"It's just scary. This could happen to any campus," said junior art education major and Nebraska Union worker, Abbie George. "It would be so easy to come into a place like this (the union) and just shoot people down."
After watching, reading and listening about what unfolded on the Virginia Tech campus, you have to wonder if UNL would be ready for a shooting catastrophe of this proportion.
"We have, as an agency, done planning in the past," said Captain Carl Oestmann of UNL police. "We have reviewed school shootings as well as other tragedies that have occurred in the past and try to learn from them and improve upon our procedures, protocol and process of how we're going to respond."
UNL police have coordinated training exercises with other departments such as the Lincoln police, the sheriff's department and fire department on what procedures they would use if a shooting would take place.
"Every situation is different, so the response and the instructions are different as you get more information," said Captain Oestmann. "That may mean lock down or evacuation. We just need to make sure that we get people out safely."
UNL police keep planning for the future and are implementing new technology to keep students safe.
"The university continues to invest in the security of our campus," commented Oestmann. "We are working on a new notification system so we can let students, faculty and visitors know if a situation occurs, about instructions, what is going on, that type of thing."
Updated technology like the new notification system and security cameras are very helpful for security, but some students and faculty feel safe just seeing them on campus.
"I like all the security guards going around," said Abbie George. "Whenever I'm working the night shift, I see policeman making their rounds."
Click here for more of Abbie George's reactions.
George also said that she feels very safe on campus and has never really worried about something like the Virginia Tech shootings happening here until now. UNL custodian Jim Garrison has been working on campus for 25 years and feels the same way.
"You see officers walking around, so I feel like it's patrolled as well as it could be, but you can't have 100 percent protection," said Garrison. "Unless you can spot it ahead of time and report it, that's the only way you can prevent it."
Captain Oestmann says that reporting suspicious behavior is exactly what a campus citizen should do to help the police the prevent events like Virginia Tech from happening.
"This isn't just a police responsibility," stressed Oestmann. "The most important part is the citizens who are here on campus. They're the ones who have the information, so that cooperation is a must for all of us to succeed.
Oestmann also says that campus police strive to be preventive rather than reactive. UNL police has a "threat management" group that seeks out information that could help stop crimes before they happen.
"Safety is paramount," Oestmann emphasized. "Everyone down here at this department strives to make sure no one gets hurt. I've been here a long time and that will never change."
To hear more from Captain Oestmann about UNL's effort to keep campus safe, click here.
