Dive Brief:
- Community colleges have fewer resources with which to serve their student populations, creating greater strain before and after tragedies like last week's shooting at Umpqua Community College.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports many community colleges employ just one person who handles all of the safety and security issues on campus.
- With resources stretched especially thin, community colleges also ask counselors to play multiple roles, or reach a diverse group of students — most of whom are nontraditional.
Dive Insight:
The shooting last Thursday at Umpqua Community College in Oregon left 10 people dead and seven more wounded. After the Virginia Tech shooting shocked the higher education world in 2007, four-year colleges moved more quickly in addressing gaps in security protocols, in many cases because they had the resources to do so. The Chronicle reports that the Umpqua shooting was the worst to touch a community college. Like churches and movie theaters, as well as other types of schools, administrators must recognize what once seemed impossible has happened.