www.roanoke.com

BLACKSBURG -- Few new details about Virginia Tech's handling of post-April 16 recommendations were revealed when the university's board of visitors met Monday. But there are plans for public discussions about the recommendations down the road.

The university is processing hundreds of suggestions it received from a state panel and three internal reviews formed to study the shootings and their aftermath. In September, the board heard details about the plan to handle those recommendations through the work of a policy group of administrators and two special committees of faculty, staff and students.

The heads of those two committees met with board committees in closed sessions Monday to discuss the progress they have made. The university closed those meetings citing the security of Tech facilities and individuals and is not releasing documents or reports related to those meetings.

Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs and chairwoman of one of the committees, said Monday that her group has met three times and has identified "priority areas" from the list of recommendations. Her committee was assigned those recommendations related to human dimensions. The other group, led by Richard Sorensen, dean of the Pamplin College of Business, is focusing on security and infrastructure.

Hikes said the committee still needs to receive additional comments from the policy group and university vice presidents before the process reaches the public discussion stage, but broader community feedback is important.

Hikes and Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said public sessions will be held to discuss the recommendations and their implementation, but no timetable has been set for those discussions.

In briefing the board on the process Sunday, Tech President Charles Steger said the public discussion would likely take the form of town hall-style meetings and said any recommendations need the support of students, faculty and staff if they are to be effective.

While the process of analyzing and implementing the recommendations is still progressing, the university has already made several changes in policy and infrastructure since April.

James Hyatt, Tech's executive vice president and chief operating officer, gave the board a review of those changes Monday. Among the changes he mentioned were the establishment of case-manager positions to follow up with troubled students, the creation of a threat assessment team to monitor students who may pose a threat and exterior door replacements on 10 buildings so they cannot be chained shut.

The board also approved the transfer of 95 acres from the university to the Virginia Tech Foundation on Monday. The land transfer will allow for the expansion of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a 120-acre research park that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the foundation. The 95 acres designated for expansion are northwest of the CRC, adjacent to the research park and the Virginia Tech/Montgomery Executive Airport.