One year ago today, students at Ball State University were shocked by a shooting that left five dead less than 300 miles away at Northern Illinois University.
Student Steven Kazmierczak killed five and wounded 18 other students before he killed himself last Valentine's Day. Kazmierczak was later found to have had a history of mental illness and violence.
The tragedy has affected not only students but also safety measures on both Midwestern campuses.
Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president of marketing and communications at Ball State, said the biggest security updates since the shooting have involved the way the university alerts the campus of danger.
"I think it became clear, unfortunately, to every higher education institution that day that the advantages of being able to communicate would be very helpful," he said.
Ball State now alerts students and faculty of emergencies through e-mail, voice mail and the university Web site, Proudfoot said, but one of the most important features of the communication system is text message alerts. This service was already in place by the time of the Northern Illinois shootings, but it has grown in use among students since then.
"We encourage students to sign up for text messaging," he said. "We've tried to promote it, particularly at the beginning of the year."
More than 7,500 Ball State students are signed up for the text messages, which took less than five and a half minutes to be received by 98.2 percent of students the last time the service was used, Proudfoot said.
"We test the emergency communications protocols once a semester," he said. "We're not only testing the technology, but we're testing our own practices and familiarity with the equipment."
Junior architecture major Jake McKinney said he noticed an improvement in Ball State's emergency communication after the Northern Illinois shootings.
"I think they definitely kind of started to consider that kind of stuff," he said. "They definitely stepped up security a little bit."
McKinney said he also noticed an increase in the presence of university police in certain areas of campus.
Director of Public Safety Gene Burton said the police department reviewed its polices and procedures after the tragedy to make sure they were as up to date as possible.
"We've tested and made improvements to all of them," he said. "It did raise a level of awareness."
Burton said beyond the communication system, another emergency tool Ball State uses is an early warning system for identifying students and faculty who exhibit behavior that might indicate psychological problems.
While Proudfoot and Burton both emphasized Ball State's good security record in past years, Burton said the shootings at Northern Illinois, a campus that is similar in many ways to Ball State, made the issue hit home for students and faculty here.
McKinney said he had never expected to hear about a shooting at a school that was like Ball State.
"It caught me by surprise," he said looking across campus. "I think after that I definitely started to think that it could easily happen around here, especially right over there between the library and Pruis Hall, walking through there every morning."
Proudfoot said the best strategy for dealing with emergencies is being ready for anything.
"The crisis management team is fully aware that we need to be prepared at all times for any number of scenarios that could threaten the campus, threaten the safety of the campus," he said. "The best thing we can do is have the tools in place and have the training in place to be prepared."
At Northern Illinois, university security officials had already begun setting up an emergency text alert system before the shooting occurred, Northern Illinois Student Association President Brent Keller said, but the police also made more changes after the tragedy.
"By and large the NIU police are more cognizant of that kind of thing," he said.
The university has a series of events planned to honor victims of the shooting, Keller said, including memorial services, a candlelight vigil and a time capsule to be filled with reflections on the tragedy.
Keller said in the last year, students have been reluctant to discuss the events of last Valentine's Day.
"What I've noticed throughout the course of the year is that not a lot of people are willing to talk about it still," he said. "When it does come up in conversation it's one of those awkward moments of silence."
As the calendar has moved toward the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, though, people have started to open up more and more, he said.
"Within the past week, as the anniversary is approaching, I've seen people start talking more about it," Keller said. "I think it's caused a lot of people to reassess how they're feeling."
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