Building response and resiliency in Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) is an important process that helps students and campus staff cope with and recover from a crisis. It refers to the protective factors put in place prior to a crisis that helps build mental and emotional resilience and prepare victims for the challenging times following a tragic event.
The risks that academic campuses face encompass both natural and man-made disasters. Over the years, colleges and universities across the nation have experienced unspeakable tragedies, including campus shootings, and heartbreaking natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding. To develop protective factors and help prepare for these scenarios, a safe and supportive learning environment on college and university campuses is paramount.
The following resources are organized into three sections: prevention, recovery, and resilience. In addition, resources that specifically address campus shootings and gun violence are also included.
Prevention efforts require a comprehensive approach to campus safety and clearly communicated emergency plans that help prepare staff, faculty, and students for a possible crisis.
IHEs play a key role in taking preventative and protective measures to stop an emergency from occurring or reduce the impact of an incident. When an emergency occurs, IHE personnel should be able to respond immediately to ensure the safety of students. Planning considers the access and functional needs of the whole IHE community, including students and staff with disabilities or with other access needs, those with limited English proficiency, and those from religiously, racially, and ethnically diverse backgrounds.
Maintaining the safety of IHEs and the students and employees that comprise IHE communities is a vital task. At a basic level, the physical environment of a college or university setting is vastly different from that of a K-12 setting. IHEs face unique challenges in planning for potential emergencies in terms of geography, environment, governance, and the population served. Colleges and universities can be a combination of large, small, urban, rural, residential, transient, and often operate around-the-clock. At a more nuanced level, the developmental and social differences between high school students and college students suggest that IHE-based subjects may engage in pre-attack behaviors that differ from those of their high school counterparts. For example, students who have just moved away from home will be undergoing numerous environmental changes that can introduce a new dimension of stress. All of these factors must be considered when developing a safe and supportive learning environment and prepare for a possible crisis.
Prevention efforts also refers to individual preparedness. To develop this, IHEs must deliver effective communication to students and staff of possible scenarios and behavioral expectations and support available if they occur.
Ready Campus
Campus Emergencies Prevention, Response, and Recovery (MGT-324)
Campus Attacks
A healthy recovery from a tragic event requires a safe and supportive environment which encourages students, faculty, and staff to reach out for help, connect with their community, and express their grief reactions. A sense of belonging and connection to the IHE community it vital for this recovery.
To build this sense of safety in IHEs, comprehensive planning is necessary, as well as the establishment of support networks and important relationships. If victims’ reactions to tragic events are difficult and intense, mental health services and other professional help must made available and feel accessible to all.
College students already face a range of mental health challenges which can negatively impact their emotional and physical safety and well-being. Those affected by disaster and mass violence can exhibit a wide variety of psychological, behavioral, physical, and emotional reactions. The most common mental health diagnoses are posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, acute stress disorder, and complicated grief. These reactions can cause issues with sleep, violent behavior, and substance abuse, which can have a significant impact on students’ learning environment.
Students and staff can learn coping tools tips to improve their emotional health and foster emotional support between peers and staff in order to prepare them to respond to unexpected impacts of a disaster. Training and programs must be put in place to help IHEs personnel support students and their families in the event of a tragedy.
Coping with a Disaster or Traumatic Event
Bounce Back Now
The Impact of Disaster and Mass Violence Events on Mental Health
Tips for Survivors: Coping With Grief After a Disaster or Traumatic Event
Nurturing connectivity and a sense of belonging helps victims cope with the emotional impacts of a tragic event and mass violence in the longer term and build resilience against future violence that might occur.
Colleges and Universities are not immune to tragedies and catastrophic incidents, but with community building, planning, training and exercises our nations campuses can become resilient.
Protective factors that help develop resilience can be at the social and community level. Social support is one of the key ingredients to recovery. It has been shown to facilitate wellbeing and limit psychological distress. Social connectedness increases opportunities for a range of social support activities, including practical problem-solving, emotional understanding and acceptance, sharing of traumatic experiences, normalization of reactions and experiences, and mutual instruction about coping. On a community level, a socially cohesive community has been shown to be better positioned to identify and assist those in need, disseminate information across the community, and advocate for outside aid following disasters and mass violence.
Campus Emergency Management Resources
Campus Resilience Program
Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience
Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI)
Campus Safety and Resiliency Resource Page
While relatively rare, campus attacks are not unheard of in the U.S. At least 99 people have been killed in 12 mass shootings at U.S. colleges since the 1960s. Hundreds more have been injured or killed by guns on college campuses. On February 13, 2023, a gunman opened fire in Michigan State University, killing three people and injuring five others. In November 2022, three members of the University of Virginia football team were fatally shot on campus. These tragic events can rip a community apart and have severe and long-lasting effects of the mental health and well-being of those involved.
While these tragic incidents cannot be entirely prevented, IHEs must have comprehensive emergency plans in place, staff must be trained in searching for warning signs of an emerging incident, and both students and staff should be fully aware of expectations and safety measures in place to protect them if an incident were to occur, including knowledge of key emergency contacts and lines of support.
The aftermath of such events can exhibit drastically diverse reactions in individuals that can fluctuate over time. Sustaining mental health and social support are vital for supporting recovery and developing a resilient healing trajectory for victims involved.
What data analysis shows about campus shootings
Shootings at Colleges: U.S. Statistics
Campus attacks: Targeted violence affecting institutions of higher education
Prospective Trajectories of Posttraumatic Stress in College Women Following a Campus Mass Shooting
Coping in the aftermath of a shooting
