As I woke this morning, I woke up like every morning, wanting to go back to sleep, but because I couldn't due to classes, I got up and showered. As I got back into my room, I noticed the time I had before class, so I thought I would turn on the news and plop down in front of my computer. I began surfing the interweb for the news and happenings of the day, when my roommate shouted.
"Hey, there is a gunman on campus apparently"
What.
I was shocked. Scared, Nervous. We had a similar situation last year, but that was just outside of campus. According to the report, the suspected gunman (who was between 5'2 and 5'5) was seen north of our library wearing a pair of dark pants and a light colored jacket. According to the later reports, he had a gun in his left hand.
Woah.
Things began rushing into my brain. Things like "no way... this could never happen here... I wonder if people are okay..." among a vast majority of things. I took to twitter as whether or not I was attend my first class crept up in my mind.
Upon further investigation of the situation, all residence halls and classes were suspended and put on lockdown respectively.
Wow.
This was real. And all the time, my best news source for what was going on wasn't my University, though they did provide us the first alert. The best sort of information I was getting was from Twitter, Facebook, and the news.
Now, as I "safely" sit in one of my classes for the day, I reflect on what will be known by many as the day Ball State's walls were destroyed.
Communication in this day and age shouldn't be that difficult. Getting information out to a large group of people should be a lot easier and is a lot easier than it has been in the past. Tweets, posts on Facebook, anything of that nature allows for quick, fast, and easy bursts of alerts and news that allow for people to be informed about the things they need to be concerned about, but why are students turning to social media rather than their own University for information.
Ball State has two ways methods of communication used to communicate with students directly. Emails and Text messages sent to direct students and staff with information on emergencies like bomb threats and shooters, etc. This method has been used for many years and for the most part, Ball State hasn't had much in terms of issues, but there are a few things that aren't clear that students continuously question.
So what is the issue? Well, as students began to wake and see the issues that were arising on campus, it seemed the local news was more informed then the students who would be walking around campus.
Let's take some examples. In order to be informed about the actually lock down that was placed on Residence Halls, I saw a tweet from a fellow student. In order to be informed of the FULL description, I was informed by the news.
I understand why this might be an issue for one university to manage. I understand that completely managing information and getting solid information out to students as frequently as possible may be outside of the realm of possibilities, but as I reflect on the fact according to Ball State, I am "safe" because the "campus is secure." I laugh. I laugh because with a university of over 20,000, how can you tell me we are "secured?"
How can you tell me you know the person either isn't around anymore? How can you tell me that we are secured when you can't even know if you didn't walk right past the person? Students deserve security. Students deserve to know that they can safely walk around on campus without the fear of finding this person around if he is still around.
Communication needs to be clear. With some many sources coming out and people passing information, it doesn't make sense why you let false information sit. I've seen countless differing stories about what actually happened, if a person was caught. One tweet I saw said they called the BSU PD, and was informed "Not sure if they found him, but you are safe"
Really?
Ball State needs to be held accountable. They need to be held accountable for the fact students across campus are not informed enough about what emergencies are happening on campus. They need to be held accountable for making sure we get the information. Because in this day and age, we shouldn't have to sit unknowing about where a person is on campus. It's a shame to sit back and what a campus cater to the news teams of the state rather then the students of this school.
In order for the notifications to be completely effective, Ball State needs to mandate any on campus student to sign up for the notifications either by email or text and USE THEM PROPERLY.
We will see what comes from this, but Ball State will need to redefine their communication more than their education.
-Cookie
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