College campuses learn to minimize odds
In August 1966, a gunman killed 13 people and wounded 31 others at the University of Texas at Austin before he was shot dead by police.
In July 1976, a custodian at California State University at Fullerton shot and killed seven people in the basement of a library.
But it wasn't until the 1999 bloodbath at Columbine High School that college campuses were compelled to beef up their security and emergency planning for such worst-case scenarios.
"People thought in abstract ways about these things before; now we're much more aware of the need to plan and prepare for situations. We don't want to lock things down; we want to react as best we can," said Randy Stiles, who chairs Colorado College's emergency management planning team.
It's no easy task. Most college and university campuses rival the size of small towns, with thousands of students and staff, multiple buildings and residences. Add the fact that campuses are open to the public for events and service contractors for work, and opportunities for a security breach are everywhere.
"We have 28 buildings; it would be impossible to do a lockdown of the campus," said Jim Spice, chief of police for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
While there might not be a foolproof way to prevent a tragedy, institutions of higher education have learned how to minimize the odds. Both UCCS and Pikes Peak Community College employed state-certified police officers to work on campus before Columbine happened, and Colorado College had a security department. But all systems have been expanded and enhanced.
Emergency management programs also have been instituted as campuses take a proactive approach to deal not just with mass attacks, but a range of emergencies, including explosions, a pandemic flu outbreak or a natural disaster.
The most critical lesson, Spice said, has been the importance of communication between schools and city emergency responders, between school administration and students and staff, and between officials on campus.
"We learned after Columbine how to play in the sandbox with each other," he said.
Radio dispatch systems at UCCS, PPCC and CC now are connected to the local police, fire, sheriff and city emergency departments to prevent the kind of haphazard emergency response to the Columbine attacks: no one knew who was in charge.
At UCCS, where 900 students live on campus, 70 two-way radios also can tune to one channel frequency so each department can talk to one another, said Brian Foltz, emergency manager.
Another change common to all colleges and universities, said Ken Hilte, chief of police at PPCC: "We no longer secure, contain and wait for SWAT. Now we're taught to have active shooter tactics, to press the attack, because we know these things are over in a matter of minutes, with the goal of racking up a high body count. So our tactics center on quick reaction, slowing them down and not giving them unchallenged access."
Students, faculty and staff also are primed on emergency procedures and participate in routine drills and evacuations. Campuses have emergency phones scattered about and night escort services. All three local campuses have systems for providing a mass alert to students and staff via e-mails, text messages and cell phone calls.
And, using a Safe2Tell-type philosophy, students, faculty and staff are asked to watch for suspicious behavior and report their concerns to public safety officials. Local campuses have multidisciplinary intervention teams of police and security, administrators, counselors and others who immediately respond and determine whether there's need for further action, such as counseling, temporary suspension or arrest.
Despite preventive measures that college campuses nationwide have taken since Columbine, there have been several school shootings, but public safety officials are constantly refining their systems. After the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, in which a student shot 32 people before killing himself, UCCS police began carrying tools, such as bolt cutters and pry bars - a response to the giant chains that the perpetrator used at Virginia Tech to block doors.
School massacres also have rekindled the debate over guns on campus, and the University of Colorado system's ban on carrying concealed weapons is being challenged in a lawsuit students filed in December.
Campus security is not just about preventing mass shooting sprees, but less sensational incidents as well. Colleges and universities routinely have rapes, aggravated assaults, burglaries, liquor law violations and other crimes, and are required to report them each year.
"We're a microcosm of our community, and with 12,500 students, we get incidents similar to that and consistent with the community," PPCC's Hilte said. "But schools are generally still a safe place to be."
