The Alert Carolina system should have sent students an informational message much sooner in response to the shooting at Time-Out Restaurant on Franklin Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
While the shooting occurred at about 3:30 a.m., members of the UNC community didn’t receive an informational message until approximately 7 p.m. — roughly 16 hours after the shooting and 14 hours after the police learned a shooting occurred.
Informational messages through the Alert Carolina system are a coordinated effort between the Division of Student Affairs, UNC News Services and the Department of Public Safety.
Given the traffic on Franklin Street because of the New Year’s celebrations, and the proximity of the shooting to campus and Granville Towers, students and others in Chapel Hill should have been made aware of the incident.
Admittedly, there was a two-hour delay between when the incident occurred and when the police found out that someone had been shot. Regardless, waiting 14 hours to inform students is problematic.
If we have an Alert Carolina system to protect members of the campus community, then we need to use it in a way that promotes their safety.
Just because an incident technically happens off-campus doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect students’ safety.
Understandably, security officials have to weigh the contending concerns of accuracy and timeliness.
However, going forward, the organizations involved should look for ways to improve the timing of delivery of informational messages.
