Look, I have read a tremendous number of posts and heard considerable commentary on the news, questioning whether Virginia Tech did enough…. did they?  Maybe not.  But, I don’t think other schools would have handled it, differently.  I went to undergrad at Vandy.  I made the comment to a friend, just today, that I don’t think that Vanderbilt would have handled that situation, differently.

Look, no school is ready for something like this.  Maybe, in this nutty world they should be.  But, they are not.  And, maybe, this will be a wake-up call to schools all over the country that they need to develop procedures for this type of thing.  But, as I think back to college, I ask “what would Vanderbilt have done?”  To my knowledge, there is no Vanderbilt Siren that would go off.  How do you get in touch with an entire university community?

Also, unfortunately, schools are very concerned with their image.  I am sure that there was an element of thought that “let’s keep this thing quiet, initially, until we figure out what is going on…”  I don’t think that thought is unique to Virginia Tech.  Schools are concerned about image.  Maybe, in this case … they should NOT have been.  But, possibly, they were.  After all, how do you think this will impact enrollment in the fall?