A year ago today, a student gunman on the campus of Virginia Tech University opened fire on students, killing himself and 32 people.
On Valentine's Day, 10 months later, a gunman opened fire on a Northern Illinois University lecture hall, killing himself and five students.
Many universities across the country, including Ball State University, reacted to these incidents by developing critical response plans to address what schools can do in order to prevent such incidents from unfolding on their campuses.
The American Medical Association wrote in 2007 that in the wake of such shooting events, universities seek commonalities.
The advice being given to students and others on how to react is based, according to the association, on profiling of past campus shooters. This is problematic, according to the association, because there have not been many active shooting incidents on college campuses, so there are no conclusive patterns to predict how future shooters will act.
David Fried, director of Ball State's Department of Student Rights and Community Standards, said the school is not looking to profile the student body.
"It's not a matter of whether [students] are a threat," he said. "If my office pursues disciplinary action, it isn't in relation to the threat. It's whether or not [a student] violated the student code."
University departments, such as Housing and Residence Life and the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, report to Fried, providing information for a common database, which allows the most serious cases to be routed directly to the office of Student Rights and Community Standards.
"To a great extent, we've already had these mechanisms in place," Fried said.
June Payne, director of Counseling and Health Services at Ball State, said administrators must strive to educate, rather than profile, the student body about what behavior is acceptable.
"I don't think profiling is personally the way that we need to go about this," she said. "If a person is exhibiting threatening behavior, I think that needs to be taken seriously. But on the other hand, if a student reaches out to a faculty member, it becomes our role to try and best assist the student with how they can get the best services."
Larry Markle, director of Disabled Student Development, said Ball State must not react to campus shootings by isolating students.
"In the wake of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois, I think many people's awareness and concern has been heightened," he said. "It becomes important that my office lets people know that just because somebody might be acting differently than others, it doesn't necessarily mean the person is a threat."
Markle works with students with disabilities, some of which he said are more visible than others.
Some, including Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, can manifest behaviors which on the surface could seem threatening, but, Markle said, these are often misunderstood.
"Whether you have a disability or not, the presence of a disability doesn't excuse someone from violating the student code of conduct," he said. "But the ultimate underlying concern we should have is with the actual behavior. Is that behavior a violation of the student code? Is the behavior a direct threat to the individual or to the safety of others? And if so, disability or not, we need to deal with it."
Students with the syndrome can struggle in social situations, he said. They might interpret situations literally, appear not to pay attention and present other odd behaviors in the classroom, Markle said. The key to bridging a gap between student and teacher in such situations, Markle said, is education.
"I've gotten calls from professors on campus saying, 'Hey, I have this student in my classroom and we're concerned,'" he said. "If there's some way I can help, I'm certainly open to doing so."
Much of what Ball State is doing to protect students in the wake of the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois shootings was in place long before the incidents.
Ball State, Fried said, has had a group called the Critical Incident Response Team for eight years.
The group, chaired by Cathy Bickel, the acting associate dean of students, meets monthly to share information to see if a student is showing up on multiple administrators' radars.
"A student has the right to be perceived as innocent until proven guilty," Fried said. "But if a student's actions toward a faculty or staff member or another student cause the person to become reasonably apprehensive of physical harm, then there may be disciplinary action as a result of that."
Bickel said students need to show responsibility in observing the world around them.
"If you see something that is disturbing, there are all sorts of resources for you to use," she says. "If I'm concerned about my roommate or I'm concerned about what one of my fellow students is doing or saying in the classroom, then I really should have a responsibility to report that."
The school will continue to evaluate what it does in these situations, Fried said.
"[We've tried to] be more sensitive to concerns brought forward by individuals on campus who may have a concern," he said. "We've tried to respond to these concerns as they are brought forward."
Fried said the university is ahead of the curve with trying to prevent a shooting.
"I'm not sure that what happened at Virginia Tech would have happened here under those same circumstances," he said. "I think that individual would have been dealt with through one of these processes and at least required to follow through with what they required of him."
Bickel said students need to take responsibility for themselves in a dangerous situation.
"In terms of protecting yourself from a potential NIU or Virginia Tech situation, the truth is you can't," she said. "What we need to do is teach students to think about self preservation. It's very morbid, but I teach, and I can tell you exactly where in that classroom I'm going to head in such a situation. All we can ask anybody is to use their best common sense."
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