ECU reviews emergency response tactics

East Carolina University is learning from its mistakes — one black umbrella at a time.

Administrators at ECU have changed the university’s text messaging alert system and said they will continue to evaluate the on-campus response to a lockdown that occurred earlier this month.

On Nov. 16, ECU issued a campus-wide lockdown after police received phone calls about a man with a rifle — which turned out to be a black umbrella.

But ECU students did not receive the initial text message alerts during the incident, which has prompted the school to modify its software, said Bill Koch, associate vice chancellor for environmental safety.

The original software required someone to select faculty, staff and students separately as recipients. During the Nov. 16 incident, the system’s operator mistakenly did not select students for the initial text.

“We’re going to put in an ‘all’ button, so in nearly all cases we’ll hit ‘all,’” Koch said.

ECU

“One person would put the message together in the system, and another would make sure it’s done correctly,” Koch said.

Several faculty members were also discovered to have left their classrooms during the lockdown.

Koch said the university will speak with those faculty members, and he thinks the incident will spark more employees to seek more lockdown training.

ECU’s emergency management staff routinely conduct self assessments following incidents.

Koch said he expects a draft report about the response by the end of the week.

“We had a lot of positive feedback about the response–and we’re happy about that–but emergency management people are focused on continually improving,” Koch said.

School administrators also said this incident has highlighted the new role social media plays in law enforcement.

During the lockdown, several rumors about the supposed gunman’s activity were spread through Twitter and Facebook, creating anxiety and confusion for law enforcement and students.

“You can’t control it, but we think we can communicate better with our faculty, staff and students,” Koch said.

Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC Department of Public Safety, said the department realizes the myriad ways people on campus communicate and works through the same channels, but it has not formally met to discuss the incident at ECU.

Young said University leaders need to use social media to communicate, adding that the department recently started a Twitter account.

“If rumors are spread through social media, then (universities) also need to be a player via social media, allaying fears through the same media,” he said.

Mike McFarland, director of University Communications, said UNC-CH’s Alert Carolina system also utilizes several media outlets.

“We’re trying to use all the technology available to us to put information out in the most effective way,” he said.

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