U.Va. Safety Procedures

Date: April 18, 2007
To: U.Va. Parents
From: Patricia M. Lampkin, U.Va. Student Affairs

As we continue to deal with the aftershocks of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we recognize that parents and many members of the community have questions about established security procedures at the University of Virginia.

Safety of our students has always been a top priority. A number of us - from University Police to the Resident Staff and other Student Affairs professionals to those who serve on a University-wide safety committee - embrace the safety of our students and the larger community as central to our responsibilities. All of us collaborate as needed to respond to an event. Finding ways to improve safety is at the forefront of our minds.

As President Casteen said at a University-wide candlelight vigil last evening, colleges and universities are permeable communities. We value this freedom of movement as much as we value open dialogue and the flow of knowledge. As we move forward from this tragic incident, we somehow will need to balance these values with the reality of living in an era of still rare, but nevertheless real, evil and violence.

We are now in the process of reviewing our safety and notification procedures to see where they can be strengthened. As an immediate step, we have increased the number of uniformed personnel around Grounds, and those officers are being especially attentive to the surrounding environment.

We do maintain and regularly review crisis plans for responding in the face of various disasters, whether those disasters arise from severe weather, terrorism, building malfunctions or disease. We are confident in those plans, in the capacity of our staff to implement them if needed, and in our ability to fine-tune them as situations dictate. At the same time, we acknowledge that living as an open society makes us vulnerable to unforeseen, virtually unpreventable, acts of violence.

Our current procedures for communicating with students in the event of a crisis involve the use of mass e-mail and Web postings. Since September 11, 2001, the University has posted news of emergencies and critical incidents on a Web site: http://www.virginia.edu/emergency/. One-line emergency notices also appear in red type on the University's homepage.

We use an emergency telephone line to convey news of closings. In some cases, the news media can be our best vehicle for conveying critical news to large numbers of people.

Our Office of Residence Life responds immediately to notify students residing in our dorms and uses different mechanisms and approaches to manage this process based on the nature of an incident. Resident Staff, which includes both professional and trained student advisors, act in a coordinated manner to convey news in person, by phone, and by e-mail to their residents depending on the situation at hand.

We send safety reminders at key points during the year. If criminal activity occurs on or near Grounds, we send notices to each member of the community with relevant details and reminders on personal safety.

As recently as last week, we reviewed our communication procedures and discussed the viability of new technology to reach community members quickly and effectively. In fact, plans for a new communications system are under way and are expected to be in place by this fall. The system will include broadcast screens in key buildings as well as communication by text messaging to cell phones.

We will continue to look at all available options to ensure that our communications systems are multifaceted, are flexible enough for a variety of situations, and take advantage of new and emerging technology.

Our Parents Help Line (434-243-3333) is available to assist parents as needed in answering questions.

In the near future, we will be communicating further with students about personal safety and steps to consider in advance if they were to find themselves in a potentially violent situation. We will forward this communication to parents so we can work in a consistent manner to follow guidelines should a crisis occur.

While tragedies such as Monday's are rare, education and preparation remain our best defense in keeping our community as safe as possible.

Sincerely,

Patricia M. Lampkin
Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer