"I don't know that we would be able to get the word out," said fine arts senior Amy Craig, a resident adviser at an on-campus dorm. "I'm concerned about the lack of access to students after an emergency. There is no comprehensive plan in place."

University officials, however, say they have confidence in their emergency procedures, which include alerting students to an incident by e-mail, over a public announcement system in the Campus Center and through a phone tree, which starts at top officials and drops down to professors or staff members, who are supposed to notify students.

But they also say the shootings point to the vulnerability of college campuses nationwide, which are often sprawling, wide open and buzzing with students, professors and staff.

An open campus

On an average weekday, there are some 25,000 students on the 300-acre Manoa campus and more than 5,000 faculty and staff members.

"Any time that anything happens we review our plans. Everybody's going to be reviewing their plans because nobody has plans for someone shooting 50 people and killing 30 of them," said Francisco Hernandez, vice chancellor for students at UH-Manoa. "But we are a place that invites the public to be here. We are an open campus. We're part of the community. In the classic term of lockdown, I don't see how that's possible."

Hernandez said the university's emergency plan calls for high-level administrators to establish a "command center" from which information can be received and disseminated.

without warning

The campus has no announcement system or dedicated siren that could alert everyone on campus of an emergency, and Hernandez said he doubts such a device would be practical. But he did say he is reviewing lockdown — or "stay in place" — procedures for the dorms.

At the Manoa campus yesterday, there was a palpable sense of concern as people considered what if it happened here.

After hearing that the 23-year-old gunman who shot and killed 32 people in classrooms and a dormitory was described as a "loner," several Manoa professors called the UH Counseling and Student Advocacy Center for advice on particular students. Meanwhile, several students also called, saying they would need help coping with the scale of the tragedy.

Allison Tanouye, director of the center, said the professors who called were concerned that some of their students "shared a similar presentation" as the Korean national identified as the Virginia Tech shooter.

She could not go into details on the cases, but said they will be handled very seriously.

Tanouye said there is no formal procedure professors must go through if they notice a student acting erratically, but they are urged to contact the center if they are worried a student is potentially depressed, suicidal or violent. Resident advisers in dorms get training on how to spot a student in distress, and how to tactfully suggest the student seek help, she said.

But rarely, Tanouye added, do lonely, troubled students simply walk through her doors and ask for counseling. "We need to reach those students," she said.

At the dorms yesterday, students were sprawled on couches, watching television news or scrolling the Internet for details on the bloodbath at Virginia Tech. Some said they worried about how the university would handle a similar emergency, and whether officials could notify students quickly.

students uneasy

"The school is definitely not prepared," said Michele Messina, a junior in psychology and dorm resident. "There's no procedure. We can't lock down."

Craig, the resident adviser, agreed, pointing to the chaos after the earthquakes that rocked the state on Oct. 15 as evidence of how much work the university has ahead of it in reviewing its emergency preparedness. While the dorms, like much of the rest of the island, were without power most of the day, resident advisers got little information on what to do and how to calm hundreds of restless students, Craig said. By dusk, she said, rowdy, drunken parties filled dorm courtyards and some students started throwing things off their balconies or getting into fights.

"It was a scene out of 'Lord of the Flies.' The students here were really restless," she said.