The tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University last week, coming less than a year after similar deadly violence at Virginia Tech, should alert college administrators to the need to monitor the mental health of their students. While campus security efforts are important, the root of the killings at both institutions lies with students who struggled with mental illness.

The college years, despite what one might surmise from movies and TV, are often fraught with stress, anxiety, emotional highs and lows, substance use and relationship problems. Even well-adjusted college students sometimes hit rocky patches, which can be exacerbated by being away from home for the first time.

And illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disease, which sometimes lead to delusional thoughts and violent behavior, often manifest themselves at the ages of 18, 19 and 20. Without parental attention, those suffering with these and other maladies are prone to neglecting to take medications.

A federal privacy act prevents parents from having access to some information about their child, if he or she is 18 and older. But there are exclusions for emergencies, and parents can get access to information if their child signs a disclosure document.

Robert Dana, dean of students at the University of Maine, is well aware of the pitfalls that college students face. He and his staff work to have many sets of eyes scanning the 10,000 undergraduate students for possible problems.

Residential assistants are trained to pay attention to students who exhibit signs of detachment, anger, alienation and isolation. Public safety officers go beyond merely noting infractions, and instead also respond to warning signs among students. “Faculty send students to us all the time,” the dean said.

The goal is to lower barriers to reporting a student who may be struggling, he said.

“We’ve got lots and lots of eyes out there,” Dean Dana said, “and we get lots and lots of calls.” Chief among them are students themselves. A “campus eyes” Web page allows students to confidentially report suspicious or worrisome behavior. And often, students will decide on their own to visit the university counseling center, he said, realizing they have not bounced back from a breakup, that they are chronically depressed, or that their relationship with Mom and Dad is strained.

The actions of the young men at Virginia Tech, where 33 died and 29 were wounded, and at Northern Illinois, where six died and a dozen were injured, are best understood as suicides, albeit dramatic, angry, vengeful suicides. Suicide rates peak in the college years (it’s the third-leading cause of death among Americans 15-24).

Residence hall and counseling staff, as well as faculty and others on campus are trained as “suicide gatekeepers,” the dean said.

“I’ve tried to create a foundation here of a kind, caring and compassionate community,” Dean Dana said, and he believes that he and his office are more likely than not to hear about a troubled student who might be capable of hurting himself or others. That’s comforting, but UMaine’s efforts on this front should be supported, encouraged and expanded as needed.