Alert Carolina is UNC’s primary form of communication in situations involving an immediate threat to campus health and safety. But recently, the university announced it will be updating the emergency notification system to improve communication to the community.
The updates follow CNA Corporation’s after-action report on a fatal shooting that took place on campus last August. Feedback from the campus community is also being used to inform the changes.
It was clear from feedback that students, faculty, and staff wanted clearer messages from the university in emergency situations, said UNC’s Director of Emergency Management and Planning Darrell Jeter at a September 3 press conference.
“What we were telling them is not what they were interpreting from us,” Jeter said regarding last year’s alert notifications. “And so a number of these resources that we’re talking about have pre-existed, but the format that we were providing to them wasn’t in a method that was resonating with them or it wasn’t reaching them effectively in the way that we wanted it to reach them.”
UNC Director of Emergency Management and Planning Darrell Jeter (Photo via UNC Chapel Hill.)
The updates, the director explained, seek to ensure the campus community can receive, interpret, apply, and utilize the emergency messages. He said this means wording initial alerts in a clear and concise way when informing people what’s happening on campus and what actions to take.
Another update will be sending more frequent and periodic notifications between the initial alert and the final all clear message, even when there is no change in safety status. Jeter said this will help the campus community know if there is still a lingering threat and whether to continue to shelter in place or stay away from campus.
“And if we have relevant updates that we can share during those periodic updates, we will do so in consultation with the UNC police,” he added. “Because what we don’t want to do is impede their ability to identify and locate the threat and also be able to do a thorough investigation.”
The director of emergency management said the university will send an all clear message once there is no longer an imposing threat to campus. The notifications, he added, will clarify if campus is in a position to return to normal operations or not – which should prevent any faculty from resuming classes before others.
Students, faculty and community members alike can use the Carolina Ready Safety App to get push notifications sent to their phone for every AlertCarolina message sent out.
Consistent with the system’s goal for clearer messaging, Jeter said the alerts will also implement more actionable terminology centering around the phrase “run if you can, hide if you can’t, and fight if you must.”
The director explained the most important part of an emergency warning is stating what’s going on and what action to take as a result. And he said the phrasing mirrors upcoming faculty, staff, and student emergency preparedness training.
“We don’t want people to solely rely on the information that they receive in the moment from Alert Carolina,” Jeter said. “So what helps for them to be able to effectively receive that information and take corresponding action is to be exposed to training in advance.”
The training module was made available to faculty online ahead of the fall semester, and Jeter said the university hopes to provide office staff with similar modules by the spring and at a later time for students. The director added that while it’s important for all groups to undergo the training, campus feedback showed that students look to faculty as leaders in emergency situations.
In the meantime, Jeter encouraged the campus community to visit Carolina Ready’s website for a one-on-one emergency preparedness course, which he said covers the basic fundamentals of being informed, being prepared, and taking action.
The university also plans to provide additional languages to the emergency messaging system, especially Spanish. Jeter shared that while there is no timeline for this update yet, it’s a priority for the academic year.
UNC will also host an emergency preparedness festival on September 19. The emergency management director described the event as an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to feel empowered with emergency preparedness information so that they can apply it if and when necessary.
“Because unfortunately, we don’t know if and when an emergency might present itself, but we do want to ensure that our campus community is prepared,” Jeter said.
Featured photo via Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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