Questions remain unanswered
In the aftermath of the incident at Lockwood Library on Tuesday, the University Police Department, officials, faculty and students are left re-examining the situation. Much uncertainty plagues the minds of many when analyzing the situation. Uncovering the facts Tuesday's events began to unfold at about 4:05 p.m., when the University Police Department received a call from a student at Lockwood Library. The student claimed there was a possible sighting of a man with either a rifle or a shotgun under a navy pea coat. According to Chief of Police Gerald W. Schoenle Jr., an officer was on the scene within one minute of the phone call and others were on their way. The first officer who reached the scene was already in Baldy Hall when the call came in. 'We went to a [security] video and we immediately saw someone walking into the library that was right at the location where the [student] said there was a person that they thought had a weapon,' Schoenle said. 'We were able to zoom in on those cameras and see a person in a very grainy video, that you certainly could not identify, who was carrying something that sort of fit the description, so that elevated our concerns a little bit.' These images have not yet been released to the media or the public. As The Spectrum reported on Tuesday, the library was evacuated at 4:40 p.m. and the campus was alerted via text messages and e-mails that students, faculty and staff received at various times throughout the afternoon and evening. By 6:30 p.m. Amherst Police, who had arrived as backup, left the scene. Nearly two hours later, the announcement was made that the search had been completed. 'Police have determined that there is no threat to campus and that it will be safe to resume activities, so classes will resume,' said Joe Brennan, vice president for University Communications. Now, three days later, the situation remains unclear. What actually happened? When did events unfold? And how was it discovered? Safe technology? Police allude to a security video from a camera that rests inside of Lockwood Library, but not much other information currently exists about the footage. Between the leaked footage from the Cybrary and UPD comments, it's still unclear as to exactly what was captured on camera and how well it was documented. Schoenle himself said the footage was 'grainy.' Spol Pollaor, a junior exercise science major who works at the CIT Help Desk, isn't even sure if the cameras are regularly monitored or in working order. University response No one seems to know exactly what went on Tuesday evening. Police evacuated Lockwood Library, but there is no certain figure on how long that took. Michelle Lafica, a sophomore environmental engineering major who was working in Lockwood at the time of the evacuation, said that the police really didn't make a scene of the evacuation. 'A cop came in and said, ‘You guys need to leave,' Lafica said. 'That was around [4 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.]' Lafica said that after she was asked to leave the library, she and others were left standing in the hallway between the Cybrary and Lockwood. Only after waiting for approximately 20 minutes were they asked to leave the building entirely. '[The police] were definitely unprepared,' Lafica said. Despite uneasy feelings from some members of the UB community, others felt the situation was handled as well as possible. 'The University Police have received countless positive e-mails from students, faculty and staff regarding the handing of [Tuesday's] incident,' Schoenle said in an e-mail to The Spectrum. Schoenle shared some of the comments pleased members of the community in the e-mail. 'The rapid physical response … leaves me very impressed with the overall safety services that the force is able to provide. After the events of Tuesday, I feel much safer on campus,' said one student. Another comment in the e-mail said, 'Given the fact that UPD was responding to a very nebulous threat, I think the actions taken, and the manner of which they were, were appropriate. It seems to me that the way that the university communicated with the public was fair. I did not feel unsafe and I was not worried. Has there been a substantiated gunman in the building, it would have been considered the absolute right approach to take.' From speaking with university officials, it's clear that many in power during the incident on Tuesday did not see a direct or legitimate threat to anyone on North Campus. Barbara J. Ricotta, associate vice president for Campus Life, was coordinating the efforts in the university's response. It was she and the provost who ultimately made the decision to cancel classes but not to evacuate the whole North Campus. 'At the time, we felt it was wrong to encourage people to come to campus during the situation, so we decided to cancel classes,' Ricotta said. 'We never felt that there was a security threat. We felt that the best way to diffuse the situation was to have less people on campus.' Ricotta also felt that university response was satisfactory. 'I'm very satisfied with the response from everyone. We took time to evaluate the situation and act accordingly. We received new information every 10 minutes or so, but our main focus was to evacuate and secure Lockwood before anything else,' Ricotta said. However, while officials from the university are proud of their efforts, some students are still looking for answers and remain confused about the situation. Perspectives from students, faculty and staff Student Association President Ernesto Alvarado has the unique ability to see the situation from both a student and administrative perspective. 'I think the police are getting a lot of criticism from across campus, but UB did a good job overall,' Alvarado said. 'I think [police] did the best they could in the situation they were in. I don't think there has ever been a situation where protocol didn't go without some sort of a glitch. There are obviously kinks in the system of texts and e-mails.' Alvarado feels that the abundance of rumors that circulated campus on Tuesday could have been prevented had university e-mails been more descriptive. 'I think it would have been better to get a little more information and description from texts and e-mails, but on the other side, I understand why they didn't give information about a gunman to prevent chaos. I do think [the police] sending out a descriptive message would have helped, but to be quite honest, I bet they didn't even know what was going on themselves,' Alvarado said. 'People don't read ‘unconfirmed gunman' — they read ‘gunman.' People have a tendency to skip over details and see only what they want to see.' While Alvarado feels that the UPD took appropriate action, he's a bit disappointed they didn't additionally evacuate all connecting buildings. Alvarado is also disappointed in the way some students reacted to the incident. Some students flooded social networking sites to spread their speculations and seemingly make light of the situation. Groups like 'I Survived the UB Gunman of 2010' popped up almost as soon as the university's e-mails appeared in inboxes. 'I think that students kind of forget that we have a responsibility when we're using social media networks because people honestly do read this stuff,' Alvarado said. 'It's a double-edged sword. In one way it was a good way to contact family and friends to reassure them that everything is fine … on the other hand, you have a group of people who just want to make light of any situation and make radical things up, which makes a situation into a bigger thing than it should be.' Despite praise from many students, faculty and staff, there are some on campus who are dissatisfied with not only the UPD response, but some faculty responses, too. A student who was in her sociology of gender class when the news broke learned of the situation from a classmate who checked her e-mail during class. She wished to remain anonymous so she wouldn't face academic repercussions from her professor. The student said that her professor, Dr. Mary Nell Trautner, was more concerned and annoyed about a student checking e-mail during class than with the students' safety. Trautner declined comment. 'Naturally, students are going to look for answers as to what happened, especially when you start to hear other students saying things about someone carrying a gun. Everybody was uneasy and curious to say the least,' the student said. She was fearful when her professor did not seem to take the notifications as seriously as the students were. 'When there's a situation like that, of course students are going to be checking their cell phones and e-mail so that they might find out what's going on. When our safety is concerned, that should be out first priority,' she said. 'Not every teacher or student even knew what was going on, but hearing all the buzz about it should have been enough to at least make teachers feel less offended if their students were checking their e-mail every few minutes to find out what was going on.' Another student in the same class felt similarly and also wished to remain anonymous. She felt the police did not disclose enough information and that their teacher was not sensitive to the potential severity of the situation. 'Knox had no cell phone reception, which is horrible, considering the only way for UB to get a hold of anyone is through text or e-mail. What if we didn't bring our computer? How were we to know? As an instructor, her responsibility was to stop class and make sure we all exited safely,' she said. 'Instead, she reprimanded the girl for checking her e-mail in class when there was a possible shooter on campus.' The student believes that worry of what could be happening outside the doors of their classroom caused more panic. 'Of course we wanted to know more information on what was taking place, so it was natural to check the warnings, especially since [the Virginia Tech shooting] happened. It wouldn't surprise me if the supposed gunman was simply casing out the place and seeing how UB reacted,' the student said. 'I don't think this will be the last of it.' Other faculty and staff reacted differently but still saw the situation as confusing and potentially dangerous. Michael Bozarth, an associate professor in the Psychology Department whose academic interest is terrorism, was teaching when he heard the news. He felt that there 'could be a real incident meriting serious attention and prompt, judicious action.' 'I found the University's Emergency Warning System to be woefully inadequate. Bluntly, the person in charge should be fired and someone hired to replace them that can handle the job,' Bozarth said. 'If I have the temporal order of events correct … we received the first warning around half an hour after the incident began.' Bozarth said he sent two students from his class to assess the situation. These students were told by UPD to stay away from Lockwood. 'They were told to ‘get the f*** out of here' [by police],' Bozarth said. 'From this, I surmised that the threat was not well contained and immediately dismissed my class, considering the possibility that there might be a shooter roaming the campus. I wanted my students dispersed and out of the potential target area.' Bozarth then went to survey the area himself and concluded that, 'the university needs to disseminate information more rapidly and to provide at least minimal details of the potential threat so that individuals can assess the situation and take appropriate action.' 'No excuses, UB administration, just fix it,' Bozarth said. 'My students' safety is at risk.' Investigating further Whether or not a suspicious person or a weapon was present on campus on Tuesday, students, faculty and staff have strong and differing opinions about how the situation was handled. Details are limited, but police say the investigation is still ongoing. Additional reporting by Lauren Nostro, Asst. City Editor E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com