Giving Compass' Take:

• James Paterson reports that colleges are changing their campus safety messaging to reflect rising gun violence against college students. 

• Is this an effective way of increasing campus safety? How can funders work to effectively reduce gun deaths on campuses? 

• Learn about fighting gun violence with science. 

The scene opens like a college recruitment film — a sunny day on campus with students quietly chatting and studying on a lawn, along a lake and in a library. But the background music shifts and there are hints in the chatter that there might be trouble. An agitated young man steps from a car, pulls out a gun and trudges through campus, shooting wildly while students scream and run in all directions.

Suddenly, a frightened young woman is speaking into the camera. Students run past her as gunshots echo down the covered outdoor corridor where she is hiding. "If you hear gunshots, don't wait until others tell you to act," she warns, wide-eyed and breathless. "If it's safe to run, run." As the shooter turns the corner and comes into view, she scrambles away.

That's just the beginning of a five-minute "run, hide, fight" lesson played out in a realistic new video from Northwestern University that instructs students how to behave in an active shooter situation. And it represents a shift in how colleges are engaging their students on the topic of campus safety at a time when gun violence is a growing concern.

The number of shooting incidents on or near college campuses is on the rise, doubling from the 2011-12 academic year to the 2015-16 academic year when 101 incidents were recorded, according to a 2016 report based on a nationwide survey from the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City. The figure is up 153% from the 2001-02 to 2005-06 period.

Read the full article about campus safety messages by James Paterson at Education Dive.