Just read this article in our local paper about preparedness at Florida universities. Basically they said it’s a hard thing to secure a large campus. They practice scenarios (as I’m sure the VaTech officials did)...but ever situation is different. Securing a large campus is virtually impossible. They even mentioned the problem of possibly locking the perp in with the students if you didn’t have enough information.
The last paragraph has an interesting idea though. We use it for our neighborhood association when there is an emergency or crime in the area. The alert would be sent to go out to student’s cell phones. Granted not every student has a cell phone, but most do and could pass on the “word” to those who don’t.
Seems like this method would be more efficient than email. My kid’s in college, I think he only checks his email once a day.
Here’s the article link:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/17/Worldandnation/Sprawling_universitie.shtml
Shep Smith on FOX may have just sunk lower than his performance on the bridge in NOLA during Katrina. He had his cameraman pan around, to show the hundreds of newsvans and camera trucks, and then compared the scene to a “big football game on campus”