A year after the Virginia Tech massacre, VCU students and faculty gathered for
a vigil Wednesday evening to remember the 32 victims who died.
“Knowing that you can come together and knowing that you have others’ support
helps the grieving process,” business administration major Jessica Bui said.
Nursing faculty member Kathy Baker said students are more aware of campus safety.
“It reminds us of how fragile life is and that innocent life was lost.”
The new security measures implemented at VCU this past year include sirens
atop campus buildings, emergency-text messaging and LCD screens in hallways-all
measures intended to inform students about emergencies quickly.
John Bennett, vice president of finance and administration, serves as the
university’s incident commander. While noting VCU has the largest university
police force in Virginia and has had a full-time emergency planner since 2003,
Bennett said the newer measures fix gaps in communication.
“We’re too big and too spread out for one way of communicating with
everyone,” Bennett said. “We decided what we needed is a multi-channel way of
communicating.”
Although Bennett said it is important to be prepared for situations such as a
school shooting, he said the VCU community should be more aware of common
safety issues such as theft and inclement weather.
“We don’t really have much crime. Over half of what we have is theft,” he said.
“Most of those (incidents) are preventable.”
Some students at the vigil said they generally have felt safer on campus since
the massacre last year.
“There is still a feeling that it could happen,” mechanical engineering major
Robert Rakowski said, “but still a greater feeling of safety.”