North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper held a press conference Wednesday joined by members of the state’s higher education programs such as in response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech.
“There is no perfect plan to prevent these attacks, but I can assure students and parents that our students are safer on our college campuses than anywhere else in the state with a crime rate among the campuses that is one-sixth of the rate of the entire state,” Erskine Bowles, president of the UNC school system said.
Cooper said the safety of the students, faculty, and professors are the No. 1 concern now. He mentioned several items that are currently in process such as a booklet and safety video for campus officials to use.
“The book and video, put out by the state’s task force in 2004, is designed to show officials what to do in the first 20 minutes of a campus emergency,” Cooper said.
Bowles spoke on current safety issues and a three-step immediate plan of action.
The first step is to install a card access on every building and dorm across the UNC system. The second step is to install alarms for doors to sound if they are left propped open. The third step will be to install cameras with monitoring and recording devices along with one person to monitor the cameras live.
“We want to make sure our schools are safe while keeping our historical commitment to openness and accessibility,” Bowles said.
Among other items, Bowles listed response systems like text messaging, mass e-mails, telephones and even campus alarms as viable options to look into.
“At this point, we aren’t excluding any ideas,” Bowles said. “We will evaluate all of the options and implement what we feel will work best.”
In addition, Bowles said there would be another review on the application process for students admitted into state universities and colleges.
“The changes we have made in the last year with our review of student background checks have led to denying over 100 students into our schools.” Bowles said.
He finished the conference by stating there is no timeline as of yet for implementations, but he would like to see a quick response. He also pointed out that he plans to request additional funding from the General Assembly.
At N.C. State
Tuesday morning, the day after the shooting at Virginia Tech, Chancellor James Oblinger met with Provost Larry Nielsen and Charles Leffler, the vice chancellor for finance and business, as part of the monthly meeting.
At this meeting, the group talked for an hour and a half about the incident at Virginia Tech, according to Oblinger.
The University has practiced and conducted drills for emergency situations such as a train derailment before. Oblinger said each time these events are practiced, the University learns something else.
“Clear communication was something we had to do additional work on,” Oblinger said.
Bowles has already asked Oblinger what further resources N.C. State needs in light of the Virginia Tech situation.
“It’s going to bring a sharp focus to the safety question,” Oblinger said.
But Oblinger added that safety is not simply dependent on the administration.
“Everybody needs to participate. It’s ownership,” Oblinger said. “The element of ownership is a lesson of this.”
