By Dan FletcherThe Daily Northwestern
Northwestern administrators said they were saddened by Monday’s shootings at Virginia Tech, which left at least 33 people dead, including the gunman.
“It’s a tough day for anyone in higher education,” said William Banis, NU’s vice president for student affairs .
Two different attacks took place on the Blacksburg, Va., campus Monday morning. Two people were killed in a dorm at about 7:15 a.m. Two hours later, 31 more people, including the gunman himself, were killed in a classroom building about a half-mile from the dorm.
Banis said NU’s current priority is focusing on students who have friends at Virginia Tech.
“We want to pay particular attention to our students affected by the incident and make sure they get any attention they need,” he said.
In the coming days, Banis said there likely will be an increased police presence on campus.
When media reports become more reliable, NU will also look to learn from what happened at Virginia Tech, he said.
“We’re going to follow reports about the events as they come out,” he said. “This is going to be something that is debriefed and discussed at a lot of professional conferences.”
Banis said it is standard procedure for NU to review emergency policies after a major tragedy. He said even an event as removed from NU as Hurricane Katrina led administrators to look more closely at emergency planning.
Mary Desler, NU’s associate vice president and dean of student affairs, said universities across the country have become adept at exchanging information after events, such as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where 15 students died.
“After anything where behavior is troubling, we’re constantly checking out information,” she said. “We learn from each thing that happens.”
But Banis said there is only so much schools can do to prepare.
“What happened at Virginia Tech could likely have happened anywhere,” he said. “These kind of events sometimes can just not be planned for.”
University Police Assistant Chief Dan McAleer said officers are trained to respond to emergency situations. He said NU police were on alert Monday morning in case the shootings in Virginia proved to be part of a larger pattern.
NU students said they recognized that only so much can be done.
Weinberg junior Kiira Tietjen said that although she feels safe on campus, some things can’t be planned for.
“Short of putting up fences around campus and insane security measures like at the Pentagon, you can’t prevent it,” she said. “You can’t do that on a huge campus.”
Music and Weinberg sophomore Kristi Webb said her energy is better spent reflecting about the tragedy itself.
“America is not safe – it’s not just the universities,” she said. “It makes me think how important it is to not take people in my life for granted.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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