UNC, other universities’ safety protocol examined

After an armed robbery on campus Tuesday, no sirens were sounded and no text messages alerting students and faculty were sent.

The University’s protocol following the incident is raising concerns about the effectiveness of the AlertCarolina system.

These concerns come days after the federal government fined Virginia Tech $55,000 for failing to sufficiently warn its campus community of a gunman.

A massacre began when Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed two students at a Virginia Tech dormitory. Police found the bodies at about 7:30 a.m.

They notified the administrators at 8 a.m., and school officials discussed how to inform the campus 30 minutes later.

At about 9:30 a.m. — two hours after the first bodies were found — the university issued an email warning students about a “shooting incident” on campus, though they did not mention the deaths. When they issued a second, clearer warning, the massacre was almost over.

And when it ended, 32 people were dead.

The U.S. Department of Education issued the school two fines because it broke the Clery Act when it “failed to adequately warn students that day,” according to a report.

The Clery Act requires federally funded colleges and universities to publish information about crimes that take place on or near campus.

Virginia Tech is appealing the fines, saying it never broke the law, said school spokesman Mark Owczarski.

“The university issued a timely warning in less than two hours based on knowing what they knew at the time,” he said.

After the email was sent, the university website was updated and a series of emergency calls to students began. But the calls were never completed because Cho had finished his killing spree.

“Warning the students, faculty and staff might have made a difference,” according to the report by the U.S. Department of Education. “The earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving.”

In 2000, when the University of Arkansas police responded to a shooter who had killed a professor in his office, Arkansas notified its campus within an hour — and with less sophisticated technology, said Gary Crain, spokesman for Arkansas’ police force.

Just 45 minutes after the warning had been issued, a flurry of telephone calls and internet traffic shut down the university’s website and jammed phone lines.

“People expect those warnings,” Crain said. “And they expect to be told they aren’t going to be told the whole story. Just give them an idea.”

Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC department of public safety, said the school has learned from Virginia Tech’s tragedy.

Last April, the University even conducted a live shooter drill.

Just after midnight Monday, two UNC students were robbed at gunpoint in their room in Morrison Residence Hall, according to campus police reports, and no warning measures were taken.

Nearly 12 hours later, the AlertCarolina website was updated with information about what had happened.

Sophomore Tom Taney, who lives in Morrison, said he wanted AlertCarolina to send him a text.

“Why have the system if you’re not going to use it?” he said.

But the emergency measures occur only if an active shooter is present, Young said.

There was no need for a warning because the man who fled the scene was no longer on campus, he said.

“By the time we had confirmed that there was a weapon and understood the nature of what had happened, the situation had been mitigated.”

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