Lesli Marchese, Campus Carrier News Editor
In light of the recent school shootings in Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina since Oct. 1, schools have increased education and awareness of emergency preparedness plans on their campuses. Berry was among those colleges that took initiative to educate students on the procedures and technologies available in the event of an active shooter, severe weather, or any other emergency.
Gary Will, assistant vice president for campus police and emergency response management, was the guest speaker at SGA’s meeting on Oct. 20. He spoke to the SGA body about Berry’s emergency plans and methods for student, faculty, staff and visitors’ safety while on campus.
Ree Palmer, president of SGA, brought in Will as a speaker, because she felt the need for students to be aware of what Berry was doing in terms of safety and emergency preparedness.
“I really thought this was an issue we needed to go ahead and bring to SGA,” Palmer said. “I really wanted students to understand that we do have a plan and that staff have thought through this.”
Will and his team, campus police and residence life have worked on emergency management and safety updates around campus within the past two years.
Because resident assistants often have the most interaction with students, it is important for them to be aware of emergency preparedness plans.
“RAs are one of the first lines of defense when it comes to emergencies,” Stephen Stamps, head resident assistant of Morton-Lemley said.
Residence life and campus safety worked in conjunction to prepare and distribute the emergency preparedness sheets that are on the back of all residence hall rooms, which give a brief overview of what to do in the case of emergencies such as severe weather, fires and active shooter situations.
Severe Weather and Fires
Last year, Berry installed four new sirens on campus to use as an alert system in the case of an emergency. When the previous siren burned out in 2013, after more than 60 years, campus safety worked to plan a system that would be more effective.
“We put in a new American Signal siren system, which consists of four towers with 1200 watt speakers on them,” Bobby Abrams, chief of campus police, said. “The old system wasn’t very effective, so we spent about $85,000 on installing [the new system].”
The sirens, which were installed last year, can be used as a loud noise alert system and a live broadcast system to convey important announcements to students.
“We can now use prerecorded messages, or make announcements over a PA with a microphone through those systems,” Abrams said. “We test it once a month, on the first Friday of every month, so everyone can become familiar with it.”
Palmer recognized a need for students to be more aware of the new technologies that were installed on campus.
“They went in last year, but many students don’t know what they are, or don’t realize that they can also be used as live broadcasters and not just sirens,” Palmer said.
These sirens are strategically placed around campus so they can be heard all over. They are tested at 11:55 a.m. on the first Friday of every month, so this Friday, will be the next testing date.
In addition to the sirens, there are many procedures that Berry has ready in the case of a natural disaster, such as a fire or tornado. Each main building on campus has an emergency evacuation plan and a place to go in the case of severe weather.
Students should be aware of the evacuation plans for buildings they use regularly, especially in the case of a fire. The most important thing, according to Stamps, is for students to get as far away from the building as possible.
In the case of a tornado, students should go to the innermost part of the building, and take appropriate positions in a hallway without windows.
Many buildings, such as the Cage Center, also have backup generators in case of power loss. There is also a backup generator built into the reservoir, so water will be available in the event that the main campus power is lost.
In the past, residence life has coordinated food for students during severe weather events.
“One of the first times we were snowed in and people weren’t able to come to D-hall, they had all of the RAs come to Krannert and make sandwiches and bagged dinners,” Stamps said. The food was then sent to various dorms.
Abrams encourages students to sign up for the CodeRED system, which includes notifications of severe weather updates and is run in conjunction with the National Weather Service. Additionally, it also notifies users of critical community alerts in your local community, so students will receive alerts for evacuation notices, missing child reports, bio-terrorism alerts and others for Floyd County.
Berry Alert system
This year, the Berry Alert text messaging system changed from an opt-in system, meaning that students, faculty and staff had to sign up to use the system, to an opt-out system, where students are automatically signed up on the system and can choose to not be a part of it.
“We’ve gone from the opt-in to the opt-out system, so we have many more users we can notify in the event of an emergency or situation where we need to get information to students,” Will said.
Previous to this change, less than 50 percent of Berry students were signed up for the alert system, which made it less effective.
Now faculty, staff and those associated with the Berry elementary school or daycare facility can choose to receive alerts about inclement weather, school closings or emergency events, along with the students that already receive them. This makes the system more effective because alerts will reach a larger amount of the campus population.
In addition to the Berry sanctioned alert system, in the event of an emergency RAs should contact their residents via text or email with a “mass message that says ‘this is what’s going on, this is what you need to do,’” Stamps said.
Active Shooter Preparedness
Especially in light of recent shootings, many campuses have been focusing on emergency preparedness in the case of an active shooter.
Berry’s police are trained as first responders to incidents on campus, and have specific training in an active shooter course.
“Our officers are all trained and have been to the FBI’s active shooter course,” Abrams said.
Officers complete additional training yearly in order to maintain state officer certification, which all Berry officers have.
“Our officers have to receive at least 20 hours of training each year, and we exceed that,” Abrams said. “We usually receive between 40 and 50 hours per year.”
Additionally, Berry boasts four in-house training officers, which makes it possible for every officer to have in-house firearms training.
However, the amount of shootings in recent years, and especially the last few weeks, has caused a stir among students. Will presented an emergency preparedness plan at the annual fall Board of Trustees meeting, at their request. Palmer, who was also at the meeting, realized that this was an issue that should be brought to students as well.
“We’ve had several murmurs of students just feeling worried, which is completely understandable given the national scenario over the last few weeks,” Palmer said. “Bringing this issue to the table gives us the chance to talk about it, and I think that’s what we really need – it is something that needs to be stressed on a larger scale.”
In the case of an active shooter on campus, there are three options for a plan of action for an individual, Will said. They can run away, hide or fight. However, these are very dependent on the situation, so there is not a single correct answer in any circumstance.
“Nobody is ever going to say what you should do, because we don’t know what the situation will be,” Will said. “It is up to you to use your best judgment in the event of an emergency, and to let law enforcement do their job to apprehend the threat.”
In the case that you are in your residence hall and receive information of an active shooter on campus, you should remain in your room, Stamps said.
“No one can enter dorms without access at any time during the day,” Stamps said. “We want people to close their windows, lock their doors, close their blinds and stay inside.”
General Safety and Awareness
Many students have become used to the new welcome center building, but may not know that it includes many new safety technologies. Besides controlled access, it also has video surveillance and license plate cameras to track individuals coming and going from campus.
There are many tools in place to promote safety on campus. However, the best safety procedure, Will and campus safety have stressed, is awareness. If students report feelings of unease, or suspicious persons and activities on campus to the gatehouse, then Berry police will be able to more quickly assess a potential threat, which can reduce the likelihood of an incident.
“As far as students are concerned, if they see something suspicious, or they see something out of the ordinary, or something just doesn’t look right, call the welcome center,” Will said. “Report it, and have campus safety investigate the suspicious thing. That would be the number one thing I would suggest to anybody.”
However, the 24/7 availability of campus safety at Berry does not limit the need for students to exercise caution.
“Nobody should be concerned about walking from the library to their residence hall,” Will said. “But people still have personal responsibilities. If you are leaving your room or your car, you should lock it. If you move to a new location, and have valuables or a laptop with you, you should take it.”
Several people feel that emergency plans and procedures being more widely known would be helpful also.
“As a whole school, we could inform people just a little bit more about some of the procedures we have,” Stamps said. “We really don’t [explain policies to students] unless there’s a question about it.”
For more information about emergency preparedness and procedures at Berry, go to the Berry website.