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March 17, 2008 —
In the wake of the school shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, the Cardinal Leadership Institute invited students to an open forum to discuss concerns about campus safety.
Wednesday night, representatives from the administration, University Police, a sorority, and various academic departments provided their insight on how to prevent violence like that of NIU and VT at SVSU.
The topics discussed at the forum included procedures students and faculty would need to take in case of an emergency, as well as preventive measures students can take to rule out any activity like that of NIU and VT from happening here at SVSU.
Robert Maurovich, vice president of Student Services, included speaking up if a student shows suspicious behavior as being good preventative measures.
"There may not be any particular way to predict or prepare for this kind of thing from happening," said Tony Thomson, director of Counseling and Health Services. "However, measures such as communicating more effectively, being more sensitive, and taking care of one another can help prevent campus violence.
Greg Behe, assistant director of Residential Life, said one of the most important preventative measure is to lock doors.
"If we learned anything from the Virginia Tech incident, it is to lock your doors, even ones in your rooms," Behe said.
If a student becomes suspicious, Behe recommends immediately picking up the phone and dialing 4141 to notify University Police.
There are emergency procedures that the University has in place to deal with a violent situation. CampusAlert, a security program that will alert students' cellular phones, as well as other mediums, will notify students of the situation in the event of an emergency. When notified, students should immediately lock their doors.
SVSU student Shannon Cizek, who visited the campus of NIU over spring break, said that a measure taken by some students on the NIU campus during the incident was to act dead.
Ronald Trepkowski, chief of University Police, said that if a shooter were to walk into a classroom, one of the first procedures to perform is to look for the nearest exit away from the shooter and run toward that exit.