289 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 16 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0113-9.ch016 ABSTRACT Roughly a decade after the substantial spike in the middle and high school massacres that occurred in the ’90s, we have now seen this disturbing phenomenon arise anew on American college campuses. Overall, these horrifying, high profle acts of violence on college campuses remain relatively rare, nev- ertheless, academic administrators are required to manage threats of violence on an increasingly regular basis. As colleges and universities face the realities of today’s educational environment, preparing for an active shooter event has become a necessity. The mass shooting at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 has been hailed as the frst major college campus-shooting incident. Since then, years of active shooting training and protocol development and evolution has taken place. A description of four of the deadliest college campus shootings (University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Tech, Oikos University, and Umpqua Community College) and the progression of the related active shooter protocols is provided. INTRODUCTION Managing emergencies on college campuses is a top safety priority for every administration. A mass murder refers to the antisocial and non-state sponsored killing of multiple victims during a single epi- sode at one or more closely related locations. Prior to the mid-1990s, social scientists who sought to understand mass murder tended to focus on episodes in workplaces, families, and public places, such as shopping malls and restaurants (Levin & Madfis, 2009). In the mid- and late 1990s, a string of shootings occurred resulting in multiple injuries and deaths at middle and high schools located in obscure, rural communities, such as Littleton, Colorado. Roughly a decade after this substantial spike in middle and high school massacres, our society has now experienced an unfortunate resurgence of this disturbing The Evolution of Active Shooter Protocols on College Campuses Tanya M. Grant Mercy College, USA Makayla S. Dole Sacred Heart University, USA