Shooting rampages and maintenance of campus safety: An incomplete contracts perspective

This paper addresses the question of whether in-house or contracted maintenance of campus safety in U.S. colleges will be justified on efficiency grounds in the future. According to our analysis, the answer will crucially depend on whether emergency exceptions to amendments such as the Buckley Amendment (FERPA) will be more frequently applied by schools and tested in the courts. If the latter will be the case, we presume the resulting court rulings to be defining an implementable minimum quality standard. It is argued that the Virginia suicide-legislation that was passed before the Virginia Tech shooting could offset such a potential minimum standard. With or without a minimum standard, our model can make a point for in-house maintenance of campus safety. However, the two scenarios bear completely different policy implications.