New campus alerts system tested
A group representing Central Michigan University administrators, faculty and the CMU Police Department met to assess the success of a new emergency alerts system implemented in November.
The system was tested twice last week, in incidents involving an intoxicated student who threatened gun violence in Pearce Hall and another who carried a holstered weapon while visiting the Veterans Resource Center. An initial brief was released by University Communications and a more thorough summary was sent to student and faculty members' cmich email accounts after CMUPD concluded their investigation.
The policy states that information will be shared with the campus community after threats are made toward multiple people in a public situation and police conclude there is no ongoing threat after their investigation. In attendance were CMUPD officers, Sherry Knight, vice president of University Communications, Dennis Armistead, executive director of Faculty Personnel Services and Leslie Withers, interim dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts.
"Having gone through the conversation in November, we were touching base to see if there were any concerns with how it all worked," Knight said. "Interestingly this came on the heels of the (incidents last week)."
Knight said none of the representatives expressed concerns with the effectiveness of the system. Withers received positive feedback with how University Communications handled the incident in Pearce Hall.
The group was prompted to meet last semester to address communication issues with an Oct. 30 shooting threat on campus after some faculty members expressed dissatisfaction with how CMUPD and Faculty Personnel Services handled disseminating information of the threat.
CMU officials are not required to issue a campus alert under the Jeanne Clery Act if it is determined that there is no threat to the campus community. The act states that institutions must immediately notify the campus community only if a significant and immediate threat to the safety of the community has been confirmed.
CMUPD Chief Bill Yeagley said it is important that police are releasing information responsibly. The Clery act also states that it is not advisable to release information if it would compromise efforts to contain the emergency.
"We need to give police a chance to really figure out what happened," Knight said.
Like all universities, CMU has an emergency action policy in the event of an active shooter situation. Specific departments have emergency action plans, and CMUPD has procedures to respond to campus threats.
CMU Police communicates emergency situations in two ways. Upon confirmation of a dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of the university community, students, faculty and staff will receive a notification through the Central Alert system. Students can register with the system to stay up-to-date on emergency communications on the cmich website.
Updates to an incident will appear the CMUPD Twitter account, @cmpud.
The second mode of communication is a timely warning notice, which is released by the university via email and a Twitter post. Timely warning notices are given in an effort to keep community members from becoming victims of similar crimes — like theft or property damage — and are determined based on the facts surrounding an incident.
"We built this system so people feel that they could contact us if they have any questions in terms of how things went," Knight said.
