To plan for an unexpected future event is a difficult endeavor under the best of circumstances. A campus shooting, however, is neither “future” nor “unexpected.” While Vanderbilt has not suffered a tragedy similar to that in Blacksburg, there was a shooting on campus in 2005 and the administration bore the responsibility of planning for disaster immediately afterward.

The administration, however, has not done so. Dean of Students Mark Bandas explained issues of liabilities and the dangers of giving people incorrect information in times of crisis and described the problem of shoehorning specific incidents into inappropriate general protocols developed before the fact.

The current plan is to “respond to situations by pulling the right people together and coming up with creative solutions.” This is a fantastic plan if one wishes to expand Ro-Tiki, but it is a terrible idea when lives are hanging in the balance. Simply pulling the right people together will take time and formulating a response on the spot will take even longer. The fact most people plan poorly in times of great personal stress only compounds the problem.

In addition, residential advisers have been trained to deal with “general crisis situations.” A “general crisis” could be anything from a drunk freshman passing out in the hallway to a plague of locusts, so it is clear we must have another line of defense or another plan of action; undoubtedly the RAs at Virginia Tech were trained to respond to general crisis situations, and one of them died this week.

Certainly a one-size-fits-all plan will not work in every conceivable situation. Even a general plan, however, is better than what we have now, which is no plan at all. To refuse to adjust Vanderbilt policies in the face of tragedy because of some nebulous fear of liability is nothing less than irresponsible. The administration owes the community more than assurances “the right people” will have everything under control should we find ourselves in a time of crisis. “We’ll deal with it when it happens” is not an acceptable response when your study group hasn’t prepared for a difficult test, and it should not be an acceptable response to potential tragedy.