In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, some Vanderbilt students have begun to question the plans the university has in place to deal with a similar crisis situation.

Resident adviser Kelson Bohnet said in a mandatory RA meeting held Tuesday he was given the impression that a specific plan does not exist on what to do if a gunman enters his residence hall.

"The policy as I understand it is to deal with situations on a case-by-case basis and to wait for instructions from the administration," Bohnet said.

According to Dean of Students Mark Bandas, the university does not have any general protocols in place, but it does have an emergency planning team.

"Our approach is that we respond to situations by pulling the right people together and coming up with creative solutions," Bandas said. "Part of what is difficult for people to grasp is that general protocols are rarely helpful when you are dealing with a very specific kind of situation."

Bandas said he is much more interested in having communication systems that would provide students with situation specific information than with developing general protocols.

Students, however, are concerned this might not be the best method.

"I don't think anyone is to blame for whatever went wrong at Virginia Tech, but I do think that in its aftermath all schools have a responsibility to create a concrete plan," said senior David Scott.

Senior Leah Lewis said there should be plans in place and she was surprised protocols had not already been developed on what to do if a gunman entered a residence hall, as Vanderbilt dealt with a shooting in one of its own dorms in the fall of 2005.

Freshman Chisato Nishikawa agreed.

"I would like to see the administration develop protocols for what to do in a situation like that to give us a heads up," Nishikawa said. "I think they should have developed protocols after the Morgan shooting."

Lewis also described the university's current approach as "general" and "vague."

"It sounds like a very diplomatic answer," Lewis said. "What he's really saying is that we'll deal with it when it happens."

Bandas explained that issues of liability must be taken into account in the development of university protocols as well.

"Liability is an issue in almost every decision made at a university," Bandas said. "What we want to do is give people correct information, and so there are always going to be liability issues in giving people incorrect information."

While the university does not have any specific protocols in place, the Vanderbilt University Police Department has compiled a list of actions that are recommended in the event of an armed gunman entering a building. These recommendations are posted on their Web site, but no student The Hustler spoke with had ever seen or heard of this emergency response plan.

"If this exists and no one knows about it, what's the point of it existing?" Lewis asked. "They need to let people know about it."

The shootings at Virginia Tech have also spurred members of the residential life staff to revisit the role RAs play in responding to crisis situations.

"One of the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy was a residential adviser who apparently was responding to what he took to be trouble in the hall, and we thought that residential advisers would have feelings about that issue in relation to their own roles," Bandas said.

During Tuesday's meeting, RAs were told to call VUPD in the event of an emergency.

"Our job as RAs is not to really try to address physical altercations, but to call on resources at hand, such as VUPD and administration," said Justin Gonzales, an RA in Mims Hall.

"They don't ask us to put ourselves in harm's way, but as RAs we feel we owe our residents some sort of protection," Gonzales said. "I feel that a lot of the RAs would have tried to investigate just as the RA who got shot at Virginia Tech did."

According to Gonzales, RAs have not been trained on what to do in the event that an armed gunman enters their hall, but they have been trained in general crisis situations.

Despite this training, Gonzales said he is unsure the residential life staff would have been prepared to handle a situation similar to the one that plagued Virginia Tech's campus.

For more coverage of Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt's response, click here.

Submitted by Michael Schoenfeld on Sat, 04/21/2007 - 07:43.

Safety at Vanderbilt

The Hustler has done a great disservice to students, and the entire Vanderbilt community, by choosing sarcasm and reckless generalizations over reporting and responsible journalism. The safety of the campus is the highest priority, and Vanderbilt takes emergency planning very seriously. The University has extensive resources, capabilities and protocols to deal with the imaginable, and the unimaginable. This past week, in response to questions about student mental health, law enforcement, and communications policies at Vanderbilt, the University prepared a fact sheet that is available at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/campussafety/ and linked directly from the home page.

Ensuring safety and security at a place like Vanderbilt is a daunting challenge. We have an open campus of 330 acres with 233 buildings and, at any given time of the day, between 20,000 and 40,000 students, faculty, staff, patients, and visitors. We are constantly reviewing our plans and procedures, and making adjustments based on real-life (as opposed to theoretical) experiences at Vanderbilt and elsewhere. As you may recall, the shooting in Morgan in 2005 led to a number of changes, some of which are still being implemented because they involve significant physical changes. Likewise, the horrific situation at Virginia Tech has illustrated the importance of rapid communications in times of emergency -- which is why the University expanded the MobileVU text messaging service and encouraged all students, faculty and staff to enroll (and 1,000 did in the first 45 minutes after the campus e-mail went out on Friday).

It is unfortunate that it takes a national tragedy to focus attention on this essential topic. Every department and office at Vanderbilt has some responsibility for emergency preparedness, and there is extensive and ongoing preparation across the University. Likewise, every individual -- student and employee -- has a responsibility to become, and stay, informed about this issue. We welcome the opportunity to work with students, and to come up with even more, and better, ways to educate our community.

But let's not short-circuit the conversation by demeaning the tireless and serious work, and intentions, of the many people at Vanderbilt who are responsible for the safety of our University, and who devote considerable time, effort and energy to the task, with often little recognition or reward.

Michael Schoenfeld

Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs

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NEWS: Students begin to question Vanderbilt's plan to deal with similar crisis

Safety at Vanderbilt

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