NIU has set up new security and emergency procedures to prevent situations such as the one that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus last spring semester.

The Virginia Tech incident made students and faculty alike more aware of campus safety. Residence hall employees have set up several precautions in campus residence halls, such as locking doors after 11 p.m, using key-operated elevators and increased police patrol to ensure the safety of students.

“Residence hall security is in place now for this academic year,” said Tom Krepel, the assistant to NIU President John Peters.

Community advisers in the residence halls have gone through training to be prepared for any emergency incident, Krepel said. Each residence hall has campus security personnel. A police officer is expected to patrol the residence halls during the night.

“We trained all officers to respond immediately to violent behavior like what happened at Virginia Tech,” said Lt. Todd Henert of the University Police.

NIU has also trained K-9 dogs to locate firearms and explosive devices in packages. Furthermore, all of the officers have gone through training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), along with members of the NIU staff.

A mobile command post located on campus provides communication facilities such as a radios and maps to locations in case of severe weather conditions. The mobile command post also sends messages out to other counties. Incident Action Plans helps prepare officers and staff to deal with large-scale events such as football games, concerts and parties.

NIU also provides late-night rides driven by security guards for student safety.

The security at NIU provides students with protection against any incident or event that may occur, some employees say.

Although NIU has installed several new security measures, sophomore accountancy major Kortney Wollert remains skeptical.

“Everywhere you go [a Virginia Tech-like situation] could happen even with the amount of security,” Wollert said. “You never know.”