Officials at Virginia Tech were in the process of setting up a campuswide alert system that would have allowed a text message to be sent to everyone at the university during an emergency, Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech’s president, said this morning in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. The system will be completed soon, he said.

Some other campuses already have such systems in operation (The Chronicle, April 18).

Mr. Steger was asked why Virginia Tech had not shut down the campus after the first shooting was reported to officials on Monday morning, as it had in August, when a manhunt was under way for an escaped inmate who was suspected in two fatal shootings in the area (The Chronicle, August 21).

“Well, in the first shooting that occurred [last week], as soon as the police found a witness, we had a suspect identified who was pursued and taken into custody,” Mr. Steger said. “I was advised that it looked like the event was contained to that dorm room, and we had a suspect being questioned at the moment, so we focused our energy on dealing with that particular incident. We had no way of anticipating what was yet to come in a matter of minutes.”

“We find ourselves still in a stage of shock,” said Mr. Steger. “And what we’re trying to do now is to focus our attention on supporting these families and also getting the school back on track with the classes opening tomorrow.” —Jeffrey R. Young