Practical emergency ideas needed

Issue Date:Friday August 31, 2007
Section: Editorial Section

West Virginia University, like many colleges around the country, has been dealing with a ripple effect of concern from faculty, students and parents alike in regards to the shooting at Virginia Tech earlier this year.

A report, commissioned by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine yesterday, revealed the failings of the Virginia Tech response to the situation.

Earlier this week, The Daily Athenaeum ran a story about our college considering a variety of crisis options, including one widely thrown around by the media: text messaging.

According to the Aug. 24 article, "Chief Bob Roberts of WVU's Department of Public Safety, the University may try mass text messaging, siren alerts, video displays and safety awareness programs."

"We are currently trying to evaluate how we would put this all together," Roberts said in the article. The communication and notification committee are going to meet together to discuss final issues regarding these plans."

While it is important that the University and its law enforcement officials corroborate on ideas to better alert and inform the WVU community about possible dangers, it is also necessary that we take a step back and encourage truly practical ideas, designed not for flashiness but for mass utilization and for the clearest, most direct announcement of danger.

While text messaging is a great idea, some cell phones and carriers have reputations for messages arriving days late. Additionally, not everybody has them.

Plastering LCD screens everywhere on campus that will regularly need replacing, the visibility of such screens may be too low to properly alert everyone.

The University could most benefit from a University-wide speaker system, an idea highlighted in the DA article.

A centralized speaker system that could be piped into classrooms, much like those in K-12 schoolrooms, could easily be channeled into the PRT and its stations (which are both already equipped with its own radio system), and in the open areas between buildings. This would be an effective way to alert those in danger and issue appropriate lockdown procedures.

It is the unfortunate gain of the rest of us in the college community throughout rest of the country - that we are able to reassess our handicaps and flaws in regards to our emergency response systems.

It is also unfortunate that it is left up to national situations like the shooting at Virginia Tech to spearhead such movements.

Those that perished on April 16 paid the ultimate price, in part, due to "missed opportunities" to seize gunman Cho.

Let us hope that we, as colleges, are able to learn from this tragedy, and are able to avoid our own "missed opportunities" if, God forbid, anything like the tragic events at Virginia Tech should happen here.

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Original Source: The Daily Athenaeum
<a href="http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=29638">http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=29638</a>

Editorial Staff

2008-02-18

Kacey Beddoes

Leann Ray <Leann.Ray@mail.wvu.edu>

eng

Better safety measures needed

Issue Date:Wednesday April 18, 2007
Section: Editorial Section

There are still many questions left for the Blacksburg, Va., community as police and federal agents continue to investigate the gunman&#39;s trail.

But there is one startling fact we are all aware of: Students and the rest of the university&#39;s community were not notified of the first shooting until nearly two hours later. And when they were notified, many did not take the message seriously until, in many cases, they saw bloodshed for themselves.

It&#39;s hard not to think about how West Virginia University and others across the country would respond if a similar situation took place on their campuses.

As explained in a news story in today&#39;s Daily Athenaeum, WVU officials say they do have an emergency plan in place.

But does it need to be modified to be made more efficient?

In a much less dire situation, WVU administrators took several hours to cancel classes when roads were too icy to drive on during a snowstorm last March.

When Virginia Tech officials did notify the campus of the shootings, the message was mass delivered through an e-mail. Many VT students wondered aloud to the media if the tragedy could have only been an incident if they were notified earlier.

And what if e-mails simply can&#39;t be read when the power shuts off or students and faculty don&#39;t check their accounts?

We&#39;re glad to hear University officials are looking into campus-wide text messaging and messaging centers that are visible to traffic. Innovative measures such as these are some of the best ways to reach everybody at once nowadays. Still, in an emergency, cell phone network lines could become loaded, making messages hard to send. That&#39;s why universities, including WVU, need to work with local companies and networks to make plans for mass communication during security threats.

Of course, nothing can change Monday&#39;s monstrosity. But if communities and administrators work together now, they may be able to prevent another tragedy.

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Originial Source: The Daily Athenaeum
<a href="http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27573">http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27573</a>

Editorial Staff

2008-02-18

Kacey Beddoes

Leann Ray <Leann.Ray@mail.wvu.edu>

eng