Weeks following the Feb. 13 shooting at Michigan State University, MSU leadership announced it would require all students, faculty and staff to undergo active violent intruder training the following school year.
More than halfway through the fall semester, however, the training remains unavailable, and MSU has said its completion will be optional rather than mandatory.
MSU Department of Police and Public Safety spokesperson Dana Whyte said the decision to make active violent intruder, or AVI, training optional came after receiving feedback from the community concerned with the emotional impact the training could have on traumatized individuals.
"It was determined that training would be strongly encouraged instead," Whyte said. "Emotionally, it might be difficult for some to complete (AVI training) right away, so we didn't want to make that training mandatory."
In a statement to The State News, MSU deputy spokesperson Dan Olsen explained that although the university views AVI training as "necessary," they want to allow people to absorb the training when they feel emotionally prepared.
"While we're not focused on punitive measures for compliance, we will reevaluate our effectiveness in student and employee completions in a year to determine if we need to take additional actions to ensure our Spartan community is engaging in this process," Olsen wrote.
The new AVI training, which is currently being developed, will take the form of an online program that Whyte described as an "all-encompassing and accessible" approach to AVI training, in contrast to the smaller, in-person training currently offered by the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety.
Whyte added that information about completed training would be communicated through a campus-wide email from Vice President and Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch later this semester.
Apart from AVI training, MSU is also working to complete its other promises made to the community following Feb. 13, including installing new door locks on approximately 800 classrooms, a step down from the original goal of 1,300 classrooms. Although the university hoped to have the locks installed by the beginning of the fall semester, the outside review of MSU's response to the shooting found that 65% of the locks had been installed.
In addition, Whyte said staff have been hired and trained to work in the new security operations center that will be able to monitor all campus cameras. She added that once the security systems on campus are centralized, staff will begin to work out of an interim location until renovations are complete on the permanent center.
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