Amidst the grief and controversy following the shootings at Virginia Tech on Monday, the question that most concerns some UB officials is, what would we have done?
"Colleges and universities should be - and generally are - safe havens... places where the currency is ideas, not violence. In the days ahead, our campus community will continue to reflect on the tragedy at Virginia Tech," stated UB President John Simpson following the incident on Monday.
UB's most important considerations pertain to information, reaction and security were such a crisis to hit the campus.
Any situation that could affect students on a widespread basis would require that word be spread quickly. As it stands now, the UB has various communications systems in place used commonly for severe weather and could also be used in a crisis situation.
"We depend on Web page, e-mail, signage in public areas and telephones to get the emergency messages out," said Dennis Black, vice president of Student Affairs.
University libraries, the Student Union, Alumni Arena and some residence halls are currently equipped with public address systems to reach students. UB will be adding PA systems to the remaining residence halls to increase broadcast ability.
At the time of the shooting, VT had an emergency text messaging system in place - an idea UB is looking into for its own uses.
"That would require us to collect cell phone numbers, but that seems to be the way of the world these days," Black said.
UB has the capacity for a text messaging system and is looking to see if it would be an effective approach.
"We are one of the best wired campuses in the country and so it is to our advantage that with technology we would be able to get announcements out," said Mary Clare Fahey, off campus services and relations coordinator for Student Life.
Over the past decade, with tragic events like the massacre at Columbine High School, emergency response tactics at UB have been rethought and remodeled.
"When Columbine took place, the training was to set up a perimeter on the outside and wait them out, and we discovered that every second is a life," Black said.
UB's Department of Public Safety holds full police powers and is trained in Immediate Action Rapid Deployment (IARD). IARD encompasses police tactics of swift deployment to emergent and ongoing life-threatening situations where any delay could result in death or great harm to innocent lives.
As the first responders, UB police have the knowledge and equipment to intervene in a shooting incident.
"So now the training is...you've got to do it quickly, you've got to do it with a plan that's effective and safe, but you've got to go in," Black said.
UB's police reaction is further augmented through agreements with law enforcement from Buffalo and Amherst for necessary additional assistance.
Campus faculty and staff are trained in response procedures in case of campus emergencies. Depending on the situation, lockdown or evacuation can occur on the scale of one building or to the entire campus.
With a community of near 40,000, evacuation is a challenge UB officials have planned for. As a "walking campus," UB's procedures dictate that depending on location, instructions are to move to a particular area of the campus perimeter and all residence halls have been identified gathering spots.
"It's feasible - sure. How quick and how effective it would be, we don't know because we've never done it," Black said.
Due to the Virginia Tech incident official policy and plans in place currently will change.
"It's too early to tell what they'll be and how noticeable it'll be. The answer is you have to go back and rethink what you do. We're going to have to go back to the drawing board and see what can be done to prevent, limit and respond to incidents of that type in a way that we haven't had to before," Black said.
Change on campus will be apparent immediately. UB police have been asked to make themselves more visible than usual in order to reassure people that public safety is readily available. The university will also be considering the amount of light on campus.
Student life has continued normally on campus since the VT incident. In the opinion of President Simpson, the general campus is - appropriately - still going about its business, but will require that people take safety into consideration
"We need to be alert for trouble. When we feel that something doesn't look right or seem right we've got to take notice of that and make that call," Black said.
In March, UB hosted a program by the U.S. Secret Service on school violence and gun assaults. Faculty and staff from UB and Western New York spent the day being educated on threat assessment and profiles of school shooters.
"You could lock down all of Ellicott in a heartbeat. You could lock down the entire Student Union. At Governors, everything's locked but the front door and residence halls at Main Street are all locked 24/7 anyway," Fahey said.
The only remaining concern would be the ability to lock down classroom buildings on campus.
Black asserted that one of the most important actions to be taken by students in a time like this is to call home. Despite UB's distance from Virginia Tech, parents are prone to worry.
"Let them know how you are and talk about it. It's a good time to make contact with family," Black said.
President Simpson understands student concerns about safety but believes UB is safe and will continue to become safer in the future.
"Universities are, unfortunately, sites at which these kinds of tragic violence and actions have occurred. I don't think it means we're any more vulnerable. It means that we live in a world that goes beyond the use of ideas as a media of exchange," Simpson said. "It has to be remembered that it is a fact of life. It's not unique to universities."
