Local colleges and universities are boosting safety measures to protect students during emergencies, such as a gunman on campus.

The changes include new ways of alerting students to an emergency, anonymous tip lines and revamped safety policies. They are primarily in response to the April shootings at Virginia Tech, in which a student killed 32 people and himself.

"Virginia Tech was a real kicker for everyone," said Jim Botting, chief of the Ventura County Community College District police force. "Everyone's re-examining their policies about how to handle this."

The automatic response tends to be adding technology, Botting said. But the most important move campuses can take is being aware of troubled students, he said.

"The most significant, productive way to prevent emergencies is early recognition of those human ticking time bombs," Botting said. "Once they've walked on campus with a gun, we've failed."

To that end, Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges recently created a tip line that allows callers to report a crime or suspicious activity, or student or employee behavior they believe could lead to a crime. The police chief is informed when a call is received.

Faculty and staff also need more training to recognize troubled students and inform officials, Botting said. And students need to go to an instructor or dean if they believe someone could get violent, he said.

"The code of silence needs to be broken," Botting said.

At CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo, the university's police department is restructuring training programs so resident assistants and other new employees know to watch for warning signs, said Lt. Mike Morris. The issue also is raised at student orientations, he said.

"We want to make sure people and problems don't fall through the cracks," Morris said. "A lot of what Virginia Tech has done is serve as a reminder of how important it is to pay attention to these kinds of things."

California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks is adding a new emergency notification system that also is being used now at Virginia Tech. The system allows CLU to reach students, faculty and staff by phone, e-mail and text message during an emergency.

Channel Islands plans to buy something similar, which will be used throughout the CSU system, Morris said.

Campus police also are working with colleagues in local police departments to prepare for emergencies. At CLU this week, for example, campus police will meet with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department to work on emergency preparedness.

And at CLU, dorms now require a card for entry, day and night. In the past, dorms were open during the day and required an entry card only at night.

"It's a combination of awareness and technology," said Fred Miller, CLU's director of safety and security. "The technology gives you time to react to the individual before they go any further."