 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Friday, August 31, 2007
|
|
Review Panel's Report Could Reverberate Beyond Virginia Tech and Virginia
By KARIN FISCHER and ROBIN WILSON
Article: Recommendations From the Report: Steps Colleges Can Take to Avoid a Tragedy, or Deal With One
More coverage: Links to all of The Chronicle's coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech.
 Printer friendly |
 article |
 Subscribe |
 Order reprints |
|
|
|||
 |
Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums | ||
|
Latest Headlines
Struggling Towns Turn to Small Private Colleges
In economically troubled areas, small private colleges help generate development projects in large part as a matter of survival. Endowment-Spending Talk Draws a Crowd of Tax Lawyers Learned Societies' Gathering Delves Into Political and Publishing Challenges Researchers Look Beyond Genetics to Help Doctors Predict Disease Militia Battles in Lebanon Rewrite Universities' Lesson Plans | |||
Review panel's report could reverberate beyond Virginia Tech and Virginia
Recommendations from the report: steps colleges can take to avoid a tragedy, or deal with one
Southern Illinois president faces allegations he plagiarized his dissertation
Pharmacy association suspends licensing exams, accusing a Georgia professor of misappropriating questions
Political-science courses neglect the military, say speakers at annual meeting
Southern U. president settles whistle-blower suit over alleged misconduct by board chairman
One harassment lawsuit involving an Oregon administrator is settled; another is pending
State Digest: Virginia's in-state tuition rate is extended to refugees, and other news from the states
A hard-hitting report by a state panel on last spring's massacre at Virginia Tech could have an effect beyond the Blacksburg, Va., campus and the state border as colleges nationwide consider whether to adopt new policies dealing with security, emergency preparedness, and mental-health issues prompted by the country's worst campus shooting, higher-education experts say.
The report, released on Thursday by a panel appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia, makes more than 90 recommendations to university officials, mental-health providers, law-enforcement officers, and state and federal policy makers. The panel calls for better monitoring of troubled students, for more coordinated emergency-response plans, and for clearer guidance on how and when campus officials should share student information.
It also says that the Virginia General Assembly should pass legislation during its next session to "clearly establish the right" of every college in the commonwealth to regulate the possession of firearms on campus.
Gordon K. Davies, a longtime higher-education official in the state who served on the panel, said he hoped other universities would take a lesson from what happened at Virginia Tech and review their own procedures.
"There is no one-size-fits-all security system that will be usable by everyone," said Mr. Davies, who for 20 years directed the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. "At the same time, every college and university needs to be aware of this potential -- not only for shootings, but for other kinds of critical incidents -- and needs to plan for it."
Common Threads in 3 Reviews
The independent commission, known as the Virginia Tech Review Panel, is the third group to examine the events of April 16, when the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, fatally shot 32 people before killing himself, and to make suggestions to ensure that similar tragedies are prevented. Previous reports were issued by a group of top administration officials assembled by President Bush and, a week ago, by Virginia Tech itself (The Chronicle, June 14 and August 23).
In many ways, the panel's recommendations are consistent with proposals made in one, or both, of the earlier reports. For example, both the state panel and Virginia Tech's internal review call for new security measures, such as installing locks on all classroom doors and setting up a system that would allow campus buildings to be locked remotely in case of emergency. All three reports say colleges need to improve their ability to notify students and employees quickly when emergencies occur, through text messaging, audible alarms, and other means.
One key point made by all three groups is that there is confusion about what information about troubled students educators, mental-health officials, and others can share under state and federal privacy laws. In fact, the gubernatorial review panel concludes that different offices at Virginia Tech misinterpreted privacy laws in refusing to share information about Mr. Cho, an undergraduate student who was mentally disturbed, with one another and with Mr. Cho's parents.
The commission says that Virginia Tech should clarify its policy on how privacy laws, such as the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, are applied. It also calls on Virginia's attorney general to develop "plain English" guidelines that explain what information legally can be shared by concerned groups and individuals.
Governor Kaine, a Democrat, said at a news conference on Thursday that many people without a clear understanding of privacy law "may simply default to a position that 'we cannot legally share information'" because they are worried about legal liability.
"It is imperative that these laws be explored to give clear instruction to people working in the field about what information may be shared if doing so might keep people safe," Mr. Kaine said.
In addition, the review panel recommends that the U.S. Department of Education more clearly spell out when exceptions to laws governing the confidentiality of student records apply, particularly in instances when doing so would protect the health of the student or other people. And it says that national higher-education associations should develop best-practice protocols and associated training for information sharing.
Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education, said the council and other higher-education groups named in the report would examine that and other recommendations in the coming days.
More Assessment of Troubled Students
More broadly, the state report argues that better communication about troubled students is needed to prevent future incidents. It suggests that campuses create threat-assessment teams that would conduct a comprehensive evaluation of complex cases, like that of Mr. Cho. Such teams should include members from law-enforcement divisions, student and academic-affairs offices, mental-health services, and others, the report says.
It also recommends sharing mental-health information about troubled students with their parents. Gary M. Pavela, a consultant to colleges on legal issues, says that the report makes clear that Mr. Cho's parents say they would have been responsive, but they never had the chance.
"One take-home lesson for college administrators is we should not stereotype parents," said Mr. Pavela, who is a former director of student judicial programs at the University of Maryland at College Park. "We should not assume that a troubled student is necessarily going to have a dysfunctional family. The position we should take is to involve parents more, to make them part of a collaborative team that addresses the problems students face. That function broke down at the college level."
The report also tackles the issue of information-sharing between colleges and public schools and concludes that no one at Virginia Tech "connected all the dots" about Mr. Cho, in part because university officials did not know of his prior mental-health problems, which first surfaced early in his childhood.
Kevin Kruger, associate executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, said the Virginia Tech experience could spark a debate on campuses about what types of information colleges should collect about students in the admissions process.
"We need to ask ourselves, What do we need to know before a student gets to campus?" Mr. Kruger said, adding that such a discussion would have to include a consideration of privacy concerns. "We need to think about what's legal, what's proper, and what do we do with the information if we have it."
Peter F. Lake, a professor of law at Stetson University and director of the campus's Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, said that higher-education officials would have to be deliberate as they consider whether, and how, to implement recommendations made by the panel on their own campuses.
"We want to make sure we don't overkill," Mr. Lake said. "We want to be careful not to completely rewrite American higher education around incidents of this type. It scares me that we'd have armed guards in the hallways and metal detectors and SWAT teams."
Getting Guidance on Guns
One finding that is certain to cause fireworks is the report's recommendation that the Virginia attorney general clarify his existing opinion about the authority of colleges to ban guns on campus and that the General Assembly pass legislation to clearly establish the right of every higher-education institution in the state to regulate the possession of firearms. The panel suggests that guns be banned on all campus grounds and in buildings unless otherwise mandated by law.
Similar bills have died during past Virginia legislative sessions. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, a number of states have considered banning guns on campuses, while others have drafted measures to ensure that people on campuses be allowed to have firearms to stop a killer.
Governor Kaine largely embraced the panel's findings, but said he would take some time to decide what recommendations to act upon and what steps to take. Some proposals will need legislative approval, he noted, while others require campus administrative changes.
Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech's president, however, stopped short of accepting all of the panel's findings, noting that the university knew nothing of Mr. Cho's prior mental history when he came to the campus in 2003 and that ultimately the gunman was responsible for the carnage.
"Although hindsight now provides us with the signs or indications within the university," Mr. Steger said, Mr. Cho "clearly kept from the university the extent of his troubles and prior mental-health history. Ours is a system that asks for students to help us help them."
Speaking at a news conference in Blacksburg on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Steger acknowledged that it was "painful to hear the blunt and, in some cases, critical findings" of the report.
While noting that some proposals, such as one to establish an alert system to send emergency messages to cellphones, already are in place at Virginia Tech, he said that university officials would review the panel's recommendations, as well as those in its own report, and make decisions about which could be implemented easily. They then would sort out how they will finance some of the more complicated, and costly, proposals.
Mr. Lake, the Stetson law professor, said institutions of higher education could be grappling with the aftermath of Virginia Tech for years, and suggests that the report could, in fact, provide ammunition to families who want to go to court and sue Virginia Tech and others.
"This is not the last word," Mr. Lake said. "The final resolution will be in the court system, either by settlement or jury determination."
Background articles from The Chronicle:
- Investigative Panel Criticizes Virginia Tech's Response to Mentally Ill Student and His Murderous Rampage (8/30/2007)
- Virginia Tech Panel Calls for More Counseling of Students and Additional Security (8/23/2007)
- Report to President Bush on Virginia Tech Tragedy Faults Federal Privacy Laws (6/14/2007)