NORTON - As news of the massacre at Virginia Tech spread on Monday, Wheaton College sophomore Georgina Cannan, a native of Alexandra, Va., feared for the safety of dozens of her high school classmates who attend the university.

But she also knew where to turn for answers - the Internet.

Cannan logged on to the social-networking Web site Facebook, a ubiquitous presence in the lives of college students today, and began to check the profiles of her friends at the school. She found that many had edited their personal pages with notes that read, "I'm alive," and "I'm OK." Others had notified family and friends by leaving messages up on the AOL Instant Messenger chat program.

"I would have no clue right now who was OK and who wasn't without Facebook," Cannan said. "This is how I get all my information."

Soon Cannan began to receive calls from students at other schools, some asking for and others providing information on mutual acquaintances. Many of them had not been in touch with Cannan since they graduated in 2005. "It's been like a mini-high school reunion," she remarked darkly. Late in the day, Cannan found out that a friend she has known since elementary school lives in West Ambler Johnston Hall, the dormitory where the first shootings occurred. Although her friend was not hurt, Cannan reported that residents of Johnston Hall were still on edge Monday night because police had yet to announce which of their fellow students had been among the victims.

The frantic calling reminded Cannan of the hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, which she watched from a window at her school across the river from the Pentagon.

"It's a similar feeling," she said. "Kids were calling their parents to find out if they were OK."

Like many others on Monday, Cannan said she was "shocked and angered" that university authorities had taken so long to inform students about the danger. Classes were not cancelled until nearly two hours after the first shootings took place at 7:15 a.m., according to The Collegiate Times, the student newspaper at Virginia Tech.

Cannan, who was elected last week as the next vice president of Wheaton's student government, said she and the other officers had already planned to made campus security a major priority next year. "This adds a new importance to it," she said.

Others echoed Cannan's concerns, but they also predicted that little would change on other campuses, including Wheaton's.

"I don't think anything's going to change at Wheaton," said Erin Allgood, a senior. "We are very nestled in our safe 'Wheaton bubble' community, and I don't think there's a pressing need to have more public safety (officers) on campus."

Allgood also said that heightened security could transform the open, laid-back atmosphere at the college. "Part of Wheaton's appeal is that we don't have to check in or check or guests in," she said. "It's so lax."

Jonathan Wolinsky, a freshman at the college, said the real solution lies beyond college campuses.

"My conservative friends would disagree with me, but gun control" laws are needed, he said, explaining that he thinks limiting firearms possession could reduce the chances of such incidents occuring. "But there really isn't much we can do," Wolinsky admitted. "It's random individuals, and if they really want to, there's not much we can do to stop them."

He also pointed out that for his generation, tragedies like the killings at Virginia Tech had become an increasingly common phenomenon.

"It's a sad fact that we have to keep of track of the school shootings," Wolinsky said. "This was the worst in U.S. history, but how long until we have the next worst one? What's next?"