Senators Talk of Revising Privacy Laws in Wake of Tragedy at Virginia Tech

By ERIK VANCE

One week after a gunman killed nearly three dozen people at Virginia Tech, members of the U.S. Senate discussed on Monday whether changes in federal privacy laws might help college officials prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

In a hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the senators heard from a number of campus officials and experts in public safety and higher education, and covered a range of potential federal actions to make colleges and universities safer.