Oklahoma University Hosts Campus Security Summit

Wednesday, May 30th 2007, 2:12 pm

By: News On 6

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) -- More than 500 higher-education officials from 24 states attended a forum Wednesday aimed at addressing campus security issues in the wake of last month's deadly shootings at Virginia Tech.

Hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City-based Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the National Campus Security Summit -- which organizers said was the first of its kind -- featured Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator David Paulison as a keynote speaker.

Other speakers at the conference included two student representatives from Virginia Tech, former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt and experts in profiling and threat assessment.

UCO President Roger Webb said that after the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, which left 27 students, five faculty and the gunman dead, "every institution in the country realized that what happened to Virginia Tech could happen to us."

But Webb, a former Oklahoma state safety commissioner, said that universities needed to be proactive in addressing security concerns.

"We can't look at Virginia Tech ... and turn our open places of learning into fear-ridden fortresses," Webb said.