Purdue issues Report – Feedback Collected after the Tragic Shooting of January 21, 2014
After the tragic shooting that took the life of Andrew Boldt on the Purdue West Lafayette campus on January 21, 2014, Purdue Chief Financial Officer Al Díaz and Provost Tim Sands convened a panel and charged them with evaluating and analyzing the feedback received through multiple methods of communication to the University.
The panel was asked to do the following:
1. Organize the messages and information received into categories
2. Select from each category the most important suggestions
3. Add key suggestions that may be missing, based on the expertise in each sub-committee
4. Respond in a general way to suggestions that were discarded, explaining why
5 . Return a succinct summary for possible implementation
An objective analysis of what went right and what went wrong after an incident or crisis is a critical step in improving overall security and response. Whether on a college campus, school grounds, or on a business property, the lessons outlined in the Purdue document help anyone concerned with protecting employees, students, their families and community.
As Firestorm has found in its own response and review of like situations, Purdue found that:
“To the extent this event revealed a weakness, it was in the lack of awareness of the procedures in certain cases, thus revealing a general need for more communication and training about Purdue’s crisis response protocols.”
One section of interest on Communications and Technology outlines:
Initiatives Carried Out Immediately
Following the events of January 21, the Office of Environmental Health and Public Safety implemented the following improvements to communications:
1. A Twitter feed was established (@purdueemergency) that will provide quick information to those who are not able to sign up for the Purdue Alert, such as on-campus vendors, including day care employees, printing services employees, and construction contractors.
2. The Office of Environmental Health and Public Safety worked with the Digital Marketing staff to enhance the purdue.edu/emergency website to provide information more quickly during the emergency.
3. The EHPS met with their contacts at Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), AT&T and Rave Wireless Alert to determine possibilities for enhanced communication.
“We believe that the appropriate way to get information to parents and other off-campus stakeholders is to direct them to the Twitter feed and website.”
In the report section titled Education, Training and Preparedness
Recommendations focus on
- Emphasis on a strategy of continued and reinforced outreach to teach all stakeholders what is available
- Repetition of training
- Making sure that pertinent safety information is included in the course syllabus and posted to Blackboard Learn
- Going through the material the first day of class
- Following the instructions strictly in case of any emergency
You may read the entire report here, and we hope it assists your organization as you PREDICT.PLAN.PERFORM.® in your organization, and please, contact Firestorm to learn more about protecting your environment.
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