This sentiment, which Simon first explained in the wake of the Purdue University on-campus shooting in January, was reiterated at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting. The reminder prompted her to address outright what she referred to as destructive behaviors, including peer-to-peer violence.

Other violent crimes, such as sexual assault, also have been concerning to university staff and students.

Several sexual assaults have been reported on campus this school year, and university estimates indicate only one in five rapes on campus ever reach officials.

During her comments, Simon seemed at a loss as to how to handle the recurrence of “destructive behavior” appropriately.

“I’m really perplexed on how best to deal with this,” Simon said. “We are limited about what we can do in terms of the difference of the university and it’s access to programs and opportunities into a residence hall. We are also limited in what can happen in places that are near us, but not of us.”

Such was the case with the Cedar Street shooting.

Hospitality business sophomore Dominique Nolff died on Feb. 1 after he was shot the night before in his apartment on the 200 block of Cedar Street.

The shooting happened at 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 31. Two hours and 20 minutes later, MSU police sent out a text alerting students to the shooting.

Many university officials say the school is adequately prepared for an on-campus emergency, but others believe faculty and staff have more work to do.

Faculty Response

In terms of individual responses, the MSU Police Department has information posted on their website detailing what students, faculty and staff should do if an active shooter were to become an issue on campus.

MSU spokesman Jason Cody said many students may not be intimately familiar with active shooter policy because most of the focus is on educating faculty and administrators because of the transient nature of students.

Cody said many administrators, faculty and staff are involved in keeping campus safe from a variety of emergencies.

In the summer of 2012, for instance, MSU had a full-scale active shooter drill in which many departments on campus participated and responded the way they would in an actual shooting.

Fischer said “tabletop” drills take place yearly along with a review of the emergency plans. Another full-scale drill likely will take place in the coming summers, when buildings involved can be easily shut down without inconveniencing students.

In addition to planning within departments and at the faculty level, Fischer regularly makes rounds to university faculty committees to give presentations on active shooter preparedness.

But MSU faculty are not required to attend seminars on active shooter safety.

Although resources are available, Chair of the University Committee on Faculty Affairs William Donohue said he believes most faculty aren’t prepared to deal with an active shooter situation.

“I would say that most faculty are not prepared in knowing what to do,” he said. “It’s not clear what the resources are and what the response would be. Most faculty have never encountered anything like this.”

Donohue said since the Cedar Street shooting, he thinks faculty have generally felt more urgency to acquaint themselves with active shooter response procedure.

“If a lockdown is required, who knows how that will work,” Donohue said. “It’s a big place with 500-some buildings and with a lot of people and it’s difficult to get clear information out to everybody on how to respond.”

Fischer specifically named Donohue as a professor who has been adamantly involved in attending seminars and educating himself on the procedure. Donohue said this was because his primary concern is with student safety.

“It’s a big responsibility,” he said. “Students should be able to learn in a safe environment without any fear of negative consequences.

“Normally we don’t have to be concerned about safety issues, but given the wacky way in which some universities have settled with this issue, it has to be the case that we know what to do and how to respond,” Donohue said.

Police Response

MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said the delay in notifying students of the Cedar Street shooting occurred because of the off-campus nature of the shooting. She said it was meant to be informative, not for emergency purposes.

“We had to make sure all the information we had was correct,” McGlothian-Taylor said. “Had there been an active shooter on campus, we would have alerted students since that would be an immediate threat.”

After the Cedar Street shooting, some students spoke out, saying the delay could have been detrimental to students.

Communication sophomore Ryan Boudreaux, a friend of Nolff’s, wrote a letter to The State News following the incident saying the shooting should be considered “on-campus.”

“In all honesty, this was a campus shooting, and the campus wasn’t even shut down like it was supposed to,” Boudreaux wrote. “Cedar Village Apartments, near where the shooting occurred, are home to most likely all MSU students and is literally on the border of MSU’s campus. Snyder and Phillips halls are directly across the street, so explain to me how this was not a campus shooting.”

Although MSU does not have “lockdowns,” as is typical in high school environments, the university does have “secure-in-place” procedures where students in classrooms and residence halls should remain in a safe place.

MSU police stands by its statement that the shooting was off campus but still strongly encourages students concerned about on-campus shootings to educate themselves on procedures and protocols.

Capt. Penny Fischer, an emergency manager for the MSU Police Department, said in the case of an immediate threat, students who are signed up for MSU text and email alerts should receive them.

MSU police send these alerts out through a hired company, which uses the database of student information to disseminate the alert. Fischer said non-emergency messages sent are outreach messages. The police department’s “primary focus is emergency alerts,” so that students don’t get used to receiving alerts too often and ignore them.

In an active shooter situation, MSU police and other important departments on campus would react to the situation under the guidelines of MSU’s Emergency Action Plan. Departments may also have their own plan centric to their department and responsibility.

University officials declined to provide the school’s Emergency Action Plan to The State News, claiming it cannot be shared with the public because it contains tactical police information.