(LANSING, Mich.) — Weeks after eight students were shot on campus, three fatally, Michigan State University announced plans to install locks on the doors of more than 1,300 classrooms on campus. MSU aims to have all the locks installed by the beginning of the fall semester.
A gunman opened fire at two locations on Michigan State University’s East Lansing campus on Feb. 13. The suspect was identified as a 43-year-old man not affiliated with the university. None of the doors he entered were locked.
The university announced a number of new security measures in the wake of the shooting, saying the door locks are not the only changes to campus safety that will be made and that officials will ask for feedback from the community again.
MSU said it will add more cameras around campus in addition to the more than 2,000 cameras it already has in place. New cameras will be added to areas that do not have adequate coverage, including academic buildings and all Green Light phones that are already on campus.
Starting March 13, MSU’s main East Lansing campus will lock its buildings earlier every night, requiring key card access by students, faculty and staff from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Currently, buildings are locked at 11 p.m.
By the beginning of the next academic year, MSU will require all students and employees to undergo active violent intruder training. The training is currently voluntary.
Classroom doors were unlocked during the Parkland, Uvalde and MSU school shootings. The three school shootings show the challenges of securing public places that aren’t heavily defended.
Limiting entry points to school buildings, reinforcing main entrances and locking classroom doors are among the measures schools have adopted as part of safety plans.
A potentially deadly shooting at a California elementary school was averted in 2017 when the gunman left school grounds after apparently being unable to access classrooms, according to authorities.
A 2020 simulation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency found that locked classroom doors can lock have a significant impact on the outcome of an active school shooter event.
Classes have since resumed at MSU after the shooting.
The university said it would seek an internal and an external third-party review of its response to the Feb. 13 shooting.
“While we are grateful for the commendations and for our preparation, there is more we can do. Therefore, we will soon conduct an after-action evaluation of how our emergency personnel and university leaders responded to the crisis,” MSU said in a statement.
It plans to make the third-party report recommendations public.
“We will update the campus community as these safety improvements and enhancements roll out. Our first week back was an emotional one, but we hope you find strength in being back together,” MSU said.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
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