UM crisis response tight a year after VT shootings

ORONO – In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech University shootings, campuses across the country ramped up their security and beefed up their emergency notification systems.

The University of Maine was no different in its response to the shootings that occurred one year ago today at Virginia Tech in which a lone student gunman took the lives of more than 30 people.

UMaine reviewed its firearms policy and upgraded the way it notifies students, staff and faculty of emergency situations on campus. Local law enforcement and emergency responders have participated in several training exercises, including one last week in Augusta.

“The university’s senior administrators have also undergone professional training in crisis response and recovery,” UM Police Chief Noel March said Tuesday. “A big part of preparing is knowing how to keep a university running when crisis hits.”

In an effort to identify a potential crisis or problem before it occurs, UM has created a student behavior review team and a workplace threat assessment team to better manage the awareness and intervention on campus of students or employees who may be experiencing emotional distress.

They also have signed on with a service called e2campus.com, which serves about 100 higher-education clients at campuses nationwide and provides students, staff and faculty emergency notifications in the form of text messages on their cell phones and e-mail messages once they’re registered on the Web. The system also allows for delivery to personal communication devices, text pagers and user home pages on Google, AOL or My Yahoo.

In addition to participating in training and establishing these procedures, UM and local officials conduct routine tests of all the systems in place.

March also added that the committee that reviewed the firearms policy found no need to change it, but confirmed that the policy certainly isn’t getting any more lenient. Any weapon on campus must be registered and stored at the UM Public Safety building.

The majority of weapons stored are hunting rifles, paintball guns for the school’s paintball club, and the occasional martial arts gear, sword or bow and arrow.

“While it’s nearly impossible to predict the unpredictable, we do have an obligation to be as prepared as possible for any hazard or crisis that might befall us,” March said.

The university frequently reviews and updates its Emergency Response Contingency Plan to accommodate improvements in procedures and changes at the campus.

March noted that in the 1980s, it was the U.S. Postal Service that was experiencing violence. In the 1990s, violence at secondary schools across the country became a disturbing trend, and now that trend has expanded to college and university campuses in the United States, Canada and abroad, March said.

“If there were an act of violence here at the UMaine campus such as that Virginia Tech experienced a year ago, it would require an all-hands-on-deck response,” March said. “I would anticipate law enforcement help from 100-mile radius would be making their way to the University of Maine to assist us. The University of Maine is an even safer place today than one year ago.”

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