When things go terribly wrong on a college campus -- a gunman opens fire in a classroom, an embittered professor files a lawsuit or a student gathering turns raucous -- administrators often are left scratching their heads.

What went wrong? How could this have been prevented? Did we miss something?

A wave of new policies and regulations sweeps the campus.

Some higher education experts say administrators need to ask tough questions about the unexpected before a crisis occurs.

"You can prevent things that are indeed preventable," said Merrill Schwartz, director of research at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges in Washington, D.C. "It is not just the unthinkable. ... We think it is a responsibility (of the university boards and administrators)."

Richard Brown, vice chancellor of finance and operations at UTC, said the college does campuswide risk assessments every year, and every summer officials meet to discuss emergency preparation.

"I think our institution is far ahead," Dr. Brown said.

Fewer than 40 percent of U.S. colleges regularly assess ways to prevent or react to violent acts, environmental catastrophes and financial misconduct, according to a report released last week by the Association of Governing Boards.

Many colleges plan for risks only after the fact -- in response to an audit, campus crime or after witnessing a significant public backlash from problems on other campuses, according to the report.

Chuck Cantrell, a member of the risk assessment task force at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a university spokesman, said the campus has plans to address weather-related emergencies, chemical spills, criminal activity, bomb threats and pandemics.

UTC beefed up its campus lockdown procedures after the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, which killed 32 students, Mr. Cantrell said. Officials have a system in place to text message all students on campus in case of an emergency, he said.

Over the course of a few days in April, online messages and social networking sites led to an event in which hundreds of students had a rowdy gathering outside the UTC library. This student-led messaging occurred outside the texting system created by UTC to handle emergency situations.

But controversy erupted after several students ended up being Maced by UTC police officers, and UTC officials said they have develop an early response plan to deal with such events.

"Risk management is something that we take very seriously," Mr. Cantrell said.

Dr. Brown said the institution also reviews legal and financial risks.

Jodi Johnson, vice president for enrollment and student services at Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga., said that school does strategic risk management planning annually during which personnel look at everything from legal issues to snowstorms. Almost every semester, officials meet for an emergency operations planning committee to discuss procedures if the campus faced a violent act or weather-related disaster, she said.

The campus also underwent a security audit last year and has made several changes since then, Ms. Johnson said. One change was an emergency communication system, similar to one used by UTC, that allows officials to contact students via text messaging or voice mail in an emergency situation, she said.

Security cameras also are being placed outside the school's new dorms, and officials are being careful to plan for situations that could arise once students come to live on campus, she said.

"I don't think that any campus can tell you they can prevent 100 percent of things that could happen," Ms. Johnson said. "But what we can tell you is that we have a plan."