Just months after UNC was forced to review its emergency response protocol, East Carolina University now finds itself in a similar predicament — albeit for a different reason. Whereas UNC drew criticism for failing to notify students of an armed robbery on campus in April, ECU must now review its emergency response because of an overreaction to a black umbrella, which was mistaken for a rifle and led to a campus-wide lockdown last month.
As ECU begins to review its system after this misstep, it would be wise to use UNC’s review from earlier this year as a guide, always keeping in mind the need to avoid “crying wolf” again.
On college campuses, safety is a prerequisite for a community conducive to learning. Thus, the issue of safety is one that’s taken rather seriously, though emergency response is a tricky matter. It’s almost impossible to devise an airtight response system that will leave everyone satisfied, as some will always want to be in-the-know while others won’t want to be bothered.
When students cried afoul for the notification, or lack thereof, in April, the University noted its wariness of a system that “cries wolf,” inundating students with so much irrelevant information that they ignore what’s important. Indeed, if too many minor incidents or false alarms are reported, students will not take notifications seriously and may not respond to a real crisis in a safe manner.
After responding to April’s armed robbery and deciding that it posed no threat to the broader campus community, the University reviewed its Alert Carolina emergency response system and found the middle ground with a new, three-tiered system that answered students’ demands for more information, without going too far.
ECU should heed this example and walk the thin line between being over-informative and under-effective.
During the lockdown, rumors swirled about a supposed gunman’s activity through Twitter and Facebook, creating anxiety and confusion for students and law enforcement alike. The role of social media in this false call brought into high relief ECU’s need to have a social media presence to provide accurate, reliable information. It should act as UNC did in its review and take care to develop Twitter, Facebook and other accounts to reach students in a timely and effective manner.
This effort should come in addition to including a “send all” option for sending texts. Without this option, ECU students were deprived of a text message alert after the system’s operator forgot to select the “students” category from the list of recipients.
Brent Herron, associate vice president of campus safety and emergency operations for the UNC system, said he believes that campuses have done a good job identifying problems and moving to solve them so far. This should continue at both ECU and UNC, as well as at all schools in the UNC system.
