Friday the 13th spelled more than just bad luck for the university as communication, official response and campus emergency efforts experienced an unforgivable degree of delayed reaction and frivolous inaction. A weekend of record-breaking snowfall, collapsing trees and alarming power outages was also a weekend of university administrative failure and individual triumphs.
As the snow began to pile Thursday night, mum was the word among the administration while City of Buffalo and other schools closed and communities announced driving bans and states of emergency. As trees frighteningly split down the middle blocking roads and damaging property through the night, officials didn't say a word. When the moment finally came to close campus, efforts to notify the student body were worse than a 12-page paper written the night before it's due.
After years of inefficient bureaucracy, UB finally got an emergency hotline to assist and notify students and staff of vital information during disasters and crisis situations, but in its first true test, it couldn't have been more disappointing. If someone called the hotline Friday morning they were given a message loop of misinformation. Dialing 645-NEWS, people were told that "school was in session" and not until after 5 p.m. Friday was it updated for the closure. That's a little beyond late. "This state of emergency was just a practice and we'll get it next time" is not what we want to hear from officials in a crisis situation.
One of the biggest problems with the university's response was also the simplest to address. A campus-wide alert was nearly non-existent excluding the on-campus channel two update, a feature regularly watched by weather channel lovers and hypochondriacs waiting for disasters. As students woke up to go to class in the morning, of course they all consulted channel two before leaving, that's always on students' minds. Did university officials really believe that this measure for informing students was the most effective strategy? The bottom line is that more should have been done to notify students. A campus wide e-mail would have taken all of three minutes to write and send out.
Although countless UB commuters were left in the dark, unable to access such electronic mediums, the effort still should have been made. If just one more student was made aware of the situation by e-mail, that student could call his/her off-campus friend via cell phone, and that individual could tell a neighbor, and before you know it a network of communication is sparked and carried on by word of mouth. The only problem is not enough people were given that chance to spread the knowledge, and for how little time it would take to make this information more accessible, there really is no excuse for not trying.
In this barrage of confusion, some individuals and organizations stepped up. Although the administration failed to respond in a timely manner, Student Union managers came in on their time off to aid the refugees filing in. Providing food and movies in the Union Theater for entertainment, union officials rose above the challenges and really helped people bear the conditions. In addition, the residence hall staffs assumed many of roles and jobs left unfulfilled on campus during the crisis. Resident Advisors made up almost 80 percent of the Red Jacket dining hall staff, feeding Ellicott residents, as well as mobilized South Campus students. The hall directors and RAs were the first responders to fallen trees and evacuations, and the dedicated finishers of the relief efforts - and they should be commended for their efforts
The university's administration and emergency response officials were caught sleeping. Although it is too late for this storm, let's hope they learn from their mistakes so that the next inevitable Buffalo snowstorm doesn't catch them napping once again.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
