The tragedy that struck Virginia Tech Monday was equally stunning in its scope and baffling in what could push someone to commit such a heinous act. The senseless rampage that left 33 people dead and about two dozen more recovering from gunshot wounds will leave an emotional scar on the Virginia Tech community long after the physical wounds heal.

     While Georgia Southern University certainly never has experienced anything remotely close to such a catastrophic incident, the attack will have a lasting affect on the university, too. Indeed, it probably will affect every U.S. college campus in some way.

     First, there’s an emotional tie, however tenuous, every student, professor, administrator and GSU employee feels with a fellow university. In fact, GSU students have scheduled a candlelight vigil tonight at the Russell Union to remember the victims.

     That emotional tie, no doubt, also can create a small sense of fear among some students and their parents. It’s natural to wonder if it happened on one college campus why couldn’t it happen here.

     But the most tangible effect of Monday’s tragedy will be a thorough review by every university of its policies in dealing with a campus emergency. And then likely adjustments to such a policy.

     The governor of Virginia said he will form a task force to look into the handling of the shooting incident. Many questions have been raised about why it took Virginia Tech officials two hours after the first shooting was reported to send out a campus-wide alert via email. Why wasn’t the campus put on lock down right away?

     Joe Franklin, Georgia Southern vice president of Business and Finance, said Tuesday the university has already begun a review of its emergency plans. That’s a smart move.

     Franklin said the university has a campus-wide email system in place and a public address system on top of Henderson Library that could reach most of the central campus. Also, the school’s physical plant and housing workers all soon will be using the same radio system as the GSU police.

     But Georgia Southern, like Virginia Tech and many other large universities, has a huge, sprawling campus with buildings miles apart. It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to ensure an emergency message is universally received. Nonetheless, certain measures should be considered, including expanding the public address system, signage with electronic messages around campus, and teams of faculty and other employees as part of an emergency message tree.

     Also, the university should review its standards for declaring a campus lockdown. While the criteria can be subjective, certainly in the case of a shooting on campus, a lockdown should be automatic. Again, a huge campus with dozens of buildings and many entrances and exits would likely prevent  a lockdown that is 100 percent, but that doesn’t mean 100 percent shouldn’t be the goal.

     It also is important that any changes, either locally or nationally, are not an overreaction to the overwhelming horror of the massacre at Virginia Tech. As GSU Police Chief Ken Brown said, the university is not a military base. You can’t and shouldn’t put a security guard and metal detector in every building.           Also, you can’t assume every young person who acts differently or strangely on a college campus is about to turn into a homicidal maniac.

     We believe Georgia Southern officials are taking proper and rational steps in studying how to make the already safe and secure campus even moreso.

     What happened at Virginia Tech was disturbing beyond words and, thankfully, happens only once or twice in a generation. But it has had a tremendous impact on many college students. If you want to read a few, pick up a copy of Connect Statesboro today and read what Georgia Southern students had to say.

     The candlelight vigil at 8 tonight  in the Rotunda area of the Russell Union is good way for our community to show we stand with Virginia Tech in its recovery. Perhaps we should all consider attending.