On Tuesday, Feb.7, an incident took place that could have put students’ lives at risk. On this evening, a report was made that a suspicious person with a ski mask and a gun was seen near the recreation center. At the time of this incident there was no warning from the university, either through text or email.
It wasn’t until more than an hour after the incident took place that an alert was sent to students. That is something that is inexcusable.
Luckily, it was a false alarm, but it could have gone wrong very quickly. There was a lot of confusion because of the lack of alert.
There is absolutely no reason that me and my friends that were in a rehearsal should have found out that the campus was on lockdown from a text message. Failure to send out an official emergency alert led to more panic as rumors began to spread faster than the speed of light. Many rumors of students being hidden in the bathroom of the Rec and another of students being escorted to their dorms by PD and being told to stay put had been spread.
The fact that there was a possibility of our lives being in danger and us not finding out until a castmate’s mom texted is very concerning. With all kinds of rumors going around, we had to call UPD ourselves while we hid.
It was a very frustrating and scary experience to be stuck hiding in a bathroom for an hour not knowing exactly what’s going on or how much danger you are in. An hour was plenty of time to send a simple alert. At the time there weren’t many details but there was still a chance that we were in immediate danger. If you look around on campus, especially in the dorms, there are safety posters posted with safety tips. It should not have taken an event like this to put safety posters up. The point is to take action to prevent tragedy, not gamble the safety of students and staff.
No matter which way you look at it, action was not taken fast enough. The speed in which we receive severe weather warning emails is the speed we need to receive emergency alerts when our lives could be on the line.
I hope that the university will take the necessary steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen again as the safety of staff and students rely on it.
