One of the worst scenarios for any university to face is having a shooting or a gunman on campus.

Unfortunately, The University of Texas at Austin experienced that very occurrence Tuesday morning. A gunman fired shots on campus and in the Perry-Castañeda Library and eventually killed himself. Fortunately, no one else was injured.

The response of UT to quickly warn students to either stay away from campus or lock themselves in their dorms was appropriate and commendable. It shows that universities have learned from such incidents as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and the UT clock tower shooting in 1966.

In TCU’s case, university officials said Tuesday that the university was on heightened security in case of copycats, and they outlined the procedures that would be used if such an incident occurred on the TCU campus.

It is good to know that the university has not waited to create a plan for a potential shooting.

If executed properly if the situation ever called for it, the university’s plan, which includes warning students via TCU Alert and other social media, should do its job of keeping students, faculty and staff safe.

Again, that’s a comforting thought, because it would be much worse to have no plan and to have an incident occur than to have a plan that never needs to be carried out.

News editor Marshall Doig for the editorial board.