Children Are Our Future

Some people say that “children are our future”. If that is true, college students are our immediate future. Our nation's future rests on the security of our institutions of higher education. I first became acutely interested in college campus security after the Virginia Tech shooting April 16, 2007. This massacre took the lives of 33 people and was the deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history. I moved by the story of Liviu Librescu, a 76 year old professor and Holocaust survivor who died protecting his students from the Virginia Tech gunman. It was said that Librescu “blocked his classroom doorway from a gunman while his students leapt to freedom”.

I often wonder if Professor Librescu’s death could have been prevented with the addition of a Classroom Security Lock. Many lock manufacturers have included this lock function in their product lines. This lock function gives the occupant the ability to lock the outside lever handle from a key inside. This gives the occupant the ability to lock the door from the inside without opening it and move to a safer location in the room. Campus public safety officers should insist on classroom security function locks when designing their overall security plan.

This is why I take campus security very seriously. There are approximately 30,000 campus public safety officers who protect the 4,200 colleges and universities across the nation.


The FBI also takes campus security very seriously. Below is a listing of a few of the partnerships that the FBI has put in place in recent years.


Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) - Campus Liaison Initiative designates an FBI agent or task force officer from every field office to coordinate with campus public safety officers and other school personnel.

Academic Alliance Program – Provides assistance to tackle national security challenges like global adversaries trying to steal U.S. information or technologies.

National Security Higher Education Advisory Board (NSHEAB) – This board is comprised of 20 university and college presidents and chancellors, many from schools with large research labs. The board meets several times a year with us in Washington D.C., often in concert with other federal agencies, to talk about national security implications facing their research facilities.

College and University Security Effort (CAUSE) – This effort joins agents in charge of the FBI’s 56 field offices with heads of local institutions to discuss similar issues brought up at the NSHEAB board meetings.

Office of Law Enforcement Coordination (OLEC) – The OLEC was created following 9/11 to build on relationships with law enforcement partners at all levels, including campus officers.