The rising death toll at Virginia Tech highlighted the need for proper emergency planning and showed a university community victimized by the poor management of a tumultuous situation by university administrators and local police.Amid the chaos and commotion that ensued after an early morning shooting left two dead, officials opted to lock down the campus located in Blacksburg, Va.

The lockdown, however, began, and soon more shots erupted on the 2,600-acre campus.

By midday Monday, 33 were dead.

Police didn’t secure the campus immediately because they thought the shooting was a domestic incident. Even in that case, though, erring on the side of caution would have dramatically altered the outcome of the situation.

The first two deaths were out of the hands of administrators, the following 31, however, are another case.

The university’s decision to lift the lockdown and poor emergency planning at the university contributed to an already devastating event — the violent death of two students – by allowing the rampage to continue and take the lives of other innocent victims.

With two bomb threats in the past two weeks, according to ABC News, it’s truly disappointing the university was so ill-equipped to deal with such a situation.

As institutions that oversee everything from housing to dining, in addition to education, universities must be held to higher standards to provide a safe environment because that environment is where many people spend every minute of their day.

-News editor Andrew Chavez for the editorial board.