Question: Politics aside - please - what are the practical campus planning considerations for a university when anyone who comes on campus could be carrying a weapon? Looking across the campus in an integrated fashion, who and what is affected and should be considered in planning for such a change? Please share your thoughts in SCUP's LinkedIn group. Don't feel limited to security and liability issues. What are the student services and residence hall implications? Athletics?

The most notorious shooting at an Arizona university took place in 2002 when a disgruntled nursing student shot three professors to death.

Anthony Daykin, the police chief at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where the shootings occurred, said his officers would be at a loss if they arrived at a shooting scene in a lecture hall holding hundreds of students and found scores of people pointing, and possibly shooting, weapons at one another. ...

Keeping guns out, not allowing more in, is the answer, critics of the bills say. Others contend that allowing guns on campus will help ensure that universities stay relatively tranquil.

Mark Lacey, Lawmakers Debate Effect of Weapons on Campus, The New York Times

 

Yes, there are four Australian universities affected by the flooding in Queensland, Australia: Griffith University, CQ University, the University of Queensland, and the Queensland University of Technology. 

They seem to be coping with the damage well, and are currently motivated to let international students and their families know that things are nearly back to normal. It helped that they were in their summer term.

This article, Essential Student Affairs Services in a Campus Crisis, in ACUHO-I's Talking Stick magazine by James E. Brunson III, Michael Stang, and Angela Dreesen, is a chapter in the new book, Enough is Enough: A Student Affairs Persepective on Preparedness and Response to a Campus Shooting, from ACPA/NASPA.

A good article/chapter, helping to make the case that student services input and preparation must be a key part of any campus crisis or emergency response plan:

Conclusion

This chapter highlights essential services needed in response to a campus crisis. Specific roles, functions, and use of staff and resources in departments and officers such as housing and dining, student activities, and international student services are defined.

Additionally, partnerships between essential services departments and other campus units and community agencies are emphasized. Of course, all student affairs departments and professionals can be integral in crisis response, but thoughtful preplanning and preparation for thees units can greatly enhance student services during a campus crisis.

The entire book can be purchased here.

This link may require a Chronicle log-in after a few days.

A nice piece from Lawrence Biemiller at The Chronicle. He points out that all the campus damage donw by Katrina added up to just over $1B, but the damage to the University of Iowa from flooding was estimated at $734M - but we don't hear nearly as much about U Iowa. He finds that the disaster has given the university an opportunity to rethink its overall campus plan:

There's a silver lining, though: The flood has given the university the chance to rethink some poor decisions made decades ago. The School of Music, which was relocated from the riverbank to temporary quarters in a down-on-its-luck downtown mall, liked the location so much that it will move to a new facility bridging a major downtown street. City and university officials hope that will make the downtown livelier and attract new audiences for music-school performances. Part of the School of Art will move into a new building designed to encourage collaboration among artists in different media, who say that sharing temporary digs in a former big-box store has been unexpectedly energizing. As it has in New Orleans, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will eventually pick up much of the tab for repairs here, covering 90 percent of costs that are judged as eligible for reimbursement. Related Content Slide Show: U. of Iowa Buildings Affected by the 2008 Flood Enlarge ImageLiz Martin for The ChronicleTwo years after floods destroyed arts and music buildings at the U. of Iowa, a university band rehearses in an Iowa City church hall. Enlarge ImageLiz Martin for The ChroniclePresident Sally K. Mason walks near the U. of Iowa's 2006 Art Building West, which FEMA designated as architecturally significant, allowing money for its restoration. Enlarge ImageLiz Martin for The ChronicleCharles Swanson is executive director of Hancher Auditorium, a performing-arts center that was ruined by the floods. The replacement building will seek platinum-level LEED certification.

"There are great opportunities that have come from the disaster," President Mason says. "You grow from these things." She was told when she was hired, she says, not to expect to do a lot of building. Instead, she'll oversee high-profile construction projects—a music school, an arts building, a major auditorium, and possibly a museum—with architects who have international reputations.

Over the past decade electronic security technology has evolved from an exotic possibility into an essential safety consideration. Technological improvements are coming onto the market almost daily, and keeping up with the latest innovation is a full time job. At a minimum, a basic understanding of these devices has become a prerequisite for well-informed school security planning.

Before resorting to high-tech security solutions, school officials should think carefully about the potential for unintended consequences. Technological fixes may be mismatched to the problems being addressed. They can be expensive. Any network will require continual maintenance, eventual upgrading, and constantly updated virus protection and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to watch for hackers or unauthorized transfers of data. A full-blown information technology (IT) department will usually be essential.

An over-reliance on electronic technology can backfire with power outages and technological failures. Some security technologies raise political and philosophical concerns. Still, technology, used correctly, can be highly functional and cost effective. Its pros and cons must be weighed carefully within the context of local sensibilities and conditions.

Don’t start by choosing a technology and looking for a problem it can solve. The process should be the reverse: Identify and prioritize the problems before jumping to solutions, and analyze solutions carefully before committing funding. It’s not uncommon for districts to invest in a particular technology district-wide before analyzing and priority-ranking the real concerns of the individual schools. Every school should be capable of quick lockdowns and evacuations, but the details beyond that can vary considerably. Some schools are in rough neighborhoods where violence is endemic, others are not. Some schools are constrained by meager budgets, others have deep pockets. Leaky roofs may take precedence over electronic access control systems.
Partial measures can prove to be wasted investments. Secure front doors are of little value if back entries remain uncontrolled. Metal detectors and ID cards won’t stop bullying behavior, nor will security cameras stop offenders, as has become all too evident at many school shootings. On the other hand, comprehensive access control and improved emergency communication systems are usually good investments.

At St. Gerald Technical School, workers going through the wreckage with heavy machinery came across a classroom in which dead students were still at their desks. At Quisqueya University, much of the multimillion- dollar renovation work that had just been completed was shaken to bits. Joseph Chrislyn Bastien, 25, an engineering student, peered into a foot-high crevice of concrete where one could see shoes, books and flattened furniture. “This was a classroom,” he said.

Delgado Community College leaders have had a rough road to repairing their campus. For one thing, federal funds were allocated based on the original cost of facilities and equipment, not replacement cost. And post-Katrina building codes created more expense. Then, of course, the recession hit. And the chancellor says it's hard to compete for state funding with the big institutions. In her article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Katherine Mangan writes:

It's a scene one might have expected months—even a year—after the 2005 hurricane, which devastated New Orleans and forced most local colleges to close for the fall semester. But this August will mark the storm's fifth anniversary, and only now is the state's oldest and largest community college able to move ahead with reconstruction.

Seventy percent of the buildings on Delgado's campus were damaged by floods and wind, and as the spring 2010 semester begins, 30 percent of the building space is still unusable. Still, students are coming in droves, looking for affordable ways to retool their skills and find work in a city that, like the college, is still in recovery mode.

"Last fall we had to turn away around 1,500 people because we couldn't turn another closet into a classroom," says the chancellor, Ron D. Wright. "That was the most distressing thing I had to do. I've never told anyone they couldn't come."

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
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