Emergency procedures exist, no concrete plan in place at MSU if shooting were to occur

What if the massacre on Virginia Tech University's campus took place closer to home?

On our campus, the answer isn't reassuring.

At least thirty-two people were killed and dozens wounded Monday after a gunman at Virginia Tech shot up dorms and classrooms before turning a gun on himself, The Associated Press reported.

If a similar incident took place at MSU, university officials said there is no plan of action in place.

MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said it's difficult to predict how university officials would react to a shooting rampage.

"If you're at a residence hall and someone comes in shooting, I don't know if we have a plan for that," Denbow said. "There are things you do in an emergency response that are based on the facts at hand. It is wrong to impose a scenario. A lot of it's conditional upon what's happening."

MSU police Chief Jim Dunlap said while there is no campuswide action plan for students to follow if a gunman attacks, university officials do have emergency response plans — such as phone trees, e-mail and pagers, among other forms of communication — to notify the community of what's transpiring.

There also are about 30 emergency coordinators responsible for advising and assisting faculty, staff and students in buildings across campus if an emergency, such as a bad weather or a fire, occurs.

But the coordinators are not prepared to handle a shooting.

Diane Baribeau has been Wharton Center's emergency coordinator for 14 years, and although she said she can safely handle situations involving bird flu, chemical spills and tornadoes, she would not know what to do if someone attacked campus with a gun.

"Today's shooting is evidence that we need to talk about it," Baribeau said. "Shootings are obviously coming more to the forefront. You want to feel safe where you're going. We have to bring our emergency team together and get a plan.

"But I don't really know if you can plan for it."

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon issued a statement Monday on her personal blog expressing sympathy for the Virginia Tech community.

"If such horrific and senseless violence can be brought to a lovely campus in Blacksburg, Va., on a spring morning, we wonder where, if anywhere, we can feel safe," Simon said in the statement. "The sad reality is that in our world today, no community is immune from unpredictable violence."

She did not return phone calls for comment, and Denbow said the statement would be Simon's only communication with the media about the incident on Monday.

MSU's campus, with about 600 facilities, is nearly twice the size of Virginia Tech's.

There are 500 police officers in Ingham County, Dunlap said.

"You would see regardless how many resources would be depleted," he said. "You wouldn't even have enough to put one per building. Locking down with 60,000 people at any given time would be like closing down a city. It's not something you can do in a matter of seconds.

"Even with the communications program we have set up, it takes a few minutes. Even with the predesigned plans, that has to trickle down."

Security On Campus Inc. is a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing violent crimes on college and university campuses nationwide. The group trains college and university personnel to respond to crisis situations.

"What happened (Monday) morning is not typical," said Jessica Tubbs, an intern with the group. "It's not similar to any college crimes. It's difficult to fault them for not being prepared, but it is very easy to be critical of their response.

"In a situation like this, it's more of a reactionary than a preventative measure."

In addition to the communication plans, there is a combined special response team of about 20 officers from the East Lansing, Meridian and MSU police departments who are responsible for responding to high-risk drug busts, hostage negotiations and other critical incidents.

These officers train once a month for two days, participate in an additional two-week program and are equipped with rifles, shotguns and other tactical weapons, Dunlap said.

There also are officers from the Ingham County Sheriff's Department who are trained as medics, which minimizes the number of officials needed.

The teams are meant to take on more stabilized situations in secured areas, he added.

Every MSU police officer trains with the Range 3000 XP4, a computer that provides the officers with virtual reality scenarios of different situations involving shooters and bystanders to help officers develop judgment and decision-making skills.

"How do you work together to formulate a tactical plan to make an entry into a facility where there's an active shooter, and minimize injury and damage?" Dunlap said. "It's training that's really unique."

The Virginia Tech shooting comes near the chilling eight-year anniversary of when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

After the Columbine incident, many college campuses nationwide trained their police officers with an active shooter response technique, which MSU police are trained to use.

"If there's an active shooter, you just can't wait for them to get done doing whatever they're doing or wait for a SWAT team to arrive," Dunlap said. "All of our police officers go through that training every year."

The university also has an incident command center to discuss crises that threaten the campus, but its location is secret, MSU officials said.

For more information about how MSU responds to emergencies, go to www.dpps.msu.edu. To read Simon's complete post about the shooting, visit www.president.msu.edu.

Kristi Jourdan can be reached at jourdank@msu.edu.