Inside Furman, Spring 2007

Planning for the unthinkable
Universities, including Furman, are re-examing crisis management after the Virginia Tech tragedy

When Seung Hui Cho, a Virginia Tech graduate student, went on a murderous spree April 16 killing 32 students in what would become the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, Bob Miller was saddened.
But not surprised.

“It was just a matter of time,” says Miller, Furman’s longtime public safety director. “A lot of people (in law enforcement circles) have been predicting this.”

The proverbial wake up call came eight years ago when two students gunned down 15 students at Colorado’s Columbine High School.

“The problems that you see in the high schools eventually make their way to colleges. I saw it during the 70s with illegal drugs. Later it was alcohol abuse. Now this.”

After an initial outpouring of grief, the Virginia Tech shootings sparked a dialogue at Furman and many other college campuses across the country. Could such a tragedy occur here? What, if any, measures are in place to identify and help troubled students?

While universities are generally safe places, social scientists and counselors say rising student anxiety, clinical depression and academic and societal pressures could place college campuses at a greater risk for rage crimes.

Paul Rasmussen, a psychology professor who studies teen-age behavior, says a pervading sense of entitlement, materialism, class envy and obsession with status – all reinforced through pop culture and mass media – is fueling more contempt, which can lead to anger and sometimes violence.

“With the Internet, television and advertisements you see people who are all smart, good looking and have all the things our society and culture values like a nice car and adequate finances,” says Rasmussen. “Some see people with these outcomes and feel slighted when they don’t have them. People feel contempt for those who have the things they don’t. That contempt can turn to anger and that anger can cause all sorts of different reactions.”

While the Internet, email and text messaging can link people, technology can have an isolating affect as young adults devote more time to video-gaming and Internet communities such as Facebook and Myspace. As a consequence, they spend less time learning to relate to one another. Many movies, televisions shows and much of the Internet, too, are saturated with images that glorify violence and self-indulgence.
“People can live their life through fantasy,” says Rasmussen.

Also, college students – particularly those at high achieving schools such as Furman – face mounting academic pressure to make good grades.

“The amount of pressure our students put on themselves is incredible,” says Harry Shucker, vice president of student services. “When I was at school (at Furman 40 years ago) a ‘C’ was an average grade. It was acceptable. Now there is a constant push to make all A’s.”

Day-timers filled, rushing from class to meeting, cell phone to laptop, many students leave little time for reflection. This non-stop, workaholic lifestyle has earned today’s teenagers and college students the nickname “Generation Stress.”

The intense competition to gain admission to top colleges has some nearing mental exhaustion before they step on campus. According to a freshman survey coordinated by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute and the American Council on Education, 30 percent of incoming freshman at Furman said they frequently felt overwhelmed with all they had to do.

Advancements in drug treatment have also enabled students with some mental disorders to attend college. Shucker says the number of Furman students taking medication for psychiatric conditions inches up each year. And Steve Dawes, director of Furman’s Counseling Center, says the number of Furman students that are “on the margin” increases each year. The university recently added a third full-time counselor to meet the growing demand.

Dawes and Shucker are both members of a “behavioral intervention” committee, a small group that has been meeting with very little fanfare for the past several years to share information about students that could need help. The group also includes a representative from academic affairs, university housing, public safety and health services.

The “cross-communication” between the departments can help identify troubled students and discuss intervention, if needed. Members share information about absenteeism, school grades and disciplinary problems. Shucker emphasizes that Dawes and members of the Health Services, while a member of the group, do not discuss individual cases.

“We meet once a month until exams,” says Shucker. “We meet three times during the month of exams because there’s much more pressure then.” Dawes adds: “By sharing information, we can pick up on something that we might have missed before.”

Because of its size, on-campus residence requirement, existing policy and culture, Furman is better equipped to pinpoint and manage student stress than many institutions – particularly large state institutions.

More than 90 percent of Furman’s students live campus. During the work week, faculty have daily contact with students. In a small-campus setting, attentive professors and staff can often detect if a student is heading down a path to depression or growing anxiety.

The university’s freshman orientation program help acclimate students to campus life. The weeklong program includes peer counseling and helps establish a support group that students may turn to later. Faculty, staff and residence hall advisors are encouraged to look for symptoms of mental illness.
And throughout the year faculty and administrators are encouraged to urge students to find time to relax and reflect on their college experience. Healthy eating and getting adequate sleep are messages that are reinforced.

“We should encourage students to participate in college and study hard,” says Shucker. “They need to balance these things with time for reflection and relaxation, too. College should be an enjoyable learning experience.”

But if the unthinkable happens, how would the university respond to such an emergency? If a shooting occurs, Miller says, his officers would respond immediately to “negate the situation.” The department, which has between two to three patrol officers on duty depending on the shift, calls the sheriffs office for back up in extraordinary cases.

A crisis management core team – a group of roughly 20 Furman employees – meets quarterly to brainstorm appropriate responses to campus emergencies. When a crisis occurs elsewhere, the committee often troubleshoots how the university would have responded and, occasionally, stages drills.
Months after the 9/11, Furman, the Sherriff’s Office, S.C. Highway Patrol and several area hospitals participated in a joint exercise simulation where a plane pilot had dusted a football crowd with a toxic chemical.

Members have also discussed how the university would respond to a residence hall fire, hurricane, storm flooding and even pandemics. The information is included in the university’s Emergency Preparedness Manual.

While the manual is a useful referring document, Miller says it’s impossible to script an emergency.
“If there’s an emergency and first thing you do is reach for the plan then you are in trouble because you don’t know what do to do,” says Miller.

Miller says each representative on the committee – from the chaplain’s office to student services and marketing and public relations – understand their role in a emergency.

“Everyone knows what they are supposed to do because we have been thinking ahead. We don’t have to say anything,” says Miller. “Crisis Management is not something we think about when there is a crisis. We think about it constantly.”

Like it did with Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, the committee will discuss and learn from the Virginia Tech shootings. Miller has already scheduled a “joint active shooter” exercise this summer with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

“The one good thing that can come out of this,” says Miller, “is that people will learn from it.”

Q: What are signs that a student or work colleague may be suffering from depression or mental illness?
A: Work or class absenteeism, threatening self-harm, erratic or unpredictable behavior or withdrawal from typical activities.

Q: What about student privacy laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?
A: While FERPA does restrict access to student records by parents or third parties with no legitimate educational interest (unless given permission by the student), the law does allow contact with parents "if knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or of other individuals."

Q: If I – or a student or work colleague needs helps – what office should I call.
A: There are three offices that can help.
Chaplain’s Office – 294.2133
Counseling Center – 294-3031
Student Services – 294-2202