UNM to examine students’ safety
April 20, 2007
Despite a campuswide e-mail that informed everyone to be “especially vigilant” and report suspicious activities to UNM Police, the University is not vulnerable, said Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for the department.
“We don’t have any reason to believe anyone is in danger,” he said. “Our response (Thursday) is a precaution, and we’re always going to err on the side of caution.”
The alert was sent across UNM Webmail on Thursday.
It stated that UNM Police were investigating “unspecified threats” that were made Thursday morning.
Davis declined to give any details about the threats because the investigation is ongoing.
“Students know what their normal routine is and what’s normal in the dorms and classrooms better than anyone else,” he said. “Recent incidents at Virginia Tech show how important it is to be aware of everything that happens.”
ASUNM is hosting a forum at noon today in the SUB Atrium for students to talk about campus safety and changes the University should make to its policies and procedures.
UNM may send emergency alerts via text messaging in the future, said Brittany Jaeger, ASUNM president.
Students don’t think sending warnings through e-mail is an adequate way to inform them of problems, Jaeger said.
“So many people have cell phones now. Perhaps we could set up a database,” she said. “It’d be totally voluntary, but only in the case of an emergency would they send it out.”
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No administrators or UNM Police officers will be present at the forum, so students can feel free to say what they want, Jaeger said.
“I just want to hear what students have to say,” she said. “We wanted students to be as open about everything as possible, and therefore, maybe it wouldn’t be best if we had the police sitting right there.”
Jaeger said she will take notes at the forum and tell administrators and UNM Police students’ opinions on campus safety.
Davis said students’ concerns will be helpful to police because that information will allow the department to improve its emergency protocol.
“We take those very seriously and incorporate them into our response plans,” he said. “It’s always a developing process. We will never be able to plan for everything, but what we can do is plan and train well enough that we are able to adapt.”
Jaeger said students need to be heard because they have a different perspective than the administration.
Administrators have discussed using a phone tree for emergency situations, Jaeger said.
“Phone trees might work for the administration, but will it work for students? I don’t think so,” she said. “No one knows how to contact students better than students.”
There are more than 40,000 people on Main Campus every day during the week, and sirens might be the best way to warn all those people that something is wrong, Jaeger said.
“The siren would be good, because a siren means something is going wrong,” she said. “It’s important for students, faculty, staff and everyone at UNM to understand that we’re going to do everything we possibly can to alert them.”
UNM Police have had emergency plans for years, and the department takes lessons from things like the Virginia Tech shootings, Davis said.
“With every incident, we always assess every possibility and try and learn from it,” he said. “We’re continuing to do that as we learn about things that happened there (Virginia Tech).”
