In the months following the Virginia Tech shootings, schools around the country took a hard look at their own security procedures and were faced with the question, “What if it happens here?”

Gary Reed, superintendent of Utilities, Facilities Planning and Management said Eastern is always revaluating safety issues on campus.

Last year, prior to the VT tragedy, Eastern’s faculty and staff formed a campus safety committee. Reed was on the committee along with Dan Nadler, Vice President for Student Affairs and other Eastern faculty and staff. Reed said that the committee addressed issues that faculty and staff noticed on campus and also addressed suggestions from students through communication with last year’s student body president, Sean Anderson.

Many areas of campus saw additions and improvements as a direct result. Among the most noticeable additions were the surveillance cameras installed in the common areas of the South Quad residence halls, Carman Hall and the Student Recreation Center.

Cameras like these have already been in use in other areas on campus like the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“They’re not like surveillance cameras where someone is watching this whole bank of screens, it’s just capturing what’s going on,” said Mark Hudson, Director of Dining and Housing Services.

Hudson said the cameras are to serve a preventative function.

He said he believes that if people understand that someone is paying attention, they will make better decisions.

“It’s about people making better decisions, it’s not about catching them, we just want to make people think,” Hudson said.

“If something happens, we would go back to this system, pull up the time and fix it. This is not about watching people. This helps us get to what happened.”

The footage captured from the cameras is connected to a website system and can be accessed by the University Police Department, Judicial Affairs and resident hall staff.

Every thirty days the security footage is re-written.

Resident Director Quiana Stone is pleased with the camera additions.

“It was nice to see that we were already on top of things in terms of technology and how we do things on campus,” she said.

Stone said she feels the cameras themselves not only deter people from causing problems in the residence hall community, but also help make the residents feel safer.

“We’re not trying to be Big Brother,” she said.

Stone has been the resident director of Taylor Hall for the past two years. Connie Sleezer has also been a resident director for two years, but in Andrews Hall. For directors like Stone and Sleezer, making sure students feel safe is a part of the job.

After Virginia Tech, Sleezer said the residence hall staff went over emergency procedures in the staff and faculty manuals and resident assistant manuals in order to ensure Eastern was doing all it could to keep students secure.

Sleezer said the staff went through and highlighted important areas that pertained to incidents like the Virginia Tech shootings to make sure resident hall staff were up to date.

Stone said part of the reason she feels the residence halls are secure is due to their close partnership with the University Police Department.

“We work together to keep each other informed of potential problems and trouble spots,” said Stone.

Stone also said she feels close contact with her staff is key to ensuring a safe and secure living community.

Ashley Davis, an education administration graduate student, is in her first year as the assistant resident director in Weller Hall of the Gregg Triad. She shares Stone’s sentiments about communication.

She said she has all of her RA’s discuss the best ways to contact each other if an emergency should occur. She has everyone’s names and phone numbers posted in her office and said she keeps in close contact with her staff so that they can talk about potential problems and be prepared for the worst.