Central Alert system upsets students and faculty after Monday's leak at Music Building
Warren freshman Ben Lazarus was not the only one in his family notified by the Central Alert system late Monday.
His mother and grandparents at his house in Warren also received messages from the Central Michigan University Police Department at around 11 p.m.
“They got the underscore message,” Lazarus said. “They were really worried about the safety of myself and my sister.”
Phone calls were sent out by the Central Alert message system after a hydrochloric acid chemical leak was detected in the Music Building.
People inside the building were asked to evacuate immediately.
The first message was unsuccessful. Instead of a notification from the CMU Police, an incomprehensible computer message was relayed out to those who were signed up to receive the alerts. The next two messages gave updates on the building’s evacuation, and the fourth gave an “all clear” message. The first message was sent at about 10:30 p.m. and the last was sent at about 11:15 p.m.
CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said he does not know what caused the problem with the messages, but it will be analyzed. Originally, the plan was for only two messages instead of four.
“I have folks gathering data today to figure out what went wrong,” he said. “I always take it very seriously when things don’t work as they are designed to.”
Precaution
Yeagley said the decision to send out the notifications late at night was not required, but the department decided to take precautionary action anyway.
”That’s always a judgment call,” he said. “If I’m going to make a mistake, I would rather have too much information.”
At about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, CMU Police sent an e-mail to the campus community saying they are looking into the problems with the alert system.
Comments posted on cm-life.com shortly after the incident were critical of the system.
“It was very worrisome to get text messages and e-mails about some incident, but no information about the incident,” read one comment. “Thankfully I decided to check cm-life.com and found the information here. I know of a couple of other students who did not receive the message at all who should have because they had signed up for it.”
Another comment said the “press one to hear this message” is unnecessary and the message was half over by the time it was first heard.
“So this is why I received a recorded phone message at home at 11 p.m. (my wife is faculty, not connected in any way with music) when my entire family is asleep?” another comment said. “The phone message itself was garbled.”
‘A strong acid’
Although people complain about the overwhelming messages that most viewed as unnecessary, the students who were in the building could have been in danger, said David Ash, chairman of the chemistry department.
“(Hydrochloric acid) is a very strong acid,” Ash said.
Ash said if the chemical got on people’s skin, it would burn them.
Lazarus said CMU needs to use the system correctly and get the right message out to students.
“It really destroyed the point of the system,” Lazarus said. “It caused more panic than anything else.”
