Richmond – A special VCCS campus safety task force, created in the wake of last April’s tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, is offering 40 recommendations to improve safety across Virginia’s Community Colleges.  The recommendations, often detailed and technical, focus on three key areas:  redundant communication sources, vigilant emergency preparation, and better coordinated, easier-to-understand reporting of campus safety-related information.

“I appreciate the leadership and hard work of the panel members,” said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges. “We serve two out of every three undergraduate students attending public colleges in Virginia and they’re all commuter students.  We serve them in 5.7 million square feet of instructional space in 224 buildings located on our 40 campuses in urban, suburban and rural settings. Our sheer size and diversity make campus safety a challenge while underscoring its priority.”

The taskforce report calls on colleges to “develop multiple redundant strategies” for communicating in a crisis including both “high tech and low tech” methods.”

 “When it comes to getting the word out in a crisis, there’s no such thing as a silver bullet,” said Neil Matkin, VCCS vice chancellor for information technology services and chair of the task force. “Text messaging and other high-tech resources are wonderful but limited. And those limitations are often outside of our control. When you lose power, an old-fashioned bull horn could be a life saver.”

The report further calls for organizational changes to ensure that there is always a point person on each campus responsible for coordinating emergency planning.  It also calls for annual training to ensure that everyone who learns and works on a community college campus is aware of emergency preparedness.

“Emergency planning has a lot of moving pieces.  A point person to coordinate what planning is occurring is essential,” said David Sam, president of Germanna Community College and one of the task force’s co-chairs. “That central coordination is key for both the college community and those outside, like first responders and other community leaders.”

The report also urges the review and simplification of campus safety information reporting.  Currently, Virginia’s community colleges have to submit various pieces of safety and security-related information to more than two-dozen agencies and various levels of governments.

“People have a fundamental right to know about how safe our campuses are and what we are doing to make them safer,” said Cheryl Thompson-Stacy, president of Eastern Shore Community College and the task force’s other co-chair.  “But I don’t know if the current method of reporting – a piece here and a piece there – really allows people to see the whole picture.  We can and should do better with that.”

Regarding the possession or use of firearms, explosives or other deadly weapons, the report endorses the findings and recommendations of the Virginia Tech panel report and urges Virginia’s community colleges to adopt the weapons policy recently enacted by Germanna Community College after review by the Office of Virginia’s Attorney General.

“We understand there is a lot of emotion that surrounds the issue of weapons on campus,” said DuBois. “Put simply; deadly weapons are not appropriate for a learning environment.”

To read the entire campus safety task force report, visit the VCCS website at myfuture.vccs.edu.

About Virginia’s Community Colleges: Created more than 40 years ago, the VCCS is comprised of 23 community colleges located on 40 campuses across the commonwealth. Together, Virginia’s Community Colleges serve more than a quarter-million credit students each year. For more information, please visit myfuture.vccs.edu.

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