Post-September 11, 2001 through Pre-Virginia Tech Massacre, April 16, 2007: The Status of Crisis Management Preparedness as Perceived by University Student Affairs Administrators in Selected NASPA Member Institutions

Research for this study was conducted to assess the post-September 11, 2001 and
pre-April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech Massacre level of crisis preparedness in higher
education from the perspective of chief student affairs administrators in residential
universities. In this study, institutional preparedness was determined by comparing scores
and results from an instrument developed to measure preparedness for the dissertation
titled, "Institutional Preparedness to Respond to Campus Crises as Perceived by Student
Affairs Administrators in Selected NASPA Member Institutions" (Zdziarski, 2001).
The research was conducted using survey research methodology and the
methodology employed was quantitative. Specifically, the research employed population survey methods to assess the current state of crisis preparedness and measured
institutional preparedness against four critical factors including: (a) types of crises
prepared for, (b) the phases of crisis prepared for, (c) the crisis systems in place, and (d)
the stakeholders included in preparing for crisis.
The population selected for this study included residential universities that: (a)
were doctoral degree granting institutions; (b) had a total enrollment of 5,000 students or
more in the spring 2007 semester; (c) had residence halls; and (d) were institutional
voting members of NASPA in the spring 2007 semester.
This study examined a capsule of time between the September 11, 2001 attacks
and the August 16, 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. This study found that chief student
affairs professionals at residential universities perceive themselves to be prepared to
respond to crises on campus; they believe great strides have been made since the 2001
study to increase preparedness to handle crises. However, post completion of this
research the Virginia Tech Massacre made it abundantly clear that there are many
complicated facets of crisis preparation on residential university campuses that
professionals may not be prepared to handle and the need to be proactive has never been
greater.