Pitt’s emergency notification

Is Pitt prepared and working to prevent incidents like yesterday’s in DeKalb, Ill., from… Is Pitt prepared and working to prevent incidents like yesterday’s in DeKalb, Ill., from happening in Oakland?

In response to the shootings, Pitt spokesman John Fedele said, “You can’t stop something like this. I don’t know what the nature of it is, but it’s impossible to predict.

“If someone’s properly motivated, you can’t prevent that. I mean, even presidents get shot.”

Although an incident of the same magnitude hasn’t occurred in Oakland, Pitt’s police force does prepare for emergencies on campus. It is trained to handle situations with a quick response, using SWAT teams and other personnel.

The Northern Illinois University police locked down their campus and issued e-mail, text message and voice mail warnings campus-wide through the university’s emergency alert system yesterday. The messages were sent within 15 minutes of learning of the threat, said NIU president John Peters at a press conference last night.

Pitt put in place a similar response system to the one used at NIU after a shooter at Virginia Tech killed 33 students and professors on the Blacksburg, Va., campus last April.

Police there came under heavy criticism in the aftermath of the tragedy for their slow response in notifying students of potential danger. The university did not send a campus-wide e-mail alert until two hours after the first shooting. They didn’t lock down the campus, either.

Pitt can send out emergency notifications to students via e-mail, text message and voice mail if a situation would arise.

“The notification goes out within minutes,” said Fedele.

However, “we can’t lock down our entire campus. Some buildings are really old, some can’t be locked down,” he added.

Pitt’s emergency notification system is optional, and students must register to receive alerts.

Pitt police used the system last fall to notify registered users of bomb threats on campus. Threats to Clapp and Langley halls were called in twice last semester, one in September and one in November. Chevron Hall received a threat Nov. 9, and a woman notified police of a threat written in a Cathedral of Learning bathroom Sept. 27.

After the first wave of bomb threats in September, 1,500 students signed up for the alerts. Before then, 7,700 students were registered.

Students can sign up for the system through the my.pitt.edu Internet portal to receive text message or voice mail alerts. Students can add up to three phone numbers to receive the emergency messages.