Superpsy
Member
Below is a series of emails I received today...
1.25pm
There has been a report of a male Caucasian on campus possibly with a gun. He is described wearing a green “hoodie” sweatshirt – has a backpack. Police are investigating and more information will follow.
Dean of Students
2.36pm
Please be advised that the campus is currently in lock down. This means you should stay in your room and lock your door and pull your shades down. Police are checking out the situation. Text messages are underway. You will be notified as soon as there is more information available.
Thanks.
Vice President for Business and Finance
3.53pm
Classes Will Be Held Tonight
Classes will be held tonight, Tuesday, April 8
4.27pm
Campus is Open; Report of Student with Gun Proved False
Police and AU campus security have confirmed that the report of a student carrying a gun on campus was false. The student who was reported to have been carrying a gun was found to have a toy gun used in a game of tag that involves students shooting each other with plastic balls.
Campus is secure and safe, and faculty, staff and students may resume business as usual. Classes are proceeding as scheduled this evening.
8.13pm
Message from President
As most of you know by now, the gun in question in today's incident turned out to be a toy gun being used in a game of tag called "Zombies versus Humans." We had a report from a credible source that a young man had been spotted with a gun on campus. The report was taken seriously, as it should have been, and we implemented our emergency response procedures. Fortunately, the gun was a fake, but the response was appropriate given the potential severity of the situation. We will conduct a debriefing early tomorrow to review our responses and to identify and incorporate the lessons of this experience. Four general comments seem in order, though, even at this stage.
First, let me commend all those who responded to the situation on campus Tuesday afternoon. Emergency personnel, including our own Public Safety office, the Alfred Village Police Department, Allegany County Sheriff's Department, New York State Police, Alfred State College University Police and Alfred fire department, responded immediately and did an incredible job of assuring the safety of our faculty, staff and students.
Second, I would also like to thank all the faculty, staff and students for their calm, patience and understanding. Had this been a more serious incident than it turned out to be, I have every confidence that their poise would have enabled us to maintain the highest level of safety possible.
Third, we learned some positive things from the incident, and one of those was that our emergency response plan works well. That said, we also can identify aspects that need improvement. For example, our internal communications depend upon "E2Campus," a text-message alert system we implemented two years ago. It worked very well today in notifying people of the emergency. We did learn, however, that we need to work harder to have all faculty, staff and students register for the system. I would also observe that we underestimated how quickly the press would descend upon Alfred and how they would actually complicate our attending to an emergency.
Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that we will actually consider imposing a moratorium on Zombies versus Humans, and any other game that involves carrying toy weapons of any kind on our campus. These games are very enjoyable to the participants, who certainly intend no harm to anyone. Given the climate in our country today, with the shootings that have occurred on other campuses, we have to treat any report of a weapon on campus as a real threat. The disruption to academic and co curricular life, the cost to the local law enforcement agencies, and anxiety that we all experienced that arose today was significant. One young woman I spoke with tonight expressed genuine gratitude to the University and police for how well they responded, but she was crying as she did so. No doubt, all of us will carry some symptoms of stress with us.
1.25pm
There has been a report of a male Caucasian on campus possibly with a gun. He is described wearing a green “hoodie” sweatshirt – has a backpack. Police are investigating and more information will follow.
Dean of Students
2.36pm
Please be advised that the campus is currently in lock down. This means you should stay in your room and lock your door and pull your shades down. Police are checking out the situation. Text messages are underway. You will be notified as soon as there is more information available.
Thanks.
Vice President for Business and Finance
3.53pm
Classes Will Be Held Tonight
Classes will be held tonight, Tuesday, April 8
4.27pm
Campus is Open; Report of Student with Gun Proved False
Police and AU campus security have confirmed that the report of a student carrying a gun on campus was false. The student who was reported to have been carrying a gun was found to have a toy gun used in a game of tag that involves students shooting each other with plastic balls.
Campus is secure and safe, and faculty, staff and students may resume business as usual. Classes are proceeding as scheduled this evening.
8.13pm
Message from President
As most of you know by now, the gun in question in today's incident turned out to be a toy gun being used in a game of tag called "Zombies versus Humans." We had a report from a credible source that a young man had been spotted with a gun on campus. The report was taken seriously, as it should have been, and we implemented our emergency response procedures. Fortunately, the gun was a fake, but the response was appropriate given the potential severity of the situation. We will conduct a debriefing early tomorrow to review our responses and to identify and incorporate the lessons of this experience. Four general comments seem in order, though, even at this stage.
First, let me commend all those who responded to the situation on campus Tuesday afternoon. Emergency personnel, including our own Public Safety office, the Alfred Village Police Department, Allegany County Sheriff's Department, New York State Police, Alfred State College University Police and Alfred fire department, responded immediately and did an incredible job of assuring the safety of our faculty, staff and students.
Second, I would also like to thank all the faculty, staff and students for their calm, patience and understanding. Had this been a more serious incident than it turned out to be, I have every confidence that their poise would have enabled us to maintain the highest level of safety possible.
Third, we learned some positive things from the incident, and one of those was that our emergency response plan works well. That said, we also can identify aspects that need improvement. For example, our internal communications depend upon "E2Campus," a text-message alert system we implemented two years ago. It worked very well today in notifying people of the emergency. We did learn, however, that we need to work harder to have all faculty, staff and students register for the system. I would also observe that we underestimated how quickly the press would descend upon Alfred and how they would actually complicate our attending to an emergency.
Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that we will actually consider imposing a moratorium on Zombies versus Humans, and any other game that involves carrying toy weapons of any kind on our campus. These games are very enjoyable to the participants, who certainly intend no harm to anyone. Given the climate in our country today, with the shootings that have occurred on other campuses, we have to treat any report of a weapon on campus as a real threat. The disruption to academic and co curricular life, the cost to the local law enforcement agencies, and anxiety that we all experienced that arose today was significant. One young woman I spoke with tonight expressed genuine gratitude to the University and police for how well they responded, but she was crying as she did so. No doubt, all of us will carry some symptoms of stress with us.
