NASPA Initiative to Prevent
Violence on Campus
BY BRANDI HEPHNER LABANC AND KAARYN SANON
The 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech mobilized many senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) to take immediate steps on their campuses in response to the crisis. Less than one year later at he 2008 NASPA Annual Conference, Zenobia Lawrence Hikes, vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech, shared with attendees details about the tragedy, lessons learned, and her
vision for violence prevention on campuses. Hikes called on NASPA, as the leading voice for student affairs
administration, policy, and practice, to continue the role it had played in the past as “a guiding beacon
through difficult times.” She urged NASPA members to “act with a fierce sense of urgency.” Declaring that
“we must direct the future by taking a proactive stance,” she called on her colleagues in student affairs to
join with her in sounding “the clarion call that ‘enough is enough.’”
