UNC considers adding new tier of response to Alert Carolina

In the early hours of April 4, Kate Matthews left her door in Morrison Residence Hall unlocked. Just a few floors away, some of her fellow students were being robbed at gunpoint.

The incident at Morrison sparked campus-wide protest of the University’s decision not to notify students of the fleeing gunman through its emergency warning system, Alert Carolina.

“If I had known there had been an armed robbery occurring I would have definitely gotten out of bed and locked (the door) to be on the safe side,” Matthews said.

In response to concerns about Alert Carolina, a group of University officials that included senior administrators, public safety officers and student leaders began reviewing the system in April.

Four months later, the team is almost ready to reveal significant alterations to the warning system.

The changes being discussed help fill the hole in the system that was made painfully apparent last semester, officials said.

While the current system only designates emergencies either siren or non-siren, the proposed changes add a new tier of response: one that alerts individuals of a situation but does not sound the alarm, said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp.

The changes are still in draft form, but will be made public within the next week or two, said University spokesman Mike McFarland.

Tentative changes

The current version of Alert Carolina sounds the alarm for only three scenarios: an armed person near or on campus, a major chemical spill or hazard or a nearby tornado warning.

For any other campus emergency, the Department of Public Safety must form a plan of action tailored specifically to that scenario.

The revised system will institutionalize a new response — a second tier — that holds a middle ground between siren and non-siren emergencies, Crisp said.

This tier, which wouldn’t activate the siren but would send out text messages and emails, serves as an alert to a possible danger but not an immediate crisis.

“In the second tier, something has happened on campus but there is no immediate threat,” Crisp said. “We want people to be in a heightened state of alert.”

The remaining two tiers will largely resemble those already in place, Crisp said.

“The first tier is when we actually need students, faculty and staff to do something to obey the threat,” he said.

In the case of an immediate threat, the siren would sound, instructions would be issued over the loud speaker and emergency text messages and emails would be sent out.

The third tier would include an update to the Alert Carolina website, but wouldn’t require any action.

“Something has happened, but there is not any threat at all,” Crisp said. “There is a significant enough event that people might want to know about it.”

This would also help to dispel rumors, Crisp added.

Moving forward

University officials, along with some students, have acknowledged that not every situation can be planned for, Crisp said.

“You can only do the best you can to anticipate the different kinds of things that can happen,” he said. “The execution isn’t going to be as clean as it looks on paper either.”

University officials said they hope students will appreciate the improvements to the emergency warning system and its clearer standards of what requires an alert.

“I think students will appreciate it,” Student Body President Mary Cooper said. “The new system took what we already had and recategorized it in a way that made sense and emphasized communication.”

Cooper added that this should remove confusion around the system and will improve safety.

“If you don’t feel safe at Carolina you’re unable to excel as an athlete, a student or anything,” she said.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.