergency Home page, as a placeholder where official information will be posted during an emergency. Most schools don’t take this step, which puts students and parents at a disadvantage when an emergency does occur.

Consider whether to allow anonymous tips. From what we have seen on college websites and heard from students at about a half dozen campuses, most schools have not implemented an anonymous tip line where students or staff could report concerns about violence (or, if such a tip line does exist, it isn’t publicized). This is curious because school security experts so widely recommend a highly accessible, anonymous system. We have two guesses as to why tip lines aren’t used:

• Colleges may be concerned about the privacy of students. If so, this should be discussed with legal counsel. Perhaps a discussion of how tips would be handled could address these concerns.
• Colleges may question the value of the information that would be generated. We do agree that most of the tips received might be based on impressions or emotional responses rather than actual acts of wrongdoing. As such, a single, isolated tip may hold limited value. But when considered in context with other available information (such as other tips or a campus police report), a tip could provide another source of detail in the overall security picture.

Implement a team-based approach to identify security risks. Schools should definitely consider implementing or expanding upon a team-based approach to security. The approach we saw at Virginia Tech was disjointed, and, as a result, VT was unable to leverage the expertise it already had on staff. Schools should establish a team such as a safety committee that meets regularly and should encourage members to engage in ongoing dialogue between meetings. Through this experience, members will learn to work through decisions as a group, and will be well versed and experienced should an emergency arise. The committee’s scope could include reviewing data on disciplinary actions and crimes, reviewing Tip Line information, debriefing on recent campus security events, debriefing on security events at other schools, and discussing ongoing security projects. Committee members could include a combination of student representatives, faculty representatives, campus police, counselors, disciplinarians, administrators, counselors, and school health professionals.

Had VT taken a team-based, consistent approach, perhaps the school’s counselor would have talked to VT’s legal counsel about balancing the student’s legal right to confidentiality (which varies by state) against the campus need for safety. In addition, armed with information about Cho from every available intelligence source, the team could have discussed its options. For instance, a disciplinarian on the committee might have been inspired to initiate the process to expel Cho for violating the school's Code of Conduct, if he had a clear picture of the threat Cho posed.

Make sure your security documentation is comprehensive, while ensuring that the information is correctly positioned and readily available to the right audience. Of course, as a writer, I could talk about this topic all day. The documentation process can provide the tool to assess all of the other suggestions. In addition, a talented writer with change management experience can help a school identify unrecognized risk, identify disconnects between people and departments, and generally bring cohesion to what otherwise could be a disjointed mess that is outdated the day it is written. In addition, documentation can be a valuable tool in educating the campus community about standards. If a school does not consider the student handbook and employee handbook as part of its security documentation, many opportunities are being missed. The student's Code of Conduct alone is a great opportunity to establish standards of student behavior.

If you would like help implementing any of these suggestions or would like to discuss your security needs, please feel free to contact us.

And be sure to check out Dot's article, How to Prevent Murder Using Policies and Procedures.