Strategic Security and Safety, Kennesaw State University
Robert Lang's security experience spans nearly four decades. Prior to joining Kennesaw State in Georgia, he was homeland security director and director of research security at Georgia Tech. Lang worked at Lockheed Martin Corp. as the plant protection manager and on security task forces with the FBI at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
My experiences with both the private sector and government have allowed me to take a broad perspective of where we're going. I know what the government wants to accomplish and what the private sector is trying to do. Almost in the middle of this is higher education because we're not necessarily private like a business corporation. But we have business practices, so we're trying to meld the open atmosphere of a campus with internal procedures that will allow us to create a safe, secure environment here.
Q: Is campus violence becoming prevalent, and what contributes to this phenomenon?
Because of such a quick news media that we have, we can broadcast and alert people within one minute of something happening. You're seeing this more and more. Is this [violence] new? No. It goes back to the 1927 Bath incident [a school bombing in Bath, Mich., that killed 45 people and injured at least 58].
We're in different times now where information is so quick that it's just happening. You get a lot of copycats. People say it comes in threes - that's not the case, but there are a lot of people who would emulate different people through movies, videos and YouTube. So the medium that all of these things are being broadcast on is so vast that information is just flowing so quickly.
Q: Do you think we'll ever get a handle on combating campus shootings?
I think we're going to end up training people on how to prepare. Prevention methods really go back to identifying people who have issues before you take it and put it into action. That's what we're doing here. We've created what's called a triage group to identify whoever is exhibiting aberrant behavior and behavior that's not normal. We will notify a couple of groups here on campus that handle those kinds of mental and emotional issues, and follow up to make sure that person's getting the proper help.
Q: What do you think other universities must do?
This is my opinion: Many universities are trying to solve the issue of having something in place. There's a bill before Congress that says you must notify all of your students within 30 minutes. That's not the right thing to do. A lot of universities are buying the quickest product that will solve a tactical issue and not looking beyond how it fits in within their entire program - I think that's the biggest mistake a lot of people are making. You need to sit back and figure out how it's going to work within your system: what are you really trying to accomplish versus a Band-Aid for one specific thing.
