University Addresses Security, Mental Health During Open Forum

Less than two weeks after 32 people were murdered at Virginia Tech, Georgetown administrators and students are still attempting to cope with the tragedy.

The Office of Student Affairs held a town hall meeting in Sellinger Lounge Tuesday night to discuss support systems, emergency response policies and other issues that have arisen since the shooting.

Administrators stressed during the meeting that the university has a strong “safety net” to help students facing mental disorders and is bolstering safety procedures.

Department of Public Safety Director Darryl Harrison said during the meeting that university and Metropolitan Police Department officials met last week to review procedures and improve coordination. Harrison said the university gave MPD campus layouts and building plans to carry in patrol cars.

Peter Luger, director of special projects in the university’s senior vice president’s office, said at the meeting that Georgetown began creating emergency response procedures the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that Georgetown would have responded more quickly than law enforcement and university officials at Virginia Tech to a shooting on campus.

The university chose not to close campus in January, 2005, when an unknown man attacked party-goers in Alumni Square, leaving Daniel Kenny (MSB ’07) with a mangled hand and shattered nose and Peter Fisher (COL ’07) with a bullet wound to the head. Luger said he was not familiar with the incident.

But despite the university’s safety enforcement measures, several students maintained at the meeting that they are worried by what they consider easy access to residence halls.

Yvonne Elosiebo (COL ’08), a resident advisor in New South Hall, said during the meeting that she feels that student guards are often an inadequate security stopgap and that residence halls are unsafe as a result.

“I feel like this system is expensive and inefficient and needs to be improved,” she said.

Aside from safety enforcement, students at the meeting said they would have liked to see expanded memorial and support services. The university held two religious services last week to pray for those affected by the shooting.

“I feel like the only thing that’s changed is that the flags are at half-mast,” Melanie Kantor (COL ’08) said. “I felt like I was mourning and grieving on my own.”

Several administrators and students expressed fear that students’ grief could change into prejudicial behavior against Asian Americans, whom they fear would be associated with Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, who was born in South Korea.

Dennis Williams, director of Georgetown’s Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, said at the meeting that the university’s Bias Reporting System is the main way the university collects data about bias incidents. He said other organizations on campus, including the Diversity Action Council and the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, address issues of bias and diversity.

Myonghun Han (MSB ’10) said in an interview that his dean, Emily Zenick, e-mailed him on the day of the shooting to ask how he was feeling.

“I was worried that there would be a backlash against Korean-Americans,” Han said. “So far at Georgetown … there hasn’t been any sort of discrimination or backlash against Korean Americans, and I’m glad for that.”

Matt Fleming, outreach coordinator for the university’s Counseling and Psychiatric Services, said at the meeting that CAPS will increase the number of free counseling visits available to students. Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson added that similar programs are available for faculty and staff.

Outside of the meeting, many students and faculty have been focusing on how the university would respond to students with mental health issues.

Michelle Hess (COL ’08), founder of Georgetown’s chapter of Active Minds, a national organization dedicated to mental health awareness, said that the university needs to do more to address the issue of mental health.

“I think [the shooting] should be a wake-up call to Georgetown that we need to do a better job at educating students about mental illness and the prevalence of mental illness on college campuses,” she said. “We need to get an open dialogue going between CAPS and the administration and the students.”

According to an article published last week by the U.S. News and World Report, 37 percent of college students reported being so depressed that they had trouble functioning, while nearly 10 percent had considered committing suicide.

Olson said in an interview that university officials assess each case of a mentally disturbed student separately and recommend a course of action for the individual. Recommendations may include remaining on campus or leaving for a period of time.

“It happens a number of times each year that the best course of action is to take a medical leave of absence,” he said.

Olson said the university usually recommends that students remain on campus and enter counseling.

—HOYA Staff Writer Brian Burke and Susan Weeber contributed to this report.