While information about exactly why the Virginia Tech graduate student accused of killing another student last week visited the school's counseling center is unknown, his interactions with the center did not apparently indicate that he posed a threat to himself or others.

University officials said Thursday that such indications would have brought Haiyang Zhu to the attention of one of the teams of university leaders designed to deal with troubled students. Zhu came to neither their attention nor the attention of Tech police before the night of Jan. 21, when police found him and the body of fellow Tech graduate student Xin Yang in the university's Graduate Life Center.

"In accordance with professional ethics as well as state and federal law, the Cook Counseling Center does not release information regarding students' participation in counseling unless (1) the student has signed a release of information specifically allowing such sharing of information or (2) the student represents a danger to self or others," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "If a student represents a danger to self or others, the Cook Counseling Center has an obligation to assist in a safe resolution of those concerns."

Zhu is charged with first-degree murder in Yang's death. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. March 5 in Montgomery County General District Court. According to a search warrant affidavit, the investigation revealed that Zhu had received treatment at Cook since he arrived at Tech in August. During a search of Zhu's apartment, officers saw business cards and a resource packet of psychological brochures.

The counseling center participates in both the university's CARE team and threat assessment team. The former was created in 1989 and handles cases of students with various problems, from a death in the family to injuries in a skiing accident, said Ed Spencer, vice president for student affairs.

The threat assessment team, formed in the aftermath of the April 16, 2007, shootings at Tech, typically deals with students who are a threat to themselves or others, Spencer said. The groups meet weekly to discuss cases and determine if any action needs to be taken to help an individual or ensure the safety of the community. If a concern that needs immediate attention arises, they will meet upon demand, Spencer said.

The CARE team handled 233 cases last academic year. Visits to the counseling center numbered 11,065 during the same period as the university dealt with the aftermath of the April 16 shootings. Spencer said students visit the center for a variety of reasons.

"Someone can go to the counseling center because their grades are low or they're having time management problems or they want to enroll in a class and they want to know how to take exams effectively, all the way up to serious problems," he said.

Spencer said other universities consult Tech often when trying to create or improve programs for working with troubled students. He said he thinks the communication between the different groups of the university on the two teams has been very effective. People who assume a student has shown serious problems just because he visited the counseling center could be making a false assumption, he said.

"I'm afraid John Q. Public leaps to an inappropriate conclusion," he said. "Nobody knows exactly what that record is but people could jump to a conclusion that it is quite serious when it may not be."