Colleges remain wary of terror threats

In light of the rise of the national terror threat designation from "yellow" to "orange" a few weeks ago, universities across the country have become more conscious of safety. Especially in urban areas more likely to be the targets of terrorism, administrations are working more and more closely with local police to increase security around campus. At Penn, an Emergency Crisis Plan has been put in place to deal with crises of varying degrees of seriousness, according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush. Penn has identified four stages of crisis, with specific plans on how to respond to each. The plans range from responses to minor fires all the way up to evacuating the entire University City area in the event of a chemical or biological attack. Additionally, Rush said that Penn has instituted "redundancy upon redundancy for communications" systems, including back-up generators for administrative communications centers in the case of power outages. It has also established a unified radio network with Drexel University, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and local police and fire departments to facilitate communication. "The University isn't an island," Rush said. "We are totally involved with agencies at the local, state and national level." Although Penn has not made any structural changes to campus in response to the heightened threat of terrorism, Rush pointed to existing measures that could protect the interior of campus. For instance, the steel poles located between any intersection of public roadway and the central campus now serve the added function of keeping unauthorized vehicles, which could be used in a destructive capacity, away from campus. Georgetown University has made even stricter restrictions to campus access. Only one entrance to the main campus will be open, and "officers will also conduct random spot-checks of vehicles," according to a comprehensive security statement issued by Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas. Penn joined many schools, including Columbia, Harvard, Georgetown and Princeton universities, in issuing official statements to the student body in the wake of the increase to "orange" alert. Penn students received an e-mail on Feb. 13 urging them to stay calm and assuring them "that the University has taken every step possible to ensure [their] well-being in case of an emergency." Columbia president Lee Bollinger issued a similar statement to the Columbia community. In addition to standard security increases, including more regular communication with local police, Columbia has "augmented [its] security... including at the entrance gates, on-campus parking garages and loading docks," according to the statement. New York University has also "made it much harder to get from building to building without proper ID," in addition to instituting specific safety training workshops for interested student groups, according to NYU's Associate Director for Student Life Stephen Polniaszek. In a Feb. 13 statement, NYU President John Sexton told students that "the university has purchased plastic sheets and duct tape," and that resident advisers would "be provided with portable radios, flashlights and first aid kits." NYU now also maintains a two-day stock of food and water in the dining halls, the statement said. Georgetown has created Emergency Response Teams, consisting in part of "building and floor marshals [who] have also been designated to assist people in each building during an emergency." Dimolitsas said in the statement that "these marshals... will identify themselves in your buildings and will be one of the principle sources of information in an emergency."