A Popular President Stumbles, Recovers

Some Defend Steger Despite Security Lapses That Seem Glaring in Hindsight

Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger leaves the campus administration building to address students Tuesday after the shootings that left 33 dead. (By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18 -- There was little surprise when Charles W. Steger became president of Virginia Tech in January 2000, charged with leading the university into a new millennium. He was a very modern architecture professor at a very modern school and had spent nearly all his life there since he was an undergraduate.

"Charles was the unanimous choice of the board," said James E. Turner, rector of the university's Board of Visitors, at the time. "He has the energy, experience and vision to launch Virginia Tech into the top tier of the nation's finest universities."

In many respects, higher education experts said, the reserved and cerebral Steger has met expectations. Applications to Virginia Tech have soared; its engineering graduates are snapped up by companies all over the world; and Steger has launched planning for a medical school.

But Monday's massacre confronted Steger, 59, with a crisis that could overshadow the rest of his tenure. Many students reacted like Robert Adams, 22, who was in class that day in Randolph Hall not far from the dormitory where the first murders occurred. "When they found out what was happening . . . they should have notified people faster," Adams said Wednesday. "My [teaching assistant] who was teaching the class had no idea what was going on."

The first hours of panic and horror put Steger in a bad light. He was drawn into an awkward back-and-forth with reporters over possible missteps in the university's initial response. Although Virginia Tech had issued a 17-page emergency response plan in May 2005, a university official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said there had been no practice lockdowns this school year of the whole campus.

Experts such as Jonathan Bernstein, a Sierra Madre, Calif.-based crisis-management consultant, saw potential management lapses. "The possibility of violence on campus is a totally predictable scenario," he said.

But since that first day, Steger has seemed to recover, focusing on helping students and families and bringing his community together, as professional crisis managers all recommend leaders do after such tragedies. Steger received a standing ovation Tuesday from students, faculty and others gathered for a convocation on campus to begin a period of mourning.

Joseph Ball, a math professor, said he thought critics were too hard on the Tech president. "He's level-headed. He's competent, and he really seems to be trying hard to do the best he can for the university," Ball said.

Kerry Redican, president of the faculty senate, said the approximately 1,600-member faculty is still reeling from the events, but he has heard few complaints about Steger. "He made the best decisions he could under the circumstances," Redican said. "He really cares for the university. He really cares for the faculty and the students."

Most management courses for business and university leaders provide little guidance on how to anticipate catastrophe. Managers are rewarded for embracing growth and creativity, not for worrying about undergraduates with firearms.

Steger's is a classic academic success story. He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1970, a master's in architecture the next year and a doctorate in environmental sciences and engineering in 1978 -- all from Virginia Tech. He became dean of Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies in 1981, the youngest architectural school dean in the country at that time.

He won acclaim for establishing an urban study and work center in Old Town Alexandria. At Virginia Tech, he also served as vice president for development and university relations, completing a major fundraising campaign in 1998 with 35 percent more than the target amount of $250 million.

Redican said he is less concerned about Steger's performance during the shootings than with the school's inability to steer troubled students like Cho Seung Hui to counseling.

Tiffany Turrentine, 27, a graduate student in agricultural education, expressed support for Steger. "It's the first time he's had to deal with something like this. So it's a learning experience for him," she said.

Even Adams, the student who thought he should have been warned more quickly, said he accepted the campus view that Steger and other university leaders were thrust into an impossible situation. "I'm sure they did the best they could," he said.