It is alarming that Chancellor Marye Anne Fox seems satisfied with UCSD’s preparedness for a gunman situation like that at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The weaknesses in preparation and response demonstrated at Virginia Tech exists at our own campus, and some necessary improvements must be implemented for the sake of student safety.
In a statement last week, Fox asserted that “”UC San Diego has done a comprehensive job to prepare for what we can”” in a gunman situation. “”Our Business Affairs, Emergency Response and Police Services units conduct frequent and detailed exercises to prepare them to respond effectively to crises and catastrophes.””
Comforting as that knowledge is, one group is glaringly absent from those preparedness exercises: the students. While it is critical that first-responders are prepared, providing students with the tools to protect themselves from danger before initial responders can arrive is just as important.
First, students must be quickly alerted when an armed suspect is on the loose.
At Virginia Tech, administrators tried to warn students about the danger via e-mail. There, as here, e-mail is about the only immediate means of communication between the police and the campus at large. But to rely on campus e-mail accounts and Tritonlink’s “”emergency status”” triangle to warn of imminent danger is ludicrous; students are not glued to either. Such a warning would reach almost no students in time to be effective.
UCSD needs an independent, audible lockdown alarm. It can be as simple as an adjustment to the current fire alarms. Whereas intermittent alarm sounds signal a fire, an unbroken alarm sound would signal a lockdown.
A separate and distinct warning system would be even better. Installing intercom speakers in every classroom, residence hall and major outdoor area would provide students with immediate, clear instructions for any emergency situation. A less costly alternative would be a centralized siren, similar perhaps to an air-raid siren from World War II, whose distinct sound would indicate a lockdown.
Secondly, students must be trained what to do when such an alarm sounds. Currently, UCSD only routinely conducts fire/earthquake drills. These drills call for students to file quickly out of their rooms and into a nearby open field. While such a gathering would effectively save students from fire danger, it would be the worst possible choice if the threat were a gunman.
If students do not practice lockdowns, they may interpret the signal as a fire alarm and leave the safety of their locked rooms. UCSD must run a lockdown drill similar to those performed in many high schools to make certain there is no such misunderstanding.
In the event that a dangerous individual makes his way to campus, the lockdown alarm would prompt professors to lock their classroom doors, students to lock their residence doors and everyone outside to get inside immediately. When the threat has passed, the all-clear notification would be sounded. Even if only performed once a year, a lockdown drill would prepare students for a worst-case scenario and potentially save lives.
Lastly, UCSD must make clear to students which tools they may use to protect themselves.
Currently, the six colleges do a great job of telling students how they may not protect themselves. The colleges provide incoming students with policy handbooks, which explicitly forbid, among many other things, weapons. The policy manual at Eleanor Roosevelt College, which differs little from those of other colleges, sternly warns that “”the possession of weapons, including knives, martial arts equipment, slingshots, paint and/or pellet guns is strictly prohibited.””
What they don’t tell students is what self-defense items they are permitted to have. What qualifies as a weapon? If even slingshots are prohibited, what isn’t? Can students carry around pepper spray, stun guns, Tasers or utility knives? Students are obligated to ask administrators, risk breaking the rules or guess at the answers to these questions if they want to protect themselves.
Naturally, administrators worry that permitting the use of defensive weapons will mean more students using them offensively to commit crimes or exact revenge. But they must realize that these rules do not stop such students from carrying them; policies were meaningless to the Virginia Tech gunman. Rather, these rules keep students who would use the items defensively from carrying them. As such, it would be a mistake to keep secret those defensive items that are permitted.
On April 30, Fox will host a town hall meeting to discuss emergency preparedness at UCSD. The campus community must seize that opportunity to call for security improvements such as those presented here. When such fundamental security tools are missing from our campus, no one should be satisfied.
