College Campus Safety: One Year after Virginia Tech tragedy
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By SUSAN CAMPBELL
Story Created:
Apr 16, 2008 at 10:12 AM EST
Story Updated:
Apr 16, 2008 at 11:13 AM EST
It's certainly a grim anniversary, but the tragedy at Virginia Tech has also served as a wake-up call for colleges and universities across the country, and right here in the Mohawk Valley.
In the year since the Virginia Tech massacre, SUNYIT and Utica College have both implemented an electronic alert system that allows messages to be sent to students via text messages, and emails within minutes of an emergency situation.
And both schools say that even though they had safety measures in place before the Virginia Tech tragedy, they've re-examined, and re-worked some of their emergency scenario plans.
And officials at both schools agree... the key to campus safety is good communication.
"In the year since Virginia Tech, we've done a number of things to pay closer attention to planning for potential emergencies, and basic campus day-to-day campus safety and security," said John Swann, director of communications at SUNYIT.
"We meet weekly and talk about issues that students may be having on campus," said Jim Saponaro, director of campus safety at Utica College. "If someone's on the radar screen somewhere, we put our heads together to reach out to that student and sometimes parents, and see if we can address the problem and try to prevent anything from escalating."
Officials from both schools say they know no campus is exempt from potential tragedies, but they say they're doing the very best job they can to keep their campus communities safe and prepared in the event that something does happen.
One new safety measure that's in the works at Utica College is a surveillance camera system.
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