The shooting spree at Northern Illinois University that claimed the lives of six people Thursday has renewed questions about the safety of college campuses across the nation.
The incident came nearly a year after a gunman killed 32 students at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and follows a series of campus shootings that have occurred since that tragedy.
Before the shootings at NIU, the most recent shooting incident at a campus occurred Feb. 8 at Louisiana Technical College where a 23-year-old woman shot two students in a classroom before shooting herself.
Since the Virginia Tech incident, the ability of colleges to respond to such emergencies has also become a national issue. The Virginia Tech shootings caused controversy when people learned more than two hours had elapsed between the first series of shootings that killed two people and the second series of shootings that killed an additional 30.
Sarah Brooks, a junior in AU's Washington Semester program, said she knew one of the people wounded at the Northern Illinois shooting.
Though such incidents are hard to prevent, effective safety measures always help, she said.
"It can happen anywhere but we can always do a lot to improve safety," Brooks said.
Rob Steimel, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, said it is hard to detect when someone might commit such acts of violence.
"It can happen anytime because, from what I heard, the shooter didn't have a history of violence," Steimel said.
Though AU's Department of Public Safety strengthened their emergency response measures following the Virginia Tech incident, it is impossible to police all people that come onto campus, according to Chief Michael McNair, the director of Public Safety.
"There is no practical way to do that short of stationing a guard at every door and checking ID's," McNair said in an e-mail. "Obviously that type of operation would be prohibitively expensive and undesirable."
Public Safety's increased measures include an upgrade of AU's Emergency Preparedness Web site, renamed prepared.american.edu. The Office of Risk Management and Safety Services' Web site lists the procedures the university would take in the event of an emergency. Steps include the immediate mobilization of a trained emergency response team, the broadcast of updates through local television, radio, e-mail and the university information line among others, the lock-down of campus buildings and the evacuation of buildings when the appropriate signal is given, according to Risk Management's Web site.
Public Safety promoted this Web site as well as the DC Text Alert System to students, faculty and staff, McNair said in an e-mail.
The Text Alert system is part of Alert DC, a program that allows subscribed D.C. residents to receive notifications about schedule changes to Metrorail, university closings and adverse weather via text message, voice message and through radio stations, The Eagle previously reported.
Other Public Safety updates include the purchase of the Ravewireless campus-wide text alert system, which allows for improved communication between Public Safety, students' cell phones and emergency response teams, McNair said in an e-mail.
The Department of Public Safety also purchased three personal mobility devices to improve response time and where cars can not go, according to McNair.
