SMU 'drills' new procedures

By Lindsay Dickson
Editor-in-Chief

As the clocks struck 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, fire alarms rang through Saint Mary’s, Skemp, Heffron, Griffin, Hendrickson, and Hoffman halls. This was the first time in recent history that there was a planned fire drill in academic buildings. The drill was a test of the university’s response to a potential emergency, planned by the Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Read more...

Like many other colleges across the country, SMU reacted to the Virginia Tech shootings last April by immediately assessing safety and security on campus. The goal of the committee is to “assess where we are right now in terms of responding to a wide range of situations,” said committee member Chris Kendall, vice president of student development.

SMU already has emergency response and crisis communication plans in place. The events at Virginia Tech made SMU administration take a step back and study how current plans could be improved and more upgrades could be made.

SMU realizes that school shootings can be a threat, but other disasters could also happen on campus, such as flooding, fires, bomb threats, or other weather-related events.

“The flood showed us it doesn’t happen just down the river; it can happen anywhere,” said Kendall.

The committee has discussed strategies for mass communication. One is a fire alarm control head, with one processor in the Toner Student Center. This would be able to send and receive information from other buildings. Alarms in buildings around campus can be triggered by this control. Another strategy is voice communication from campus safety to other buildings. Recent upgrades include PA systems on the campus safety vans, radios for professional hall staff, and megaphones at the campus safety booth. “We’re trying not to rely on just one system,” said Kendall. “It all revolves around communication.” Email, voicemail and the SMU website would be used to convey details of an emergency.

The fire drill was staged to get people familiar with emergency response. “Generally we were pleased that everybody got out as fast as they did,” said Kendall.

“I think the fire drills are a good idea,” said senior Matt Clementz. “It should have been there before and should be done more often. Everybody thinks it’s a drill, but if something really happens, it’s going to be big.”

More drills will be planned in the future, with an addition of a lockdown drill. First, the committee will define a lockdown and then educate the SMU community. Kendall explained that SMU could have a lockdown drill when a better communication system is in place.

SMU has budgeted up to $100,000 for the processor and has committed to making these improvements in communication happen. SMU would like to “make an upgrade [to communication] that will last a long time and will be adaptable to future changes,” said Kendall.

Some other schools have upgraded to a system that would text-message all students during an emergency. The committee decided against this because SMU asks that students leave cell phones turned off during class, so not everyone would read the message at the appropriate time.

Kendall explained that more prospective students and parents are indicating that the safety of a school is an important deciding factor. The number one concern of the committee is the safety of the students, and Kendall is confident these new systems address this concern.

SMU also plans to have better awareness and training on what to do when disaster strikes. “We can’t let ourselves fall asleep,” said Kendall. “Safety is everyone’s responsibility.”