I've been meaning to announce a change that has taken place over here at MetaEzra. Our intrepid associate editor, Andy Guess has taken a new job with Inside Higher Ed, our absolute favorite source of news and information concerning the higher education sector. Although the new gig doesn't preclude Andy from continuing to post on MetaEzra, he will now be somewhat more limited in what he can write about on our own humble website. But that doesn't mean that we can't follow Mr. Guess's writings elsewhere. Here, for instance, he reports on the tragic massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday: But others cautioned that it would be wise to be skeptical of any overly critical evaluations of the university's response at this point. "Everyone would like there to be an answer: If we did a, b and c, this would never happen', but that's impossible," said Kelly McCann, president of Kroll Security Group, which works with educational institutions, corporations, military and the government on risk mitigation. By their nature, college campuses are open environments, for cultural reasons and even safety reasons, McCann said, citing, for instance, fire code stipulations requiring easy exit paths.No campus could ever be fully prepared for the sort of full-scale assault suffered by students and faculty on Monday. But Virginia Tech hasn't been a stranger to dangerous on-campus situations -- just last August, an escaped inmate ignited fears of a gunman on the premises -- and that has invited more criticism for the current response. "They should have been better prepared," Tubbs said. "The bottom line is that the first e-mail didn't go out until two hours after the first shooting."
And stay tuned, as there are some other exciting changes at MetaEzra in the works.
