Colleges especially vulnerable to crime, terrorism
By Carisa Chappell, Published August 16, 2007

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — With the site of the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. col­lege campus looming some 200 miles across the state, community college leaders from around the country got a lesson in crime prevention and terrorism from experts, in­cluding an FBI official, during the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges summer conference last week.

Higher education institutions can be fertile ground for crimes and terrorism, making campus safety a growing concern for administrators, staff and students.

Gordon Davies, former director of the State Council of Higher Education for Vir­ginia, and Rebecca Miller, an intelligence analyst with the FBI, spoke at the conference about safety concerns in higher education.

Community colleges are particularly vulnerable because of the flexible schedules that they offer students, said Davies, who was recently appointed to the independent Virginia Tech Review Panel. When the administrators and staff go home after the typical 9-to-5 workday, many colleges re­main open, which could present a problem in an emergency, he said.

All colleges should plan for the unexpect­ed, and while most colleges have some sort of emergency plans, most have not planned for an active shooter, as in the case of the Virginia Tech incident, Davies said.

“While you can close buildings, I don’t know of a campus that you can lock down,” said Davies. “Look at notification systems and multiples of them, including sirens and loudspeakers. You have got to have a form of alert system.”

An emerging trend Davies has recently heard about is a tower on campus that can automatically send an emergency text signal to all of the students in its range.

Davies noted security personnel should receive periodic training.

“Think about training on campus security officers and faculty to help understand what the privacy laws are and where to go if they are troubled about something or someone on campus,” continued Davies, “There were a number of faculty worried by the student at Virginia Tech but they did not effectively communicate those concerns.”

It also helps to understand the psychology of the student body, according to security experts. James McCormick of Minnesota’s State Col­leges and Universities noted that community colleges are often the first opportunity for men and women returning from the service to gain higher education, but they are dealing with a lot of changes and reconnecting with family life, which can add to the pressure.

Domestic and international terrorism is another area of concern in which college campuses can be both sources and targets, according to the FBI’s Rebecca Miller.

“There needs to be a balance between the prevention of future attacks and the openness of study and research, and main­taining an environment that allows stu­dents to grow is critical,” Miller said.

Environmental or animal research is often the target of domestic terrorism groups on campus, she noted. White su­premacists and other extremist groups also see recruitment opportunities at colleges and universities, she said.

“Recruitment activity on campus is very prominent. Campuses can be a hotbed for this kind of activity with some areas more prone than others,” said Miller, who showed conference attendees examples of tattoos and literature from various terror­ism groups popular on campus.

There is also a close link between international terrorism and higher education, according to Miller. As the primary providers of English-as-second-language (ESL) programs and specialized training classes, colleges and universities are more at risk for ter­rorism on campus, she said.

“We have seen them in truck driving schools on community college campuses and we have cases on these people (ter­rorists) who’ve taken ESL classes which is a definite connection,” said Miller. Other concerns include foreign students who come to the U.S. using student visas but never attend class.

Miller added that the FBI has evi­dence that Al-Queda and other primary terrorist groups are present at U.S. col­leges and universities.

College campuses should also be aware that terrorist groups are beginning to recruit more non-Arab nationalities, es­pecially students with U. S. citizenship or residency, Miller said.

Although there is no checklist of characteristics to look for, college lead­ers should use their gut instinct and shouldn’t hesitate to report anything suspicious, she said.

“If something doesn’t seem right, it might not be,” Miller said.

Not limited to shooting incidences and terrorism, issues ranging from theft to substance abuse to hate crimes and physical abuse are also key concerns in higher education, according to a recently released book, Creating and Maintaining Safe College Campuses.

Community colleges struggle with cre­ating a safe campus environment within an open access campus community, ac­cording to the book, edited by Jerlando Jackson and Melvin Cleveland Terrrell. It also noted that many two-year colleges suffer from staffing shortages, including fewer police officers than their four-year counterparts.

“Community colleges are a micro­cosm of the communities they serve,” the book notes. “Understanding the need and the ramifications for a safe campus are steps community colleges must take in developing policies and practices that affect both short- and long-term institutional planning.”

Strategies offered by the authors to make students aware of and help decrease campus crime include publishing crime statistics in the campus newspaper, de­veloping a safety component in the insti­tution’s first-year experience, providing resources to ensure appropriate lighting, placement of call booths and parking lot patrols, creating student employee safety committees with community member­ship and providing alternative ways for students and employees to report crime and identify perpetrators.