campus security: [may 2008]
Published: 04/16/08
- Colleges Put Out Safety Nets
From the article of the same title by: Marilyn Elias, USA Today - The Virginia Tech shootings have prompted colleges to take action in order to prevent a tragedy from occurring at their schools. Risk assessment teams, present on 20 percent of campuses before the Virginia Tech murders, have been added to many campuses. "Now I don't know any college that hasn't either created a team or strengthened the one they had," says Gwendolyn Dungy, executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. A team, which assesses reports on potentially dangerous students, typically includes faculty, residence advisors, psychologists, administrators, and campus police.
In a recent survey, 66 percent of center directors said professors and others on campus meet with counseling centers to discuss "students of concern." Many colleges are going one step further by encouraging disturbed students to receive psychological help or alerting their parents. Mental disorders are becoming far more common among students, according to surveys by the American College Health Association. In 2007, 15 percent of students were reported by institutions to have been diagnosed with depression. Twenty-three percent of students who came to campus counseling centers were on psychiatric medication. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist practicing in Port Washington, N.Y., says these numbers are probably even higher. "Most don't even tell the schools they're on meds."
However, Edward Mulvey, an expert on mental disorders and violence at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, says the majority of people with mental health disorders are not violent. "Massacre killings are almost impossible to predict," says Mulvey. But Richard Kadison, chief of mental health services at Harvard, says colleges still have to make the attempt. "If you're going to make a mistake, it's better to err on the side of keeping students safe."
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