Grover discusses campus safety and security

By Shannon Curley
Collegian Staff
April 25, 2007

One week after 32 students and faculty were killed in dorms and classrooms on Virginia Tech’s campus, La Salle Security, along with other college and university security forces around the country, has begun to evaluate and amend its practices and procedures.

La Salle’s Director of Security Art Grover, met with members of the Philadelphia Police Department to discuss ways to properly secure the campus in the event of an emergency.

“We thought it was appropriate, with the incident last week at Virginia Tech, to meet with our likely partners in the event of an emergency situation,” Grover said. “We’ve been working day and night since this happened.”

Present at the meeting were Inspector Joe Sullivan, Captain John McClusky from the 35th district, Captain Winton Singletary from the 14th district and Captain Steven Cross from the Philadelphia S.W.A.T. unit.

According to Grover, the two-hour meeting was “quite detailed.” The group discussed emergency preparedness, tactical responses and mapping. They also planned synchronized responses to various situations so that the reaction to any possible crisis will be as immediate and effective as possible.

The University is also looking into the new technologies that are available to improve communicationbetween the school, students and the community as a whole. Grover has already made inquiries about the text messaging systems that have been in the media and have already been implemented at Drexel.

A public address system that can be wired throughout the campus has already been purchased by the Security Department. This system would allow for building specific and campus-wide messages to be sent directly from Security headquarters. Security also plans to install equipment in all of its vehicles that will enable broadcasted messages to be driven throughout campus.

In addition to these measures, La Salle already has in place a mass e-mail system with which to relay messages to all of its students and faculty. The goal of the Safety and Security Department, according to Grover, is to minimize and mitigate risk.

The University has not balked at any of the improvements Security has suggested because of cost.

“I have never been denied by one of my superiors funding for a safety initiative,” Grover said.

“The violence isn't necessarily on our campus, but around our campus,” said sophomore communication major Emily Brennan. “I feel like the dorms are really safe, but our campus is so open. South campus is perfectly safe but once you get past the main quad it's a different story.”

As of right now, there are no plans for Security and Safety personnel to train students or professors in ways to handle an emergency classroom situation like the one at Virginia Tech last week.

Sophomore communication major Mary Elizabeth Sullivan said that she was not overly concerned with safety in her classes.

“I don't have many security issues in the actual classroom,” Sullivan said.

curleys1@lasalle.edu