News > September 6, 2007

By Lizzie Rosen | News editor

In response to the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings, the university’s Crisis Management Team spent the summer reviewing emergency preparedness measures and focusing on enhancing emergency preparedness to address emergency communications and response mechanisms.

“Now that we have had a chance to read the government reports and such, it was important to spend the summer re-examining our response to a full blown disaster and put in practices of prevention like identifying troubled people and providing them assistance,” Ken Zick, vice president of student life, said.

The CMT, which meets monthly, is comprised of members representing departments campus-wide, including university police, Student Health Service, the University Counseling Center, facilities management and others. It includes members such as Zick, Lawson and Director of Student Health Cecil Price.

This summer’s goal was to establish enhanced mass notification systems and procedures to alert the community in the event of a significant crisis or emergency.

Police will be meeting with academic and administrative departments throughout the semester to discuss emergency preparedness practices.

“We are doing some brief presentations that talk about what to do in the event of emergencies in the classrooms or office suites, basically trying to standardize area responses,” Lawson said. “You’ve got response within the building, response within your department; you’ve got a response within the classroom, so we are going to cover some common sense ‘what to do if...’”

Despite an influx on enhanced security precautions, Ralph Kennedy, chair of the philosophy department, said his attitude toward teaching, or students, has not changed following the Virginia Tech incident.

“None of my opinions have changed. I think it has occasionally crossed my mind but I never thought something like that could happen on campus. This type of thing is not in my consciousness.”

While Kennedy admitted that he is not very familiar with the plan, he does support the university’s reaction to the Virginia Tech situation.

Several conclusions drawn in the summer meetings will be implemented on campus.

“Two things went down during the Virginia Tech situation, internet and cell phones, and so in crisis those tools are less effective, so we decided to use a combination of low and high tech tools,” Zick said.

First is the installation of a steam whistle which will be located on campus in facilities management. It will become operational within the next few weeks. The whistle will be used to alert the community to an imminent emergency.

The university is currently working with the manufacturers of the whistle. It has been tested over 57 times.

Should students, faculty or community members hear the steam whistle they should immediately consult campus information sources like the university home page, voice-mail, and e-mail. The university will also use cable television to convey information.

“It’s a balance between not overreacting and not under-reacting, but it is a good opportunity to evaluate what we do and how we do it, why we do it and what resources we’re lacking,” Lawson said. The Reynolda campus will also employ a cell phone messaging system.

Residence halls will undergo inspection through Residence Life and Housing. Students will be notified at least 24 hours in advance of these searches.

“Inspections are for the purpose of alerting people and getting them thinking about not engaging in careless behaviors,” Zick said.

Students are reminded that all firearms, including paintball guns and BB guns are prohibited on campus.

Cell phone numbers are crucial to running the system and will be obtained from graduate and professional students, faculty and staff members.

Undergraduate students are required to supply their numbers through the WIN system.

“It’s a delicate balance,” Zick said. “Academic communication strives for an open environment of inquiry but emergency preparation sometimes requires more circumspection to ensure safety.”

Zick also emphasized the need for cooperation from the university community.

“The community has to understand that it won’t know all the facts and will need to exercise independent judgment and must be patient in terms of false alarms.”

Student response has been mixed to the new policies. “I’m not uncomfortable with the new plan, but it does seem kind of silly that they spent inordinate amounts of money for that just because of the aftermath of Virginia Tech,” senior Susie Kozelka said.

During the course of creating the response program, the CMT and police participated in training on responding to school and workplace violence conducted by the Winston-Salem Police, reviewed governmental reports, consulted with other universities and studied the Virginia Tech incident itself.

In the incident of a shooter situation, area specialists informed the CMT that there is an average of 16-20 minutes to respond.

If students feel unsafe or observe suspicious behavior they should immediately notify resident advisers or police.

“The key to responding to a situation in progress or responding to a potential situation is communication, communication. When in doubt, pick up the phone and call,” Lawson said.

General information about emergency preparedness is located at wfu.edu/facilities/safety.