EDMONTON (CUP) — The University of Alberta is working to implement a policy to watch for “individuals at risk” as a way to proactively prevent violence on campus like the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech.

The new policy encourages individuals on campus to report on students or professors who they feel are exhibiting "at-risk behaviour." Under this initiative, reports would be collected and analyzed by a case team who would attempt to connect isolated incidents and determine if intervention or assistance is necessary.

Frank Robinson, dean of students at the University of Alberta, argued that the policy is a needed tool to help undergrads.

"There are times in the university year when students seem to sense some desperation and do the wrong thing," Robinson said. "Sometimes students have signs that they're under stress. Sometimes those signs aren't received; contacts don't know what to do with those signs.

“I'm convinced that after what I've seen here we have to help students a bit more — I'm talking about suicide."

Leah Trueblood, vice-president academic of the University of Alberta Students’ Union, said the union executive initially had some concerns with the proposed program — largely over the issue of peer reporting and its effects on campus spirit. She said, however, that the university was taking their concerns into consideration in the final plan.

"We've worked through some of those," Trueblood said. "Those conversations are ongoing. I think we're sympathetic to the units on campus that want to be able to report — that want to be able to take care of each other and want to be able to protect their students. But also, we want to live in a community where people don't feel like they're getting reported on."

Nick Dehod, vice-president of student life with the students’ union, said the union appreciates the steps the university is taking towards students who are having problems, but that they’d like to see more initiatives to ensure students don’t have problems to become “at-risk” in the first place.

The school’s counselling services is one major area of concern, he said, noting a lack of resources and poor counsellor-to-student ratio.

“Certainly there are financial pressures on the university right now, but it is definitely something that, all things considered, I'd think would be more prioritized — especially given some of the potential increases to the cost of university that some students are facing."

Dean Robinson said that he takes student concerns seriously, and that even with budget cuts threatening resources, it's “loud and clear” to him that the school needs more student counsellors."

A greater number of counsellors will only solve half the problem, he said, which is why the school would also need a program to “connect the dots” for students who don't realize that they need to seek help.

Files collected from the individuals-at-risk program will be deleted four years from the date of a person’s last activity, said Brad Hamdon, legal counsel for the University of Alberta. This, he said, helps the program be sensitive to privacy.

The files themselves will only be seen by the case team unless subject to a successful Freedom of Information request, a possibility that Hamdon dismisses as unlikely, asserting that in "most cases, if not all cases, we could protect the information."

He said that the policy is essential as it is about helping, not punishing, and as such would not carry disciplinary power.

"There's lots of ways to discipline people and force them to do things," Hamdon said. "You've got the Code of Student Behaviour and all that, but what we felt we needed was to be able to do better was connect the dots and identify where someone was at risk and then show them the ways and opportunities they had to get help."

It is anticipated that the program will be implemented later in 2010 after an education campaign to explain the scope of the initiative to students and staff.