Michigan State University students, faculty and staff now have access to online training aimed at preparing them as marksmen. And 82% of “identified” university classroom doors have been fitted with new, easy-to-use locks.
But a year after a gunman killed three students and injured five others in a campus attack, most of the MSU community remains without voluntary training. Hundreds of classroom doors that are infrequently used do not have new locks installed, and many new locks cannot be secured remotely during a crisis. Additional security upgrades promised after the shooting have not yet been completed.
And a criminal investigation into fake calls pouring into law enforcement and scanners about a second shooter and other incidents on campus, causing confusion for first responders and residents amid the chaos of the attack, is currently underway. is also in progress.
In late January, MSU announced a list of security updates, upgrades, and policy changes in light of the 2023 attacks. It's a process hailed by the interim president and outgoing security chief, but one that requires vigilance.
“A number of improvements have been made to campus safety and security, including metal detectors, ID use, and changes to door locks. They have been noted, but we recognize what has been improved and are looking forward to further Please note that work needs to be done.’ It needs to be done,” MSU Student Body President Emily Hoyumpa told the Free Press Thursday.
“I would like to see the university complete the items it said it would do, especially improved alerting, before listing other needed changes. Safety and security is for everyone. It's not the same definition.'' It's not one-size-fits-all, so I hope the university makes an effort and continues to listen to the concerns of students, faculty, staff, and the community to understand what needs to be fixed. Masu. ”
Marlon Lynch, MSU's vice chancellor and chief safety officer, joined the podcast to discuss safety updates on the same day they were announced. Lynch, who was police chief at the time of the attack, praised the university's efforts to date, but said MSU will continue to push for improvements.
“We are not static. … If we continue to focus on one thing, we will probably continue to fall short of expectations. If we listen to what people have to say, we will continue to make progress,” he said on the Jan. 30 episode of MSU Today.
The day after the update, the university also announced Lynch's impending retirement. Mr. Lynch is leaving to take a comparable leadership position at the University of Colorado.
Aggressive violent intruder training
As of January, about 3,300 people had taken the online Aggressive Violent Intruder course, including about 1,800 faculty and staff and 1,500 students, said Dana White with the MSU Police Department of Public Safety. That represents about 14% of the faculty and just 3% of the students at the large university, which has campuses in other parts of the state, including East Lansing and Grand Rapids.
“The University will reevaluate later this semester how we encourage our campus community to complete training. As we approach the one-year anniversary of February 13th, we are prioritizing the health and healing of our campus at this time. ” White said in a statement.
“We will be reminding and encouraging people of the importance of training and information on how to get involved later in the semester.”
The training was made mandatory after the shootings and only became available in December 2023, despite promises it would be ready at the beginning of the school year.
Lynch said the university decided not to require the training in the fall to avoid the possibility of re-traumatizing anyone in the community.
At the time, university officials said the training rollout was delayed because the video component had to be completed. That component is not yet available. White said it is still in the “post-production” stage. It is unclear why the university was able to offer the training without the video portion, since this was not an option in the fall.
For many years, MSU offered in-person training upon request. But due to the pandemic, it now includes virtual training. White previously said the new training will target a broader audience and the video component will help prevent confusion that could arise due to multiple aspects of the training.
“Because the video was filmed in many locations on campus, it had to be done when classes were not in session and another location was available for filming,” she said Thursday, adding that the video will be released later this year. Semester, he added, will be published.
While some advocacy groups argue that active shooter training can be harmful to participants, law enforcement and other experts say the training is used to ensure safety in emergencies. argues that it is important.
door lock
Mr White said locks were added or replaced on 82 per cent of “identified” doors last year. This specified condition is the key. A month after the attack, Woodruff promised to install easy-to-use locks on about 1,300 doors.
After several months, the university decided that hundreds of those rooms did not need these keys. That's because the classrooms are not used as often or are non-traditional, a former MSU spokesperson told the Free Press in the fall.
Instead, MSU determined that 793 classrooms needed new locks. As of October, 624 people had these locks. Now it's up to about 650.
This includes installing new locks on 29 doors in Berkey Hall, the academic building where multiple students were killed in a shooting. MSU installed the lock in December and reopened the hall in January.
In a recent podcast interview, Lynch explained the two different types of locks in use. Doors often have thumb-turn locks. As the name suggests, you use your thumb to lock the door from inside the room.
He said first responders can override the locks from the outside, noting that this is common in K-12 schools.
Larger classrooms, such as large auditoriums with double doors, are equipped with electronic locks. Lynch said teachers can lock the door by pressing a button from the front of the room, but there are other teachers in the classroom as well.
“It's a big red plunger,” Lynch said. “When these buttons are activated, police are automatically dispatched to a specific location and doors are automatically locked.”
ongoing investigation
As is often the case with mass shootings, a significant amount of misinformation is disseminated throughout the community.
During the MSU attack, law enforcement and other agencies on campus appeared to receive conflicting reports regarding the shooter's location, as well as false indicators of additional shooters and other inaccurate details.
Later, law enforcement pointed to part of the chaos as how the gunman was able to flee miles from campus before being confronted.
“That's one of our lessons: How do we tell people not to believe what they hear on the scanner,” current MSU Police Chief Chris Rothman told the Free Press last year.
“That's why we need to vet that information and disseminate that information. And is there a better way to do that?”
Rothman said at the time that federal law enforcement suggested some of the misinformation flooding scanners and other police communications may have been intentional.
White said late Thursday that the department believes that happened.
“During the search for the suspect, one incident of a false report of a threat was identified that occurred on February 13. Our detectives continue to investigate this incident,” she said.
She did not provide additional information about the investigation.
Alerts and central security system
On the night of the attack, the first emergency alert was issued more than 10 minutes after the first 911 call.
MSU Police offered various explanations for the delay but promised changes. Lynch outlined some of the improvements in a recent letter to the university community.
Lynch said the university can continue to distribute alerts via text, email and phone call. But now the university can also send alerts through his SafeMSU app. He encouraged everyone in the community to download the app.
The university can now send alerts through outdoor sirens and emergency green light phones.
Perhaps the biggest technology upgrade caused by this attack is not yet complete. It's a move to some new security systems and a new security operations center.
The center is currently in a temporary location. Lynch and White emphasized that it operates 24 hours a day. But Lynch said in the fall that the new center would be completed by the end of 2023, and more recently said it should be completed within the next few months.
Mr. White reiterated this schedule without explaining the delay.
During the attack, law enforcement did not have the ability to monitor all security cameras in real time. In a recent letter to the community, Lynch said the department has used the temporary center to “resolve several cases in real time.”
White did not say whether all cameras could be monitored in real time and did not respond to questions on the issue.
The university also cannot yet remotely lock all exterior doors. Lynch said the system would be completed “as soon as possible” in the fall.
White said buildings with access to electronic locks can be secured remotely from an operations center. But she declined to say how many buildings have this electronic locking system in place.
Contact Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or @Dave_Boucher1 on X (previously known as Twitter).
