When responding to an emergency, every second counts for university police officers.
The same goes for communicating the information to the campus community. The university has been examining how they notify students, faculty and staff in the event of a dangerous situation.
A Nov. 23 email sent by the university stated that emergency notification protocol is up for review.
Amanda Nageleisen, director of public relations, said that a committee has been meeting since September to discuss emergency communication procedures.
“After the incident at the beginning of the semester, we put together a committee of people who just started kind of looking at how we communicate,” Nageleisen said.
She said that one of the proposed changes is the issue of an all-clear following a resolved situation.
“That’s something we’ve heard from faculty and staff and students, that it would be nice to know when something is over,” Nageleisen said.
She said that following the incident in Steely Library in September, an all clear was issued via email, but in the future they plan to send that message through Norse Alert as well.
Nageleisen said that the university is seeking input from the campus community before any changes to emergency protocol are finalized.
The draft of the protocol includes intended uses and authorization of emergency notifications.
It also explains methods of communication, confirmation of dangerous situations, status updates and all-clear messages.
WARNING THOSE ON CAMPUS
According to Jeff Baker, safety coordinator of environmental safety and compliance, a public address system is in place in the event of a campus emergency. A voice will play over the PA system, which would issue instructions and can be heard anywhere on campus.
He said that there are four outdoor speaker arrays, and that every building on campus has an internal speaker.
Baker said that there is a set of messages already in place, so that in the event of an emergency, the dispatcher is able to quickly select the instructions they need to communicate.
The public address system combined with the internal speakers of campus building allows this message to be heard at any point on campus.
Outdoor speaker arrays are placed in various areas across campus to notify the community in the event of an emergency. The one is located on top of the University Center.
In addition to making sure the systems are in place to notify those on campus, Baker said that facilities management also has a role in the technical aspect of a lockdown.
“We just recently placed the electronic locks on all the exterior doors of campus buildings,” Baker said. “So the campus police has the ability to lock the buildings down at their will.”
He said that the computer-based system allows the police department to lockdown individual buildings or the entire campus at the touch of a button.
COMMUNICATING THE NORSE ALERT
Nageleisen said that Norse Alert is a system in which the university can quickly notify members of the campus community in the event of an emergency.
“We use it for a number of situations,” Nageleisen said. “We use it for emergencies, when the campus is closed for snow, so it’s a very rapid way to send a notification to the entire campus.”
Nageleisen said that Norse Alert can be received through a text message, phone call or email.
Students, faculty and staff can select their preferred method of contact when they sign up to receive the service.
According to the university’s website, Norse Alert is only issued “when there is the potential for imminent danger to NKU students, faculty, staff and campus visitors… campus crimes or other situations that are not considered to pose an imminent threat of danger will not activate the Norse Alert.”
At a Nov. 2 town hall meeting, Kelly Martin, assistant vice president for marketing and communications, said that anyone can sign up to receive Norse Alerts through the university’s website, including parents and spouses of students.
“We have been working on emergency communication and protocol,” Martin said. “One of the things is, how do we communicate with and educate our faculty, staff and students about where to find some of these things.”
Nageleisen said that she along with those in marketing and communications have been looking at how they can utilize the university’s app in the event of an emergency.
Students can report an emergency through the app, contact the university police department, find a call box based on their location or find tips on what to do in the event of different kinds of emergencies.
Nageleisen said that these features may be difficult for users to find, as they are located under the menu tab of the app, but they are working to make the safety features of the app more visible on the homepage.
You can report an emergency or locate blue boxes across campus through the NKU app. The app is available in Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
In addition to making safety features more present on the app, Nageleisen is responsible for making the alert available to members of the campus community across a variety of platforms.
“The Norse Alert system is connected with our university’s social media accounts, so the same alert that you will get via text message or email will also show on the university’s social media accounts,” Nageleisen said.
The Norse Alert system is operated by the university police department. In the event of an emergency, the responding officer is responsible for the content of the Norse Alert.
It is not uncommon for universities to automatically enroll members of the campus community in an emergency alert system.
Nageleisen said that she and those involved in sending out the Norse Alert are working with IT to explore the possibility of automatically enrolling members of the campus community to receive the alert.
Members of the campus community can review the updated content and provide feedback until Dec. 7.
Review proposed changes to emergency protocol
here: http://policy.nku.edu/under_review.html
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