School administration prepares for the worst

UIS refines its existing emergency procedures

September 03, 2008
By Drew Thomason
Staff Writer

http://bbbconsumereducation.com

Nearly seven months after the shooting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. left five dead and 16 wounded, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation mandating all public colleges have an emergency response plan.

The law has several requirements for colleges and universities. First, their plan must include contacting all local first-response organizations, including law enforcement and local mental health resources.

Also, once a plan has been formulated, colleges must contact the city or county’s major emergency management official and present the plan to them. Another major stipulation listed in the legislation is annual training exercises involving the college’s emergency plan.

None of these provisions should be a problem for the University of Illinois at Springfield. According to Cheryl Peck, Director of Public Relations at UIS, UIS has already implemented many of the law’s stipulations and, in some cases, going further than it requires.

“The (UIS) police department is ... showing the film ‘Shots Fired’ about what happens when someone walks into building and threatens people,” Peck said. “It is about what the individual can do. It really focuses on what to do in order to save their own life.”

This summer, UIS’s police department trained in live action situations involving a gunman and other potential threats the campus. Peck said the training, called Active Shooter, were fictional scenarios in which the officers had to respond in real-time.

However, the UIS police are not students only line of defense against campus dangers. In January, UIS established a system to send out text message alerts to students and faculty.

For the Emergency Notification System to work, students must go online and enter their cellphone number. Because of new student enrollment, Peck said getting students to sign up is an ongoing process.

“This fall,we are going to have a marketing campaign ... to ask people to go to this website and plug in cellphone numbers so, in case of emergency, we can send them a message,” Peck added.

While the same system used to send out text message alerts can be used in non-emergency situations, Peck said it is only being used to augment UIS’s emergency plan.

Another layer of defense against campus violence is set to be completed by the end of the year, according to Chancellor Richard D. Ringeisen.

In his convocation speech on Aug. 21, Ringeisen said the university is working to install a public address system across campus. The system will be used to alert students and faculty who have not signed up for the Emergency Notification System or do not have their cellphones on them to potential emergencies.

“We are trying to create as many ways as possible to reach people immediately ... if one way doesn’t work, another will,” Peck said.

If students overhear someone talking about committing an act of violence or have another emergency to report, they can contact UIS Police at 217/206-7777.

 

Students and faculty wishing to enroll in the Emergency Notification System can visit: http://emergency.uis.edu/