Public Safety tests alert system in response to UA shooting
By Bruce Garlinghouse
The Feb. 12 shootings at the University of Alabama-Huntsville have renewed attention to public safety on college campuses.
A UA biology professor opened fire, killing three faculty members and injuring three more, after she was denied tenure.
Although the university has an emergency text message system, students at the University of Alabama-Huntsville complained that they were not notified about the shooting until 45 minutes after 911 was called, while others have complained that they were not notified at all.
According to news reports, the alert was triggered late because UA public safety personnel involved in activating the alerts were busy responding to the shootings.
This semester, UP's Public Safety department plans to test its emergency text message system to make sure it is effective in an emergency.
"Whenever something like this happens, it is a good idea to test the system to make sure everything is in check," said Public Safety Director Harold Burke-Sivers.
In an emergency, e-mails would be automatically sent to students and faculty at their university e-mail.
To be on the list to receive a text and a voicemail, students have to submit their emergency information, which includes their cell phone number, and an e-mail address other than their UP e-mail.
Students can submit this information when they log onto the UP Portal.
"Students are alerted in three different ways," Burke-Sivers said. "They will receive a voicemail, a text message and an e-mail."
Burke-Sivers would like 100 percent participation in the system.
"We encourage all students to submit that information. The last thing we want is people to not be informed when there is an emergency on campus," Burke-Sivers said.
After the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007, Congress passed a law that requires all universities that receive federal funding to have an emergency text message system.
Freshman Grace Wick thinks it's a good idea.
"No one ever thinks it's going to happen at their school," Wick said. "Events like Virginia Tech, and now Alabama, show us we always need to be prepared."
In addition to the alert system, UP has several Public Safety officers around campus.
However, they are not armed. In an extremely dangerous situation like the one in Alabama, Burke-Sivers said, Public Safety officers would call in Portland Police, and Public Safety would focus on keeping people out of harm's way.
"The first step is to always call the police. They are trained and have firearms in the case they need to be used," said Burke-Sivers.
Educating new professors on how to handle an intruder with a gun is part of faculty orientation, Burke-Sivers said.
There is also an emergency flipchart in every classroom that shows what to do in an emergency.
Burke-Sivers stressed that the best thing professors can do is to make sure they have their keys to lock their rooms in the case of an emergency.
Without keys, rooms have to be locked from the outside.
"If students need more information, there is a lot of information on the public safety page on the UP website," Burke-Sivers said.
The Public Safety page can be located at www.up.edu/publicsafety/.
