New university building standard: two doors, one handle

If you are a student or a faculty/staff member at a college, you may have noticed a peculiar detail about new buildings. Many high-traffic buildings, like residence halls, libraries, and academic halls, require double-door entrances. It seems logical to assume that both of the doors would have outside handles so as to minimize any potential traffic buildup. This is not the case. The presence of only one handle is a reaction to the shooting event at Virginia Tech in April 2007. Before the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, began his attack, he fastened chains around a few pairs of double-door handles and secured them with numerous locks, preventing anyone from escaping. Since this attack, many universities have chosen to put only one outside handle on double-door entrances of new buildings.