By The Editors
A campuswide emergency sparked concerns about informing the campus community during safety threats.
Oklahoma City police officers arrested a man involved in a shooting during a Sept. 23 lockdown.
Officials responded to the event by promoting a five-year-old alert service that could prevent safety risks. They are encouraging students to sigh up for the university’s Emergency Event Notification system.
EEN is OCUPD’s system for informing the campus community about on-campus safety threats.
The dispatcher on duty sends out alerts via text message and email about emergencies.
Students may sign up for emergency texts at een.okcu.edu.
Emailing and text messaging are appropriate for this process, but not effective to reach students who also utilize multiple online platforms to communicate.
It’s not enough to provide solely texts and emails. Not every student regularly checks their email or has applied for the texting service.
Officials ought to expand the service to encompass frequently visited social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Some students may have learned about the lockdown by email or text, but the majority probably discovered the news viewing their Facebook and Twitter feeds.
If safety is OCUPD’s priority during a lockdown, then notifying as many campus community members as possible should follow.
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