IU No-warning

In the last year or so, the issue of personal safety on campus has received more attention than it has in a long while. It’s time to turn this attention to the university’s broad warning program, IU Notify.

Incidents such as the disappearance of Lauren Spierer and several mass shootings across the nation have forced institutions of all sorts to reevaluate the systems they have in place to keep people safe.

The email sent by IU President Michael McRobbie last week is a prime example.

In it, he mentions IU Notify, the University’s alert system that supposedly sends text message alerts to all students and employees who have registered.

He describes it as “a robust emergency notification system” and “the primary outlet for emergency messages.”

We are not remotely swayed by his first claim.

In fact, IU Notify is known among students as an ineffective and inconsistent system, which often totally fails to alert individuals who appear to have registered.

In other cases, it sends messages far too late to be of any possible help.

On paper, the idea is a good one, and makes a convincing argument for being this “primary outlet” for warning students and staff of an emergency.

But, to ensure it actually functions in an effective manner, we advocate an evaluation and potential restructure of IU Notify.

If the University seriously intends to ensure our safety, as President McRobbie indicated, this is a crucial step and certainly not an unreasonable idea given the University’s resources.

Also included in the president’s message was news of the development of active-shooter drills at several other IU campuses. We applaud these efforts.

Such exercises could prove to be a proactive and useful strategy to against gun violence, especially since the current guidelines are essentially “Run away and call the police.”

The link to IU’s active-shooter safety page, which we find marginally more helpful, was included in President McRobbie’s email.

For the most part, the IU-Bloomington community is a safe place.

We do not face the dangers common to many schools. Both the IU and Bloomington Police departments regularly patrol our campus.

Our emergency alert system, however, is not as strong as it must be to effectively warn those who depend on it.

In the absence of an alternative (we like the idea of a Bat-Signal in the shape of Herman B Wells’ face), it must be improved.

There’s no better time than now.