Is the University of Minnesota prepared for a mass shooting? Students push for more safety measures

University of Minnesota student Jacob Richter found himself worried about one thing when he became chair of the campus safety committee this year: the harrowing possibility of a mass shooting.

“I recognized how unsafe the infrastructure was on campus,” he said of having no cover from a shooter in a classroom with furniture bolted to the ground. “We want to get ahead of what a tragedy could be.”

Richter, part of the U’s Undergraduate Student Government, and other concerned students want the U to step up its safety efforts, including requiring students to take active shooter training and adding interior locks on classroom spaces, with a recent petition he started drawing more than 200 signatures.

The issue has only become more pressing to him, he said, since the shooting at Florida State University on April 17 in which a student killed two people and injured six more.

U leaders say campus safety is among their highest priorities and they are exploring new security measures.

“It’s something that we are committed to,” said Gregg Goldman, the U’s executive vice president for finance and operations, said. “The students have been great partners in working toward some concrete and deliberative things that we can be doing to try to continue to improve campus safety.”

Last fall, the U’s student government surveyed undergraduates and found that about 85% didn’t know what to do in an active shooter situation and about 60% thought school officials could do more to equip students to respond, said Richter, a senior graduating this month.

Flora Yang, a candidate for the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents’ student-at-large seat, has also made improving campus safety one of her goals.

“There is definitely still room for continued advancement of safety,” she said in an email.

The U includes an active shooter training video and other resources on its website, but watching it isn’t required, Richter said.

Goldman said the U is looking into putting locks on all classroom doors. A team is creating a comprehensive plan that will assess what kind of technology should be used on a building-by-building basis, and the U is “committed to start the process” of investigating mandatory active shooter response training for everyone at the U.

“I want to be very intentional with how we approach it, how we address it; same with the training,” he said. “It’s not going to be a one-month or two-month solution to do this in the right way.”

Unlike K-12 schools, college campuses aren’t locked down every day and are more accessible to the public.

In 2007, the first major mass shooting took place at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. A college student killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with semi-automatic pistols and shot himself. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

In recent years, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and Michigan State University have also experienced mass shootings.

While a mass shooting can occur anywhere, college campuses are a “target-rich environment” because they’re spread out with so many buildings, said Michael Lawlor, a University of New Haven professor and a former legislator.

Lawlor said installing interior door locks and requiring students to watch training videos are sensible steps to take, though most young people went through similar trainings in school. Retrofitting many doors with locks can be expensive, he said.

Lawlor said college students should also watch trainings about how to identify a person who may become an active shooter, since in every mass shooting, there were warning signs that the shooter was troubled and had access to guns.

“The most important thing I say to people is if you see something, you need to say something, even if it’s a member of your family or a patient or your roommate,” he said.

The University of New Haven recently installed a video surveillance system using artificial intelligence to detect when someone has a firearm so law enforcement can respond, he said.

Steven Healy, who runs a safety and security consulting firm based in Philadelphia and works mostly in higher education, said campus shootings aren’t prevalent. But because there’s a high potential for loss of life, colleges must pay attention to the risk.

Colleges employ a variety of resources to keep people safe, Healy said, including having “behavioral threat assessment programs” where students and faculty can alert officials about people acting suspiciously, using ShotSpotter technology to identify gunshots and firearm detective systems. Security cameras are helpful but must be monitored to be effective, he said.

“We’re starting to reach a tipping point where many institutions are moving toward universal classroom locking devices,” he said. “We work with hundreds of campuses in a given year; I would say probably 30% have universal [locks] with another 20% moving in that direction.”

Richter said he emphasizes the need for classroom locks because of the Michigan State shooting. Students there noted that the shooter wouldn’t have been able to walk into classrooms and fire if doors locked. Michigan State hired a consultant who told them the same thing; locks were installed within 18 months.

The U hasn’t experienced a mass shooting but violent crime has escalated near campus in recent years. There was a bomb threat that didn’t materialize and at least two people have made violent threats to campus, Richter said.

The U has a campuswide system where some buildings’ doors, including most lecture halls, require the scan of a U Card — a student ID card —to open. But the cards don’t control rooms inside buildings, Richter said, and students often follow another student into a building without scanning their card. The shooter could be a student who has their own U Card, Richter said.

Goldman said the U is looking at campus security systemwide and will include all five institutions in the U’s system in the planning process. There are more than 800 classrooms on the Twin Cities campus alone, and some have multiple doors, he said.

Multiple kinds of locks will likely be used, based on the room, the building’s age and its existing technology, he said, adding that he doesn’t have a cost estimate or timeline yet.

Goldman also said the U is working to have a QR code posted in each classroom telling students how to flee in an emergency. That way, students can keep the information on their phone.

In Dinkytown, U students had varying thoughts on campus safety and what might be done to improve it.

Junior Angela Huynh said she’s warier in spaces with many people crowded together than classrooms, but she said she usually feels safe on campus.

Freshman Levi Hasse said he was more nervous about a mass shooting in high school than college. Because many buildings require U cards to enter, he said that makes him feel safe.

Student Austin Berthiaume added that he’s more nervous in Dinkytown than on campus.

Richter said most students don’t think about mass shootings on campus unless they’re told about the possibility.

“Every day that goes by with classrooms that are completely unequipped to handle this is another day where tragedy could strike,” he said.