This week, University of Virginia faculty, staff and students gathered at several events to grieve, remember and mark the anniversary of the November 2022 shooting on Grounds that took the lives of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry; left Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan wounded; and traumatized members of the UVA community, including those who were on the bus where the shooting took place.
The tragedy united the University community in mourning the lives lost and celebrating their contributions to UVA. It also prompted a series of key changes to the way the University maintains the safety and security of students, faculty, staff and visitors on Grounds
“Keeping the people who live, learn, work and visit here safe is our highest responsibility and one we take extremely seriously,” Associate Vice President for Safety and Security and Chief of Police Tim Longo said. “Following the tragic shooting, we took immediate steps to strengthen our public safety approach, even as we awaited additional recommendations from an expert external review. Since then, we have continued to apply what we learned from that terrible incident to make our Grounds safer and our processes more responsive to potential security issues as they arise.”
The most visible change following the Nov. 2022 shooting is the expansion of the Office of Threat Assessment, which is charged with convening officials around Grounds to evaluate potential threats and ensure that different University units share key information that may help UVA reduce safety risks and engage with community members who need support. The office is staffed with a licensed forensic psychologist, a clinical psychologist and two other specialists with backgrounds in social work and law enforcement. The office oversees the work of the Violence Prevention Committee and the Threat Assessment Team. A University Police Department liaison is also included in the office.
The University also bolstered UVA’s Care and Support Services team and better positioned it within Student Health and Wellness to enable more timely and accurate reporting in cases where students are in need of mental health services or other resources.
“In addition to strengthening how UVA identifies and responds to potential safety threats, we have also placed a significant emphasis on better connecting community members who are struggling with the care and resources they need,” Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer Kenyon Bonner said. “These changes make our Grounds safer, and they also help us ensure that all members of our community, especially the students who are in our care, have every opportunity to succeed during their time here.”
Other significant changes and enhancements include:
- A procedural change to allow University personnel other than law enforcement officers to inspect on-Grounds housing when there is a health or safety concern, or when a weapon might be involved
- Modification of procedures to allow University Police to immediately investigate reports of a firearm on Grounds, or in possession of a student who lives on Grounds
- A change to allow the University to immediately remove a student from on-Grounds housing if the student is the subject of a Threat Assessment Team case
- The addition of telehealth and in-person staffing for mental health counseling and psychiatric services for students. Those services are available to students through Counseling and Psychological Services and to employees through the Faculty and Employee Assistance Program.
- Improved security across Grounds and the adjacent areas to include more public-safety ambassadors, better lighting and a wider distribution of security cameras
- Automatic enrollment of all students, faculty and staff in UVA’s safety advisories and alerts
- Initiated construction of a new, state-of-the-art public safety building, which will include a dedicated Emergency Operations Center.
- Established Active Attacker Response Training as a requirement for all UVA students.
- Established Student Affairs plans for communicating with families of students involved in a critical incident
- Developed a Shelter-in-Place and Run/Hide/Fight guidance website to assist students during a Shelter-in-Place or Run/Hide/Fight directive. Created a UVA Alert Page to provide additional information during a critical incident.
- Enhanced UVA’s SafeGrounds case management system to improve the user experience for the purpose of case retrieval, removal, monitoring and functionality. Changes also improved data and metrics dashboards on reporting.
“I am deeply grateful to the many members of this community who have led the University’s response to the shooting, both in the immediate aftermath and in the years that followed,” Interim President Paul Mahoney said. “Our institution is committed to learning everything we can from that terrible tragedy and applying those lessons to keeping our Grounds safe.”
More information about these public safety changes, as well as the redacted reports from the external review into the November 2022 shootings, is available on the Nov. 13 reports web page.
