With a country focused on keeping campuses safe, NYSUT is studying ways to improve safety procedures and methods to alert faculty, staff and students of danger.

Earlier this year, President Dick Iannuzzi has asked the statewide union's Higher Education Council to gather information from its public and private colleges to review campus safety plans and prevent violence.

The council is developing recommendations for universal safety and security policies and looking at the possibilities of joint labor-management violence-prevention training that could be a model. The council will evaluate the consistency and coordination of emergency communication protocols at a time when new technologies are suggesting paths of innovation.

" New York state has no uniform safety and security measures to prevent or respond to violence on its campuses," Iannuzzi said. "The council will look at what works and doesn't work on individual campuses."

The urgency of the mission became evident on April 16 when a student killed 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Because several hours elapsed between the murderer killing two students and then 30 others, university staff across the country have been forced to ask what plans their campuses have for communication about danger.

Solutions range from student phones and electronic text messages — a system the State University of New York at New Paltz instituted just three days before the massacre — to sirens, public address systems and e-mails.

Dave Henehan, a SUNY spokesman, said that under consideration for the 64-campus system are "sirens and reverse 911 systems" where students could be called en masse with an automated ring and given a voice message with instructions about a threat or emergency.

SUNY is "actively considering" text messaging and other forms of instant communication, he said.

With 417,000 students, SUNY campuses range from community colleges with enrollments of 1,500 in rural areas to urban settings like SUNY Buffalo with nearly 30,000 students.

SUNY is reviewing training for law enforcement and residence hall staff, Henehan said. Outgoing SUNY Chancellor John Ryan has championed additional training for university police.

"The tragic events at Virginia Tech have caused us to focus very, very sharply," Henehan said.

On Long Island, Suffolk Community College has added counselors but not psychologists since a stabbing on campus several years ago, said faculty association President Ellen Schuler Mauk.

CUNY

A decade of budget cuts has "decimated" full-time counseling staff at the City University of New York, said Steve London, vice president for the Professional Staff Congress.

"Let's try to prevent this stuff," London said. "We're working with CUNY on a joint proposal on mental health issues."

He said CUNY has one counselor for about every 5,000 students. In a system like CUNY, with a large, diverse immigrant population, "there's this huge, huge need," London said. "To not even have a rudimentary staff is just begging for trouble."

PSC President Barbara Bowen said the union has had a proposal before the City Council for more counselors. Since the Virginia Tech massacre, that proposal has been "ramped up."

CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor Allan Dobrin earlier this month outlined new initiatives for safety: speeding up introduction of text messaging to students, adding emergency information to orientation packages, posting campus-specific emergency info on college Web sites, providing training to college presidents and increasing efforts to ensure students who need it receive professional counseling.

New Paltz

The SUNY New Paltz alert system is similar to procedures at SUNY Stony Brook and Cobleskill and Tompkins-Cortland CC.

New Paltz faculty, staff and students register their cell phones by going to a Web site to fill out a form. Once registered, emergency response planners like Rachel Reuben can text message them in a crisis.

Reuben, director of Web communication and strategic projects, is the lead on the project.

"Text messaging will not be our only tool — but one of many important tools we'll have in our toolbox," said Reuben, a member of United University Professions.

Initially, college officials were seeking ways to communicate weather-related cancellations when other safety concerns emerged. Several months ago, high-temperature water lines burst underground, cutting off heat and canceling classes.

"We also realized the importance this system could play in the event of any kind of emergency," Reuben said.

Beneath all the plans lies prevention. Chancellor Ryan, at a legislative hearing earlier this month, said SUNY needs more professionals to handle the increase in students with mental health issues.

Ryan said the recommended ratio of counselors to students is one to 1,000-1,500. At SUNY's state-operated campuses, the ratio is generally one for about every 1,700 students. At SUNY Albany, however, it is 1 for every 2,000 students, according to testimony.

The chairman of NYSUT's Higher Education Council, William Scheuerman, said the council's goal will be to recommend ways to prevent violence and minimize injuries if violence does occur. Scheuerman is president of UUP, the NYSUT affiliate representing faculty and professional staff at SUNY.

— Liza Frenette