In the months following the Sandy Hook shootings, lawmakers have been looking for effective security measures to employ at campuses around the country.
A bill proposed to the Indiana General Assembly would allow college students to carry concealed weapons.
While the bill would not affect Butler because it is a private institution, the bill still raises questions about how campuses are prepared to deal with active shooters.
A slim chance exists that an active shooter could appear on any given campus.
Most students would not know what to do in such an event, said Ben Hunter, executive director of public safety.
“Statistically, most people freeze,” he said. “No one wants to think that that kind of thing can happen.”
The Butler University Police Department conducts full-scale active shooter training in the summer, accompanied by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police and residence life staff.
Each BUPD vehicle is equipped with full-body armor and helmets in the event of an emergency, Hunter said.
“I can tell you that every Butler officer would respond with due haste,” said Bill Weber, assistant police chief of operations.
A 20-minute video called “Shots Fired On Campus” can be found on the BUPD website for students who sign in with their “My Butler” username and password.
“The video is one of the best I’ve seen,” Hunter said.
The video was shown at poorly attended events in the past, but Hunter encourages more students to watch so they are prepared in case of emergency.
The video teaches three steps to respond to a shooter: hide out, get out or call out. Much depends on the proximity of the gunman, said Andrew Ryan, assistant police chief of administration.
“You have to do what you can in order to survive,” Weber said.
It is important to be prepared to attack the gunman as a group or to barricade oneself in a room if necessary, Ryan said.
If the gunman is present in the room and it isn’t possible to talk to a 911 dispatcher, leaving an open line still alerts emergency personnel to the situation. They may be able to hear background noise or further investigate any suspicious situation, Weber said.
If exiting is the best solution, make sure to keep both hands in the air. Police are trained to assume that hidden hands could be concealing a weapon.
BUPD plans on communicating important information to students via Dawg Alert, similar to the lockdown.
“Security upgrades are ongoing,” Ryan said. “A long-term plan is necessary.”
Butler is working on a three-year plan to improve campus safety. Some efforts include having card access for all doors so buildings can be locked in case of an emergency and adding security cameras.
“I would like to see more officers on staff,” Ryan said.
Ryan is a member of the Assessment and Care Team, a committee which was formed at Butler shortly after the shooting at Virginia Tech.
The aim of the program is not necessarily to find students that are likely to be shooters, but rather to direct students having performance issues, behavioral issues or issues with BUPD to proper help, Ryan said.
“The resources keep students here and engaged,” Ryan said. “We’re making sure people aren’t missing things.”
Often times, the ACT committee will reach out to students who are missing classes frequently, not engaging much with their peers, or who have just lost a family member or loved one in order to make sure they are receiving the proper support.
Even though student behavior is monitored, students being able to conceal weapons on campus would do more harm than good, Ryan said.
“It’s a tool, but if you don’t practice, how will you be able to react?” he said.
Students would not have adequate training with their weapons, said Weber, who has sometimes used 1,200 bullets during his training.
“Even with that, I don’t hit the target every single time,” he said.
The presence of alcohol, mixed with firearms on campus, would also be a safety concern, Weber said. Students would also be more likely to be careless with their guns, and they may leave them in places where others could potentially find and use them.
“Our ability would be severely hindered,” added Hunter.
Several cases have occurred where, during the chaos of open fire, police have shot other officers who weren’t in uniform, Weber said. If students were added into the mix, shooter descriptions could be confused and someone could needlessly die.

Men Against Sexual Violence, a new group at Butler, is trying to gain interest.

Andrew Ryan

The group held its first interest meeting on Sept. 26 and a second on Oct. 25.

The organization aims to be a peer-education group that advocates stopping sexual violence and assault. The group is also aiming to encourage positive masculinity.

Group discussions will include many topics, including acceptable norms and behaviors of men on Butler’s campus.

Andrew Ryan, assistant police chief, started this group after hearing about it at conferences and from other universities with have similar programs.

Ryan said the focus of the group is to look at the acts of sexual assault and sexual violence from the perspective of a woman.

The group has only had two meetings. Ryan said the group will decide what kind of organization it wants to be and what kind of message it wants to portray.

The group will also come up with an official name, decide if it wants to partner with other organizations and choose what events it wants to host.

Ryan said he hopes the organization can develop friendships through positive interactions with fellow students.

Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, is involved in the group right now as a supporter.

Diaz said women have been spearheading this issue for a while, but it needs to be something that everyone is talking about.

“I think that there is definitely a need for men to really take a stand about this,” Diaz said. “It isn’t a women’s issue; it’s a people issue.”

Freshman Colin Regan was in attendance at the first meeting for Men Against Sexual Violence.

Regan said he heard about the group through an email and said the group seems like a good cause to be involved in and a cause that needs awareness.

“Right now, we are just laying the foundations,” Regan said. “Hopefully, this group can flourish into something much bigger.”

“For this program to work,” Ryan said, “I think it’s going to take men who are going to be committed.”

Any men interested in joining should watch for announcements in The Butler Connection or contact Ryan.

“We’re kind of missing the gap on prescription drugs.”

Butler University is looking to make this conception a thing of the past with a drug take-back day and the creation of a new pharmacy-related group on campus.

take-back day

The take-back day will occur Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Butler University Police Department’s building.

The take-back day allows Butler community members to get rid of prescription drugs they no longer need.

Andrew Ryan, assistant chief of police, said he was contacted by Sarah Barnes Diaz, health education and outreach program coordinator, about hosting a take-back site.

Ryan was told by a local Drug Enforcement Administration official that the area outside BUPD will replace Tabernacle Presbyterian Church as a local prescription drug drop off site.

“I think it’s important that we show the community we’re willing to get involved,” Ryan said. “I’m not sure how many people we’re going to get to participate, so hopefully we’re prepared.”

Ryan said he hopes to create a drop off zone going north on Sunset Avenue and a second one going east on Hampton Drive. Individuals who have leftover medication or prescribed drugs they no longer

use will be able to drop their medications into five-gallon buckets in a drive-through format.

Collected drugs will be sealed in cardboard boxes, weighed and delivered to the local state police post for disposal on Tuesday.

Members of Generation Rx, a new on-campus group looking to inform students about the dangers of prescription drugs, will be involved in the collection of drugs.

On April 28 a nationwide take-back day occurred, and U.S. citizens released more than 552,000 pounds of unwanted or expired medications at 5,659 take-back sites, Diaz said.

“There has been interest (in a take-back site at Butler) in the past, but we’ve had trouble with scheduling and getting the request in on time,” Diaz said. “Any time we can offer a service to benefit the campus community, we want to do that.”

Diaz and Ryan said they also want to avoid people dumping these drugs into toilets or sinks in order to be environmentally friendly.

Annette McFarland, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, said a key reason for the take-back being held at Butler lies in the statistics associated with prescription drugs.

“The use of these drugs (among 18-24-year olds) has exceeded the use of some of the more commonly misused and abused drugs, like heroin and cocaine,” McFarland said.

According to a recent study, more than half of all college students will be offered a prescription drug at some point, and about 30 percent of those individuals end up trying the drug.

McFarland said four classes of prescription drugs are most commonly used and subsequently abused by college students: pain medications, stimulants, anxiety medications and sleep aids.

The reasons for the use of these specific drugs lie in their purposes and expected results.

Most students take stimulants to study or party longer, McFarland said. They may then take sleep aids to counteract the effects of the stimulants.

Diaz said prescription medications are becoming the new gateway drugs because they seem safer since they are medically prescribed.

“There is a lack of a sense of danger, and there isn’t awareness about the dangers,” Diaz said. “They are safe under prescribed circumstances.”

Diaz said many students come to campus on various medications, allowing fellow community members greater access to experiment with those drugs.

Fifth-year pharmacy major Samantha Christie, a member of Butler’s newly-created Generation Rx organization, said she knows abuse of prescription drugs occurs on campus.

“I think there’s a lack of accurate information about prescription drugs,” Christie said. “(People) see it as a prescription drug and not an illicit drug.”

One of the main goals of the Generation Rx program will be peer education on prescription medication, Christie said.

Christie and two other students are currently working with Diaz and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences assistant professors Tracy Sprunger and Samuel Gurevitz to establish the program at Butler.

Sprunger and Gurevitz attended a nationwide conference on drug and alcohol addiction during the summer and learned about Ohio State’s Generation Rx program, which is “the gold standard,” Christie said.

Members of that organization have visited elementary schools, high schools and nursing homes to teach individuals about different medications and poison control.

Christie said the organization is working with Peers Advocating Wellness for Students because prescription drug abuse is not covered by the group like alcohol and sexual assault problems are.

Butler’s Generation Rx organization hopes to work with the residence life department Life and Greek Educators, Advocates and Resources to inform those living on campus about the dangers of misusing prescription drugs.

McFarland said organizations outside of the Butler community are also available to help students with prescription drug problems.

The National Council on Patient Information and Education hosts a website, http://www.talkaboutrx.org, that is related to prescription drug abuse.

“It’s not just a concern on college campuses,” McFarland said, “but it is definitely a major health concern in the United States.”

Diaz said the university has ways to assist those abusing or misusing prescription drugs as well.

The Assessment and Care Team, led by Sally Click, dean of student services, meets biweekly to discuss issues relating to prescription medications.

Residential life is also encouraging students to purchase lockboxes to protect their medications.

“We’re working to empower students,” Diaz said, “to prevent the growth of the issue on campus.”

University warnings have been in the campus consciousness following last Wednesday’s email from Butler University Police Department regarding an alleged sexual assault by an undisclosed individual that occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.

Andrew Ryan, assistant chief of police at BUPD, said what is alleged to have happened at Phi Kappa Psi suggested a continuing danger, which is why university officials decided to send out a warning.

That judgment was formed in a meeting last Wednesday morning. Attendees included Ryan, police chief Ben Hunter, vice president for student affairs Levester Johnson, dean of student life Irene Stevens and dean of student services Sally Click, along with university counsel.

Ryan said none present opposed alerting the campus with a timely warning. After BUPD first learned of the assault report Sept. 13, an email was sent at 11:45 a.m. the following day.

“If we don’t tell anybody,” Ryan said, “and a similar incident happens, we’re not serving our community. Transparency is to benefit everyone involved. We hope it can generate some leads.”

Hunter said he takes the matter of sexual assault very personally at Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting.

“The issue of sexual assault keeps me up at night,” he said. It is underreported.”

With the current situation, Hunter said BUPD and the administration was working diligently to keep campus safe.

“Right now we’re investigating one, and we’re going to do our best to present that case to prosecution,” he said. “We’re doing our best.”

He said the university could be fined $27,000 if someone from the university is made aware of an assault does not report it.