VT Tragedy Spurs Response Review Here; Multiple Channel Approach Will Improve Alert

Education officials throughout the country are analyzing their emergency response procedures in the aftermath of yesterday’s mass slaughter at Virginia Tech. Both the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin take on the issue in stories today.

In the Star-Bulletin story headlined "UH touts e-mail, phone and PA warnings", a University of Hawaii spokesman describes the institution’s current thinking:

During an emergency, UH administrators can notify faculty, staff and students on campus through email, telephone and even through the broadcast news media (the spokesman said). If the chancellor decides there is a need to notify people on campus that there is still a danger, the most immediate means of alerting them would be through e-mail.

Without giving a source, the Advertiser story notes the same mindset:

UH-Manoa does not have a public address system, and students and staff would be notified of a crisis by e-mail and telephone calls.

CHORE’s mission since its inception after the October earthquakes (our first post was six months ago today) has been to improve emergency communications by stimulating discussion here at this blog, and we’ll continue doing so now.

Too Reliant on Email?

As the Bulletin’s story notes, the email channel works for people sitting in front of a computer, but what percentage of a campus’s population is doing that at any given moment? We have to think it’s small.

Email certainly is one channel to use, but don’t stop there. How do UH officials propose to alert students in class, walking through campus, studying in Hamilton Library or eating lunch in Paradise Palms? Email won’t reach anyone who isn't on-line, and neither will cell phone text messaging if phones are turned off (many UH professors and instructors tell their students to turn off their cell phones at the start of each class).

The Advertiser story notes the absence of a loudspeaker system under centralized control for instant communication throughout campus buildings and grounds. The Star-Bulletin mentions reliance on mobile loudspeakers, which suggests spotty coverage impeded by the “human factor”; the Campus Center and vicinity might be covered, but announcements may not reach other areas:

“Campus security officers can spread out on campus and make announcements using mobile loudspeakers. School officials can also tap into the internal public address sound system in the Campus Center. The Campus Center also has speakers that can be heard in the surrounding area.”

What About Radio?

CHORE continues to think radio is being short-changed as the most ubiquitous communications channel going. When properly managed and rehearsed, radio station staffs should be able to respond instantaneously to an urgent need and blanket the entire island with an emergency broadcast.

Management and rehearsal is the key, and we’d like to know how recently any radio station has staged an emergency response drill in concert with an outside organization, such as the University. The Earthquake Sunday experience with radio wasn’t reassuring.

And as the Honolulu Community Media Council has suggested, the consolidation of the broadcast industry has resulted in personnel cutbacks at stations owned by the conglomerates. Station automation introduces new challenges to a rapid response.

Getting the Word Out

The sub-head in the Bulletin's story today is "The university says it can get the word out if gunfire erupts at the Manoa campus". Based on today's media coverage, we're not so sure about that and hope University officials aren't exposing an overly confident attitude. Additional planning and implementation of rapid response procedures can only help.