CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In the first press conference, hours after the deadly shooting, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz acknowledged there would be lessons to learn.
“Even the best laid plans, as you know, and protocols sometimes they don’t play out as you’d like to,” Guskiewicz said. “But I’m very pleased with what we know at this point. We’ll have the opportunity to review that, learn from the investigation.”
Now months later, University officials gave insight into the investigation, the procedures, and next steps.
After the lockdown, many students questioned what procedures the university has in place for active shooter situations. UNC’s Campus Safety website provides information about what to do in emergency situations. One document says that faculty are expected to cover emergency preparedness plans within the first ten days of a semester. Darrell Jeter, the Director of Emergency Management and Planning said that this practice has been in place for years and administration called for a renewed effort in Spring of 2023.
“The implementation of it in the classroom is more of an action on the side of the schools,” Jeter said. “So, our responsibility on the campus safety side is to ensure that we have the information and the guides available to them. And then also provide any training that they might need.”
There were also questions about if active shooter training was available and if so, who could get it. Jeter and UNC Police Chief Brian James both said they encourage the training for everyone on campus; however, it is still not required for students or faculty and staff. James said he would support making the training mandatory – something that would likely have to be virtual.
“We believe that the more people that are trained not only on active shooter, but various other emergency incidents that may arise, that we’re going to be a safer campus,” James said.
And when it comes to emergencies, many people on and off campus rely on Alert Carolina system. During the three-hour lockdown five messages were sent out. From those messages, one student group, the Black Student Movement created a list of demands for the university to follow regarding their messages including more frequent messages, messages in different languages, and overuse of the system in non-emergency situations. Jeter said the University has certain standards it has to meet with its emergency messages.
“There are standard messages that we have to deliver to our campus community to meet federal guidelines and requirements…What we don’t want the system to be perceived as is breaking news or just some general information source,” Jeter said.
And in response to BSM’s specific demands, Jeter said “We are looking into that. We are not in the place right now to render what our corrective action is because the formal after-action review process is underway. But I can say that the communication specifically as it relates to our alert is one of the top categories that we’re closely assessing to make sure that we make any necessary improvements to that.”
This formal review process is taking into consideration the feedback from thousands of campus and community members. But Jeter says the report could take months before its ready to be shared with the public.