I think emails, calling RAs, announcement systems, voice mails and cancelling classes are reasonable precautions to take if the police think there is a killer on campus. And the fact that a killer might pose a danger to students on campus is a reasonable assumption to make. The fact that the school apparently took no precautions and had no system in place for protecting students from a campus-wide threat, no matter how porous those precautions may be in practice, will expose the school to significant liability.

And the fact that a killer might pose a danger to students on campus is a reasonable assumption to make.

Particularly considering that Va. Tech. had 2 bomb threats last week, both of which targeted the engineering buildings.

If, for some reason the emails didn't get through, they should have put a general announcement on the school's website and initiated a phone tree. (It's slow - but at least you know people have the information.)

no system in place for protecting students from a campus-wide threat

I'm not sure we know this. It seems like they didn't employ a system, but has it been reported that they didn't have any crisis/disaster plan?

I think we're sort of posting from two different angles here. I don't deny that the campus may be facing a staggering amount of liability. I'm just viewing this story from where I sit in my office at my university and seeing how the best laid plans could easily fail to reach a large number of people.

Va. Tech. had 2 bomb threats last week, both of which targeted the engineering buildings.

When I was at Marquette, working at the main library, we had a standard "what to do" sheet for when a bomb threat was called in, that's how often that happened. The science library got even more bomb threats.

We have evacuation, fire, bomb threats and gas leaks. (Those are internal procedures, written by us, not campus.)

I am sitting here thinking about how students would be notified if something like that happened. I mean, sending out a university wide email can only be done by a few people, and most students don't check their University emails except once or maybe twice a day. In fact, I was trying to get in touch with a student, had sent multiple emails to different addresses, etc. How did I finally get the kid? Sent a message on Facebook.

Shooter on campus seems like it would call for a loud blaring tornado siren type warning. Email can't cover that.

No doubt we will hear more than we ever wanted to about the sequence of events in the next few days. It seems likely that they believed the earlier shooting was the end of it.

I can't even imagine what the thousands of loved ones were going through this morning. I don't want to imagine it.

What did they do in the olden days before email?

When I was at UW-Madison, a guy came on campus and shot his ex-girlfriend in the head (she survived). Then he disappeared. A day later they found him dead in his motel room (suicide). But for a day no one had any idea where he was. There was no lockdown or official warnings to students (that I remember, anyway). The college papers did print descriptions of the guy, with the standard warning to call the police if anyone sighted him....

Shooter on campus seems like it would call for a loud blaring tornado siren type warning.

No one would understand what the siren meant and would run outside to see what was going on -- human kind is a bunch of rubberneckers.

Really, we've all got to get those chips implanted in our heads so we can be reached directly by those in authority. (no!)