The Office of Emergency Preparedness recently announced plans to install emergency warning message boards in University classrooms.
These boards will be installed in phases, beginning with larger classrooms, Director of Emergency Preparedness Marjorie Sidebottom said. The first boards may be installed as soon as a week from now.
“These [message boards] are similar to the screens you would see ... on, say, the Metro [subway] in Washington, [D.C.],” Sidebottom said. “If there is an important message that would need to be broadcast, there would be an auditory tone and then a scrolling message that would instruct you of what to do.”
In normal situations, the screens in most classrooms either will be blank or display the time, Sidebottom said.
“I think it’s a good idea,” third-year College student Brian Carroll said. “It can only make things safer, so I don’t see why not.”
Second-year College student Sumaira Javed agreed but expressed concerns about the program’s cost to the University.
“They should probably go ahead with it,” Javed said, “but I’d be interested to know how much money they would spend on this if it’s going to be in every classroom.”
The message boards are just one more component of the University’s ongoing effort to improve how prepared it is for emergencies, Sidebottom said.
“The most important thing is that we’re learning ourselves [as a University community] how to respond to emergencies, how to plan for emergencies and how to prepare so [we] can respond appropriately,” Sidebottom said.
Also part of this ongoing emphasis on the University’s emergency preparedness are the recent siren tests heard on Grounds, Sidebottom said. Another test will occur today between 7 and 7:30 p.m., she added.
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