Sunday, March 8, 2009

That night.

I was talking to a friend on the phone when the call was interrupted by another. It was a friend, who asked me if I was alright. I was. The system worked. I received the notice just as I was leaving my room.

I'm okay, I said, I'm in my room, with my door locked and windows closed. Just as the notice prescribed.

But he had another motive for asking me. His girlfriend's phone battery died, right after she received a text from a mutual friend. The mutual friend had been outside when this happened. He was locked out. And he didn't know where to go.

So, is there a way to reconcile the desire to keep threats out of the buildings and the desire to ensure the safety of all students?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's rather a dilemma, isn't it? I imagine one solution would be to post Public Safety Guards at dorm entrances (although there might be too many of these...) only admitting students with PUIDs. Of course, if the threat is a student, that might not help.

Another option might be to establish "safety houses" at key locations around campus, where students could go in the case of an emergency lock-down. These places would admit anyone with a PUID and would have emergency supplies and at least one Public Safety officer, but would also require that there be metal detectors and bag inspections to ensure that the admitted students were not threatening.

Students should also be told to program PS's # into their cell, and be able to call for emergency escorts to safe locations during such an incident.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous

If they had a prox, they could get into a building. The problem is if they don't have a prox. In that case, the best thing to do is probably go to the Public Safety Building.