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I want to reserve judgement. It's really hard to know what a deranged shooter will do. We who are sane will go "Well, this is logical" without realizing the very fact this person did this means they were NOT logical and not sane. Crazed people won't think like us. It is very hard for us to think like them without a lot of training, and it's still not necessarily going to work. What makes crazy so scary is the fact that crazies use a line of logic sane people would never imagine or think.
Many dorms today(oops, "residence halls) no longer have land lines with easily sequenced prefixes. Student cell numbers are not necessarily available. That's probably why the RAs had to knock.
Most campuses don't have PAs. An email blast might be read or not read in time, by students and faculty alike (I've seen this with cancelling campus for snow storms, emergencies, etc). Same with news media. Of course, using the media opens you to panic and copycats.
Because of budget cuts and student/parent demands to keep tuition low, there are NOT that many polic officers on a campus today, even one that size. There may have been 15 to 20 for the 2,600 acres. First responders are supposed to "search and make contact" with the shooter by the uniform protocols established after Columbine, not focus on shutting down campus buildings. Search, contain, control is the focus. One delay could have been caused by calling in state and local police to back up an understaffed force.
How could police not see him? He didn't have to use a big rifle. A semi automatic handgun (or two) with multiple clips would have been easily concealable under a heavier jacket (a university logo down jacket, an Army surplus jacket (such jackets are popular with many students as cheap and practical), a good leather bomber jacket, etc). Here's an assortment. http://www.gundirectory.com/body.asp?gun=Pistol&pp=1&sort=-3&pop=1
Such handguns are very common and sometimes cheaper than a good road bike.
If the students were armed most still would have been killed. Unless it was on the desk in front of them, they would have to find it (in a student backpack- that won't be quick), load it, and take aim, in only a few seconds. Trained responders with the guns out often freeze for a few seconds in the face of a surprise shooter. Add freeze to find, assemble, load, and aim.
On top of it, what if they miss and hit another student in those classrooms? In many big lecture halls, you are not looking at materials to that absorb bullets. Cement, brick, etc can cause ricochets with some calibers. Simple bad aim, or panicked students who run into your line of fire, can also prevent shooting the gunman.
Probably on that campus faculty could not be first responders because of the no guns on state property rule.
