Crisis on campus

Nobody likes to think about horrible things happening on a college campus. But after the recent shootings at Virginia Tech, college officials across the country are discussing crisis management plans.

While the chance of being involved in this kind of tragedy is very small, and there's a lower rate of homicide among college students than in the rest of the population, it's understandable that parents are concerned.

College campuses are open places. And even if they had gates to keep out people who didn't belong on campus, as we saw in Virginia, the danger can come from a member of the college community.

At small colleges, word of an emergency will spread quickly, but a large university of 30,000 people is a small city, and without some kind of system to get information out quickly, students may be completely unaware of what's going on across campus.

There's not one perfect system, but mass e-mails, voicemails and text messages are among the methods colleges may use. On campus visits, it's certainly reasonable to ask admissions officers what kind of emergency notification system is in place at the school.

It's important to know that officials have a plan to deal with emergency situations, but, ideally, campus violence could be prevented. Identifying potentially dangerous students is tough to do at a time when more students are arriving on campus needing mental health services while many college counseling centers are understaffed.

Even if your child has made it through high school without needing help, you might want to ask about mental health services on campus. How much outreach do they do? What happens when a student exhibits signs of mental illness?

After the events of two weeks ago, people are likely to react pretty quickly. But even when students and professors do call attention to the problem, as they did at Virginia Tech, what steps will the school take to protect the community?

College administrators are afraid of doing too little or too much.

When George Washington University suspended a student who admitted himself to the hospital for depression, the student sued. Other schools have been sued by grieving parents for not doing enough to prevent a student from committing suicide.

It's extremely difficult to help students who don't want help, and privacy laws prevent college administrators from notifying parents that their child is having problems.

Even if a university expels a student who is considered threatening, what's to stop him from returning to campus, armed and enraged? We've seen it happen at enough workplaces.

You can't have colleges on permanent lockdown. In fact, locking down a university is more difficult than securing a workplace because there are many buildings and multiple entrances to a campus.

This kind of tragedy could happen anywhere. But I do think that in a smaller community, students are less likely to be alienated, and there is often more outreach to those with problems.

At Beloit College in Wisconsin, a professor told me that he observes the students in his freshman seminar every week, and when he sees someone who looks unhappy or sick, he contacts a resident assistant in the dorm, who checks up on the student.

Parents can ask admissions officers about security as well as mental health services. What kind of training do campus police have, and what is their relationship with the local police department?

It's unfortunate, but these questions may become as common as asking about academics, sports and residence halls.

Audrey Kahane, MS, MFA, is a private college admissions counselor in West Hills. She can be reached at (818) 704-7545 or at audreykahane@earthlink.net