Description
With 53 school shootings, 23 of which befell college campuses—including the widely televised mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon—the 2015 academic year spotlighted a crescendo of campus violence challenging the notion of safe campuses at American institutions of higher education (IHE). Thus, this Grounded Delphi Method (GDM) study employed a national extreme case purposive approach combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore the experiences of administrative leaders who were employed at or near community colleges with qualifying active shooter events. The intent of this model was to gather consensus on how community colleges developed, enacted, and institutionalized practices that engaged campus stakeholders in building active shooter readiness. The two stages of data collection and analysis included 36 subject matter experts (SMEs) geographically dispersed across six states. Findings identified strong consensus regarding demonstrable practices of readiness including planning, partnerships, and role development; strong early alert systems; discussion and dialogue as means of readiness; and acting with integrity and empathy toward community needs. Comparatively, there were several subversive challenges noted that included funding, political climate, and access control—which collectively perpetuated apathy and a reactive culture of care that detracted from training and overall readiness efforts at several campuses under study. Evidence, implications, and recommendations from this study intend to inform and steer the active shooter readiness policy and practices for community colleges more unexperienced with high risk-low-frequency active shooter incidents.
