Spring Break
Way to go, Western
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Opinion
It can be easy for the media to sit back and criticize administrations for the way they handle situations. However, when a threat was discovered at 8:30 Wednesday morning, Western Illinois University administrators acted quickly and responsibly and were prepared to handle a serious predicament.
It was evident that President Al Goldfarb and his staff learned from the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University tragedies. In January, the university installed an Emergency Alert System to notify students in times of crisis.
EAS was tested Wednesday, and although some students did not receive alerts until after 10 a.m., the WC believes the system worked properly and is glad Western had the foresight to put it in place. Students had numerous outlets to find out information in the form of text messages, phone calls, e-mails or viewing the Western Web site.
One of the problems with VT and Northern was that word was not spread quickly throughout campus. Students - some of whom were just next door to where shootings occurred - did not know what was happening. By 11 a.m. nearly every student on campus was aware Western had received a threat.
Furthermore, the university made the decision to make classes optional Wednesday. The decision was not made because it didn't treat the threat seriously, but rather Western recognized how copycats tend to appear and it wanted to maintain a sense of regularity. Law enforcement officers hovered university grounds, going in and out of buildings, which provided enough security for classes to remain optional.
The WC also wants to inform whoever made this threat that it was extremely selfish. The amount of work Goldfarb, Garry Johnson, Jackie Thomas, Darcie Shinberger and others put into making students aware of what was going on and making them feel safe was immense. While most students were outside enjoying their day off playing Bags, university administrators were hard at work coming up with the best way to handle an uneasy situation.
This university is safe and can go back to normal thanks to the hard work of university administrators and all law enforcement agencies that responded quickly to the near frantic situation.
Wednesday could have been a lot worse; the WC thanks all who made it as smooth as possible.
It was evident that President Al Goldfarb and his staff learned from the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University tragedies. In January, the university installed an Emergency Alert System to notify students in times of crisis.
EAS was tested Wednesday, and although some students did not receive alerts until after 10 a.m., the WC believes the system worked properly and is glad Western had the foresight to put it in place. Students had numerous outlets to find out information in the form of text messages, phone calls, e-mails or viewing the Western Web site.
One of the problems with VT and Northern was that word was not spread quickly throughout campus. Students - some of whom were just next door to where shootings occurred - did not know what was happening. By 11 a.m. nearly every student on campus was aware Western had received a threat.
Furthermore, the university made the decision to make classes optional Wednesday. The decision was not made because it didn't treat the threat seriously, but rather Western recognized how copycats tend to appear and it wanted to maintain a sense of regularity. Law enforcement officers hovered university grounds, going in and out of buildings, which provided enough security for classes to remain optional.
The WC also wants to inform whoever made this threat that it was extremely selfish. The amount of work Goldfarb, Garry Johnson, Jackie Thomas, Darcie Shinberger and others put into making students aware of what was going on and making them feel safe was immense. While most students were outside enjoying their day off playing Bags, university administrators were hard at work coming up with the best way to handle an uneasy situation.
This university is safe and can go back to normal thanks to the hard work of university administrators and all law enforcement agencies that responded quickly to the near frantic situation.
Wednesday could have been a lot worse; the WC thanks all who made it as smooth as possible.
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