How safe are you?
By Caitlin Tremblay AND Jennifer Good | Feb. 17, 2010At 4:40 p.m., the phones in The Spectrum office began ringing off the hook. 'Have you heard? Lockwood Library has been evacuated!' said the callers. A million different scenarios ran through our heads. Bomb threat? Fire? Another college campus shooting? Was UB destined to be the next Virginia Tech? We didn't know. Rumors spread like wildfire around campus. Assumptions and rumors exploded from social networking sites as a result of silence from police and UB. Even Generation Magazine's Twitter account was reporting unsubstantiated information. There were talks of a gunman, a student with a knife, student hostages, missing faculty and staff, and even potential evacuation of the entire campus. We didn't know what to think. The University Police Department, which was clearly occupied, wouldn't confirm anything and the chaos surrounding the scene in front of Lockwood didn't leave much substantial information to work with. It's frightening that we were updated sooner by social media than by the university and police, who are supposed to inform and protect us. No one knew what was going on. Some students were panicking, while others brushed the incident aside. No one seemed to know quite how seriously to take the situation because no information was being released and no questions were being answered. Simply put, police and UB personnel did not properly inform students as to what was going on. The Spectrum received countless phone calls from students asking about the situation and whether they were safe. UB did send out alerts through e-mails via various university listserv accounts, but that led to confusion. The problem was that everyone seemed to receive these alerts either at different times or not at all. One of us received the first alert e-mail at 5:16 p.m., while the other didn't get it until 5:45. Why the lapse? Even more so, why did it take almost an hour to tell students? The police were called to Lockwood at 4:05 p.m. Shouldn't students have been notified much sooner? If there's an alleged deadly weapon on this campus, we'd like immediate notice. Forty-five minutes is a lot of time for an armed person to mobilize, even if police are on the way. We'd like to have the time and the opportunity to save our lives. UB Provost Satish Tripathi said in a university-wide e-mail (that hopefully all of our readers received) that 'the safety of our students, faculty and staff is always our primary concern.' Really? We're pretty sure we saw students frolicking about campus within shooting range of Lockwood long after police allegedly secured the building. Our Editor-In-Chief was inches away from walking into the building. Students were being told to leave Lockwood, but that's it. Clemens Hall wasn't evacuated, nor was Baldy Hall – and they both directly link to Lockwood with sky-bridges. Why? We'd like to know. If the building was under lockdown, why were students still walking right through Lockwood without any knowledge that they were within feet of potential danger? Put plain and simply, this alert system has huge flaws. E-mail and Web site updates are not enough. Not every student has Internet access every second of every day, and not every student is signed up for text alerts. When racing from Alumni to NSC for their next class, how are students supposed to stay updated on campus emergencies? Public address systems were invented long before the Internet; sometimes it's okay to rest on your laurels. If the university can make an announcement canceling class, why can't it announce an important safety concern? We get that police and UB officials don't want to spark rumors, riots and chaos, but some form of universal notification is imperative to everyone's safety. There's a difference between keeping students safe and keeping the university's image safe. There's a way for information to be released safely and efficiently. UB is a school with endless resources. It can afford to figure something out. Luckily, this situation turned out to be non-life threatening, but honestly, from what we saw today, it was a criminal's field day. Despite several press briefings throughout the evening, many questions remain unanswered. UB is on the spot. It's do or die time – literally. With more and more students coming in every semester, UB needs to seriously reevaluate its security system and protocol. Many of UB's buildings were built 40 to 50 years ago and were designed specifically to quell riots, but it's not 1970 anymore. We need a new system. We need an upgrade. Students deserve to feel safe and, more importantly, be safe. E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
