Assessing Harvard’s risk of being a target—a school where 18,000 students and an equal number of staff and faculty are spread out among a dozen schools and two campuses—is especially difficult.
Nonetheless, experts recommend several basic security measures the University could pursue to reduce its risk. Staff should be educated to watch for mail bombs and campus garbage cans should be replaced with so-called bomb mitigation containers—which are specially designed to contain and control a blast.
On a larger scale, though, last week’s attacks will force a complete rethinking of the mindset of corporations and institutions of higher learning, since for decades their attitude has been that “terrorism couldn’t happen here,” Taylor says.
Universities traditionally have been less likely to adopt security measures.
“Historically, universities are on a very tight budget and don’t have the resources [to adequately secure their buildings],” Taylor says.
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