The shooting deaths of two students and the wounding of nine others at Brown University by a lone gunman in mid December—and the fatal shooting two days later of an MIT physics professor—sent shock waves through colleges and universities across the country. During winter break, Dartmouth immediately increased security patrols on campus, as it does for busy weekends such as Homecoming, Winter Carnival, and Green Key.
In an early January message to the community, President Beilock expressed sympathy to colleagues and friends of the victims and said the College is reviewing its emergency notification systems and protocols for responding to a violent intruder. “Protecting our community’s safety is something my entire leadership team takes very seriously,” she said.
On an idyllic campus where many buildings are unlocked and readily accessible, security is a balancing act, says Josh Keniston, senior vice president for operations. “One of the things that makes Dartmouth a special place is the openness and the allowing of community on our campus. So right now, our thinking is not to lock everything down. I think that would really be counter to the culture and ethos of Dartmouth, but how do we then balance that? What else do we need to do to make sure we’re keeping people safe?”
He emphasizes that the College already has “pretty comprehensive emergency response plans. We’re not starting from scratch. And within those plans are a bunch of scenarios in different situations: How would we respond? How would we communicate? What would we do?”
The College planned to review its emergency preparedness plans in late January to improve information flows and address concerns. “We may decide to make some tweaks or adjustments to reflect where we are today,” Keniston says.
One question is whether additional buildings on campus should require a Dartmouth ID for entry. Residence halls already are key-locked, and the College has a well-established policy about security cameras. It requires outward-facing cameras on buildings such as residence halls, where there’s an expectation of privacy inside.
Keniston encourages everyone on campus to utilize the LiveSafe app, a free download for smartphones that the College introduced in 2015. It enables people to easily ask for help if they feel threatened. He also wonders whether the DART alert system that sends out emergency messages is reaching community members in the best way: “A question we’re asking ourselves right now is, ‘Do they have it on the right device and at the right time?’ ”
He says it’s essential to learn from tragedies elsewhere. “We don’t have the answers today. I think we’re always cautious about not being too reactive to the most recent thing. But the Brown and MIT tragedies offer a chance to say, ‘These played out in new ways, in ways that we haven’t necessarily seen in recent history,’ and to ask, ‘What could we learn that we should incorporate into our own processes?’ ”
