BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech’s internal report on the April 16 shootings released today offers recommendations on bulking up security and communication during crises and infrastructure to deal with troubled students. The report, however, is not critical of the university’s response to the shootings and handling of Seung-Hui Cho in the months before he killed 32 students and faculty and himself.

On May 9, Tech President Charles Steger called for three internal reviews in the wake of the tragedy. He asked each group to examine “strengths and weaknesses of our existing systems/infrastructure and how they may be improved or augmented to address emergency situations that might arise in the future.”

Since then, the three groups have looked at the university’s existing security system, its communication infrastructure and information systems and its relationships between student counseling, the legal system and academic and judicial affairs.

The counseling group, headed by Jerry Niles, former dean of the college of liberal arts and human sciences, met four times over the summer and included discussions with six national experts on identifying and responding to the needs of at-risk students.

The university and the local community services board faced criticism after the shootings because of what appeared to be a lack of follow up and sharing of information about Cho before the shootings. Cho had run-ins with local law enforcement and was committed to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health outside Radford in 2005. He also exhibited behavior that alarmed multiple English professors and his roommates.

The report is short on specifics regarding the handling of Cho and on criticism of the university’s current system of dealing with troubled students.

“By its nature the overall system at Virginia Tech is logically connected and responsive,” it reads. “That is, if members of the university community have a concern and they direct it to one of the key offices, they will get support and assistance on how best to pursue their concern. … The system for dealing with at-risk student (sic) is considered to be comprehensive, accessible and responsive.”

The university says the reviews are internal in structure and focus and not intended to be forensic in nature.

“I asked for the creation of two different, but concurrent review processes,” Steger said. “The external review commissioned by Governor [Tim] Kaine is essentially investigatory in nature, while ours is a forward-looking review of university policy, resources and infrastructure through the prism of April 16.”

The report does reference a federal report on the shootings that laments “information silos” at universities across the nation as well as a state inspector general’s report that notes, “No single office was fully aware of the extent of the concern about” Cho.

The report also states that faculty and administrators are concerned about a lack of knowledge and clarity of the university’s current system dealing with at-risk students and “a feeling that there was inconsistent follow-up with referring parties.”

The report on the interface between counseling services, academic affairs, judicial affairs and the legal system has seven recommendations.

• Refine the “Care Team,” a group of university officials charged with identifying and responding to at risk students, to include a law enforcement officer and director of the office of services for students with disabilities. At least one person on the team should be authorized to share information with other appropriate organizations inside and outside the university.
• Form a threat assessment team to deal with students that could pose a threat to others. The Cook Counseling Center and dean of students office should also add case managers to follow up with students. Also, a better understanding of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is needed to improve communication And Tech should designate a central person who has a comprehensive picture of distressed students. “The lack of a consistent knowledge basis for applying FERPA may well block the flow of information that is necessary to form a comprehensive picture of an at-risk student,” the report reads.
• Tech’s violence prevention policy would benefit from a committee to ensure programs are in place to support it. This Committee for Campus and Workplace Violence Prevention would coordinate efforts to promote a civil, accepting and non-violent community.

Led by Earving Blythe, vice president of information technology, the internal information and communications infrastructure group was charged with analyzing and taking inventory of the communication infrastructure and information systems used during the crisis period, evaluating their performance and identifying tactics and strategies for improvements.

The committee found that the telecommunications infrastructure, including the data network, telephone system, cable TV, education systems and centralized information services on campus and in the community was “dramatically stressed during the initial response period but performed adequately.”

The committees’ report notes that information technology staff contributed in key ways to information-forensics and data storage and retrieval. Forensic information was provided to law enforcement for the investigation and personal records including e-mail, voicemail and filebox were provided to families of victims.

The report also highlights communications infrastructure “that experienced degradation during the response,” including cellular telephone systems, the Public Switched Telephone Network and emergency responder radio communications.

According to the report, during the initial response period on April 16, local cellular networks became congested and blocked calls. After the initial response period, cellular providers dispatched technicians to increase tower capacity and by April 17, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular each had “Cell on Light Truck” systems operating on campus and each had provided emergency-use phones and accessories.

The report also notes that call volume into the Blacksburg area through the Public Switched Telephone Network, increased several fold on April 16 and that the local provider acknowledges call blocking occurred. The PSTN is engineered to avoid call blocking under normal circumstances, but not during emergencies.

The report also found “deficiencies in interoperability and coverage of police, fire and rescue radio communications,” a common problem among emergency responders nationwide. In particular, emergency responders reported radios did not work inside some areas of Norris Hall.

The committee’s report concludes with more than 120 “tactical recommendations” and two major strategy recommendations. They are:

• The university “should develop a new information architecture designed from the ground up for resiliency, performance, applications integration and ubiquitous access.”
• Tech “should cooperate with community and regional emergency response agencies for the development of a fully interoperable mobile communications system with advanced capabilities.”

A committee charged with investigating security at Virginia Tech recommended building a new public safety facility, monitoring some offices by closed-circuit television and installing computerized message boards that would provide alerts during emergencies.

At Monday’s Board of Visitors meeting, university officials will request $1.6 million to move forward with design of a new public safety building with an expanded dispatch center that also would consolidate police and rescue services under one roof. The proposed two-story, 35,000-square-foot facility would include space for training, emergency vehicles and a command center.

Committee members also suggested:

• Installing video surveillance cameras at some locations on campus, including some offices, along with electronic card access controls on interior office doors.
• Install electronic text displays with audible alarms in classrooms, within entrances to key buildings and at outdoor campus entrances. The displays would alert the campus to emergencies and provide instructions on how to react.
• Create a locator system that members of the campus community could use to post their status so worried family members and others could check on loved ones during a crisis.
• Each campus building be assigned a coordinator that would be trained in emergency response.

Since the attacks of April 16, the university already has moved to keep campus housing facilities locked at all times, except to residents with electronic key cards. Housing facilities typically had been unlocked every day from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.