Early Saturday morning the University emergency notification system contacted students, informing them, “This is an actual emergency. This is not a test.”
The University sent out PTENS notifications in the form of e-mail messages, text messages and automated phone messages, though students must voluntarily supply their cell phone numbers through SCORE to receive alerts on their cell phones. As of October 2007, more than 90 percent of the Class of 2011 had submitted cell phone numbers through SCORE, while only 25 percent of upperclassmen had registered. Over the weekend, Cliatt was unable to provide the number of students who had registered their phone numbers at the time of the alerts.
The University had previously sent alerts to students via PTENS six times. The service was used for alerts of an unpleasant odor in Frick Lab, e-mailed bomb threats to the engineering school and Lawrence Apartments, and power outages. The system is distinct from Campus Safety Alerts for non-emergency e-mail notifications.
The University purchased and began implementing the system in April 2007, about a week before Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and himself on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Virginia Tech first notified students of the situation more than two hours after the first shooting, when Cho killed two students in a dorm.
-Josh Oppenheimer '11
Monday, March 9, 2009
Notification System
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Campus Safety Alerts
PRINCETON ALERT – Remain inside
Sent at 12:50 a.m.
This is an actual emergency and not a test. At 12:40 AM today, there is an unconfirmed report of a student-age mail [sic] carrying a weapon in the area of Spelman Hall. Stay inside . Public Safety has recommended that all students remain inside until further notice. Do not go outside to travel to another building. Close and lock the doors and windows. Check e-mail and/or the University's home page at www.princeton.edu for further information and updates.
PRINCETON ALERT – Remain inside
Sent at 1:38 a.m.
This is not a test. Public Safety at 1:20 a.m. has confirmed that there is no threat. Public Safety has issued an all clear, and members of the campus community can resume their normal activities. An individual has been identified in relation to the previous unconfirmed report of a student-age male with a weapon. That individual is being detained.
Check e-mail and/or the University's home page for further information and updates.
80 minutes to establish "a credible threat"
Public Safety notified members of the campus community about the possibility of an armed man on campus only after interviewing several people and establishing a "credible threat," University spokesperson Cass Cliatt '96 said in an interview earlier tonight.
Cliatt added that Public Safety receives calls about potential safety threats "on a not infrequent basis" but declined to estimate how many times a month such incidents occur. "We receive calls from people who things they see things -- bombs, toy guns -- it happens from time to time," Cliatt said.
Executive Vice President Mark Burstein said in an interview at 2:30 a.m. that administration officials were "extremely satisfied with our response in this situation."
The situation in the clubs
We've heard that several of the clubs were on lockdown, allowing students in but not letting them out. If you were in an eating club when the alert went out tonight, please comment here to let us know what procedures were put into action.
Update: Charter's president made an announcement putting the club on lockdown after receiving the campus safety alert; Terrace was allowing students in but not letting them out; Tower moved students to its top floor; Colonial was neither allowing students in nor letting them out.
Another e-mail to Triangle asking a pertinent question
I'm with a couple people who saw the same person around 11:30, and he matches your description. I still can't figure out why it took so long for this to get out, seeing as how he's been around for an hour and a half now.
Possible first sighting of armed man
Below is the text of an e-mail sent to the Triangle list at 12:57 a.m. by a student who might have been the first to report the possibility of an armed man on campus.
Subject: IMPORTANT FACTS in re security message
[We] were walking to the Wa around 11:30. We spotted an individual carrying a gun (looked like an AK-47) and couldn't tell if it was fake or not. So I called Public Safety and reported it and gave them a report, and Borough Police also talked to us. That was at 11:30 and we haven't heard anything else from them.
So that's ~first hand what's going on, but like I said, a sighting at 12:40 is not our sighting.
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