In March, the University of St. Thomas replaced its previous active shooter awareness video with a new one, which focuses on the Department of Homeland Security’s three recommended courses of action in the event of an active shooter: Run, Hide, and Fight.

Karen Lange is the vice president for student affairs and co-chair of the University’s Action and Response Team (UART), “an interdisciplinary committee convened by the Dean of Students and the Director of Public Safety,” according to the St. Thomas website. Lange said she and other university officials reviewed multiple active-shooter safety videos from different sources, but ultimately settled on the new one because it takes place on a college campus. Lange said the new video was more informative because the previous video took place in an office setting.

“I’ve been here for thirty plus years and we’ve had more conversations about this in the last five to seven years than we did years ago,” Lange said. “Unfortunately it’s become a reality that we need to think about.”

Lange said the video can “prepare people to plan.” She recommends staff and students talk about basic safety ideas, like being aware of hiding places, exits and objects to defend themselves.

Dan Meuwissen, the university’s director of Public Safety who was featured in the video, agreed with Lange.

“One of the greatest themes in [the video] is to plan ahead,” Meuwissen said. “Planning ahead goes to your personal safety plan. That becomes essential to how you respond and act in a critical situation.”

Meuwissen co-chairs UART along with Lange. He said the university has gone beyond the video to prepare for an active shooter situation, putting out literature for professors and trainings for UART.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments have also come to the university to help them understand the layout of the campus.

“Any time we can prepare one person is a success,” Meuwissen said. “How far and how deep [the video] will reach, I don’t know. But I think it brings the issue to light and it makes you think about your scenarios and what could happen and how you will respond. In that regard, I think it can be very successful.”

Junior Dylan Barrett, a resident adviser in Murray Hall, said all Murray resident advisers were required to watch the video and learn the material.

“I think as an RA we always have to be thinking the ‘what if’ question and how we can best support residents,” Barrett said. “There are so many things that can happen on any given day in any given hall, building, wherever. I think the more tools we have in our back pocket the better.”

Barrett said the video gives real world examples that can help people on campus prepare, and that there are other small precautions that can be taken as well.

“Not a lot of people know this, but on the back of your student ID there is a list of resources and phone numbers,” Barrett said. “So if you don’t have those numbers in your phone and need them, they are literally right there on your ID.”

In addition to the video is a human resources training module that St. Thomas students can enroll in on Canvas.

Zekriah Chaudhry can be reached at chau6735@stthomas.edu.