In the wake of last month’s Virginia Tech University shootings, two Senate policy committees recently conducted hearings to address the issue of campus safety in California. The hearings focused on making K-12 schools, colleges and universities safer for the state’s students, teachers and faculty.

On May 2, the Senate Education Committee heard from Chancellor Charles B. Reed and other higher education segmental leaders, including K-12 school officials on “Addressing School Violence: How Can We Keep Our Students Safe?” a report by Ron Avi Astor, professor of social work and education at University of Southern California on school violence and bullying. The committee also heard from Robert Dynes, Mark Drummond and other representatives from the private institutions.

Chancellor Reed was joined by Judi King, chief of police at Fullerton State. He told the committee that "this is maybe my worst nightmare." He explained that the CSU has been performing terrorism drills even before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Our campuses have had a plan for reacting to shooting incidents since even before another school disaster at Columbine High School.

"We have an active shooter plan for instance on every one of our campuses," he continued. "We practice worst-case scenarios with our police departments. We have communication plans in case horrific accidents or emergencies happen on our campus."

Dr. Reed and other higher education officials said they would be able to improve campus security if some federal and state privacy statutes were changed to allow campuses to have access to more information about students because of federal privacy protections. Higher education campuses have trouble getting information about students who have been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment. Dr. Reed shared a recent incident at a campus where a troubled student was sent for mental health treatment. The campus could not find out details on his release, and later suspended him for the rest of the year to protect other students on campus.

Others on the panel described various methods for alerting students and staff members about emergencies. Some campuses have public-address systems while others plan to use campus radio and television stations for emergency alerts. Dr. Reed made the point that universities sometimes also have trouble getting students to give them their e-mail and cellular phone information so they can be contacted in an emergency.

On May 8, the Senate Governmental Organization Committee conducted an informational hearing on “Emergency Alert Systems: Can We Protect Our Students?” Senator Dean Florez, chair of the committee, told the audience that his committee has the Office of Emergency Services and the state’s emergency response in its jurisdictional area.

Nate Johnson, chief of police at Sonoma State and CSU Systemwide Police Coordinator and David Huerta, chief of police at Fresno State testified on behalf of the CSU. They were joined by Lt. Governor John Garamendi, Henry Renteria, director of Office of Emergency Services, other higher education segmental representatives and telecommunication service providers.

Lt. Governor Garamendi told the committee that a system using cell phones to alert people of a pending danger in almost any geographic area could be put into use quickly and with little expense. Henry Renteria said the concept would be similar to the Amber Alert system -- the nationwide system for alerting media outlets to child abductions.

"It could be done like a reverse 911 system," he said. "A dispatch center could send out a message to the general public." The message, he said, could be a voice mail or text message and could be accompanied by a specific phone tone alerting the user of its arrival. The telecommunication wireless providers, like ATT and Verizon, cautioned the committee about “network congestion” and the volume of calls that would saturate a small geographic area, like our campuses.

Rachelle Chong, commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission sent a letter to the committee explaining that the CPUC would be holding a workshop on emergency notification systems in June 2007. She said that the CSU and other higher education segmental representatives are invited to participate in this technical workshop. They will be reviewing new technologies now available for both landline and wireless communication devices regarding technologies capable of sending messages targeted to a specific area or to a specific community using text messaging, voice calling and e-mail.

Chief Johnson highlighted our goals of campus preparedness: preservation of life and property, being prepared for the most probable event, expecting the unexpected, written plans communicated broadly to the campus community, training of emergency response and emergency operation center personnel, having backup plans regularly, preparing after action reports of what went right and what didn't and to continue to practice, practice, practice.

When asked by Senator Florez if the CSU would support having our campus emergency operational plans reviewed by OES, Chief Johnson reminded the committee that our plans were developed using the State’s Standardized Emergency Management System and then revised to comply with the federal mandated National Incident Management System, but more importantly are coordinated with local law enforcement agencies that campuses have mutual aid agreements. He also pointed out that each of our campuses establishes their individual communication plans to operate for a variety of incidents/hazards using their available technologies for the specific event (broadcast e-mail, websites, phones, bullhorns, sirens, etc.)

Unfortunately for Chief Huerta, a few hours before the hearing, Fresno State had an active shooter incident occurring near the campus. Members of the committee peppered the Chief with questions about campus and community response. Huerta informed the committee that the campus sent an e-mail to students, staff and faculty telling them about the shooting; that message also was posted at the Fresno State Web site, and the campus emergency radio station began broadcasting an audio version. The message also was available on an emergency hotline. As the hearing concluded, Chief Huerta announced to the committee that the suspect had just been apprehended by Fresno City Police!