Both on and off-campus public relations practitioners agree NIU succeeded in its response to Wednesday’s shooting at 809 Edgebrook Drive.

Kathy Buettner, vice-president of University Relations, said the first thing the university had to deal with was determining the threat level for students.

“With the shooter at large shortly after the incident, it was important to send out the campus alert text message, which was done at 3:05 a.m. Wednesday,” Buettner said. “This information was also sent via email using our campus advisory system.”

Brad Hoey, director of Communications and Marketing, said the most important goal for NIU was to get information out “as quickly and accurately as possible.”

Kenneth Trantowski, of KGT Communications, said NIU has handled the situation well so far. He said the overall issue of campus safety must be addressed.

“Northwestern University, University of Illinois Circle Campus and Champaign-Urbana have very recently experienced campus violence issues,” Trantowski said. “One act of violence at NIU is too many but in comparison to other colleges across the country, the NIU problems may appear less frightening to students, parents and faculty. The problem is a national issue and it needs to be understood and addressed locally. More important than acknowledging the problem is to take a leadership position in solving it.”

Paul Palian, director of NIU Media and Public Relations, said the public’s perception of the university and the university’s reputation is second to caring for students who were affected by the incident.

“Right now our main focus is on Steven, his family and the grieving process of the campus,” Palian said.

Trantowski said it is now NIU’s job to serve as an example of how to deal with these situations.

“NIU must communicate that it will not tolerate unlawful behavior by its students or visitors to its campus,” Trantowski said. “By taking a leadership role in dealing with the problem, NIU can serve as an example to other schools in the state, region and across the country.”

Hoey said he does not think the incident will have a negative effect on NIU’s future enrollment rates, and the number of students interested in going to NIU is actually up from recent years.

“We have had great success promoting our open houses in October and November,” Hoey said. “During these open houses, we stress the importance of safety and security at NIU.”

Hoey said safety is an issue that affects all of society.

“Every college campus deals with issues of safety,” Hoey said. “Especially places that have dense populations like NIU. A vast majority of the incidents that occurred at NIU were isolated incidents, and most of them occurred off campus. We stress the many safety and security measures that we have here on campus.”

Hoey said compared to other universities, NIU is not any worse in terms of safety, and Buettner said NIU is one of the safest campuses in the nation.

“NIU has a safe campus, but no community or college campus is completely immune to crime,” Buettner said. “NIU has consistently been towards the top end of state institutions of similar size in terms of safety.”

Trantowski said repairing NIU’s reputation will be a slow process.

“NIU can improve its reputation by attacking the violence problem with a focused solution to prevent crime,” Trantowski said. “NIU cannot ignore the incidents that have taken place in recent years and needs to be open and truthful in all its future communications about past campus violence.”

“Right now our main focus is on Steven, his family and the grieving process of the campus,” Palian said.

Trantowski said it is now NIU’s job to serve as an example of how to deal with these situations.

“NIU must communicate that it will not tolerate unlawful behavior by its students or visitors to its campus,” Trantowski said. “By taking a leadership role in dealing with the problem, NIU can serve as an example to other schools in the state, region and across the country.”

Hoey said he does not think the incident will have a negative effect on NIU’s future enrollment rates, and the number of students interested in going to NIU is actually up from recent years.

“We have had great success promoting our open houses in October and November,” Hoey said. “During these open houses, we stress the importance of safety and security at NIU.”

Hoey said safety is an issue that affects all of society.

“Every college campus deals with issues of safety,” Hoey said. “Especially places that have dense populations like NIU. A vast majority of the incidents that occurred at NIU were isolated incidents, and most of them occurred off campus. We stress the many safety and security measures that we have here on campus.”

Hoey said, compared to other universities, NIU is not any worse in terms of safety, and Buettner said NIU is one of the safest campuses in the nation.

“NIU has a safe campus, but no community or college campus is completely immune to crime,” Buettner said. “NIU has consistently been towards the top end of state institutions of similar size in terms of safety.”

Trantowski said repairing NIU’s reputation will be a slow process.

“NIU can improve its reputation by attacking the violence problem with a focused solution to prevent crime,” Trantowski said. “NIU cannot ignore the incidents that have taken place in recent years and needs to be open and truthful in all its future communications about past campus violence.”

Both on and off-campus public relations practitioners agree NIU succeeded in its response to Wednesday’s shooting at 809 Edgebrook Drive.

Kathy Buettner, vice-president of University Relations, said the first thing the university had to deal with was determining the threat level for students.

“With the shooter at large shortly after the incident, it was important to send out the campus alert text message, which was done at 3:05 a.m. Wednesday,” Buettner said. “This information was also sent via email using our campus advisory system.”

Brad Hoey, director of Communications and Marketing, said the most important goal for NIU was to get information out “as quickly and accurately as possible.”

Kenneth Trantowski, of KGT Communications, said NIU has handled the situation well so far. He said the overall issue of campus safety must be addressed.

“Northwestern University, University of Illinois Circle Campus and Champaign-Urbana have very recently experienced campus violence issues,” Trantowski said. “One act of violence at NIU is too many but in comparison to other colleges across the country, the NIU problems may appear less frightening to students, parents and faculty. The problem is a national issue and it needs to be understood and addressed locally. More important than acknowledging the problem is to take a leadership position in solving it.”

Paul Palian, director of NIU Media and Public Relations, said the public’s perception of the university and the university’s reputation is second to caring for students who were affected by the incident.

“Right now our main focus is on Steven, his family and the grieving process of the campus,” Palian said.

Trantowski said it is now NIU’s job to serve as an example of how to deal with these situations.

“NIU must communicate that it will not tolerate unlawful behavior by its students or visitors to its campus,” Trantowski said. “By taking a leadership role in dealing with the problem, NIU can serve as an example to other schools in the state, region and across the country.”

Hoey said he does not think the incident will have a negative effect on NIU’s future enrollment rates, and the number of students interested in going to NIU is actually up from recent years.

“We have had great success promoting our open houses in October and November,” Hoey said. “During these open houses, we stress the importance of safety and security at NIU.”

Hoey said safety is an issue that affects all of society.

“Every college campus deals with issues of safety,” Hoey said. “Especially places that have dense populations like NIU. A vast majority of the incidents that occurred at NIU were isolated incidents, and most of them occurred off campus. We stress the many safety and security measures that we have here on campus.”

Hoey said compared to other universities, NIU is not any worse in terms of safety, and Buettner said NIU is one of the safest campuses in the nation.

“NIU has a safe campus, but no community or college campus is completely immune to crime,” Buettner said. “NIU has consistently been towards the top end of state institutions of similar size in terms of safety.”

Trantowski said repairing NIU’s reputation will be a slow process.

“NIU can improve its reputation by attacking the violence problem with a focused solution to prevent crime,” Trantowski said. “NIU cannot ignore the incidents that have taken place in recent years and needs to be open and truthful in all its future communications about past campus violence.”