In the year since the Virginia Tech shooting, Ball State University has been refining its emergency response tactics.
Kevin Kenyon, chairman of the Crisis Management Team, said the university has made significant improvements in crisis response since the incident.
"We've had a fairly comprehensive acknowledgment that the world has changed since the incident at Virginia Tech," he said. "We need to respond in a meaningful way so students are informed and safe."
The most important thing the team did was reviewing and updating all of the communications, Kenyon said. The police and the university's ability to respond has really improved in the last year, he said.
The team changed the chain of notification during emergency situations to alert the campus sooner, he said. Information of an emergency would reach the entire campus within minutes, he said.
Text message and e-mail alert systems are continually tested to improve delay times, he said. Posters in classrooms outline procedures to take in the event of an emergency. Ball State's cable TV network also warns people of dangers on campus, he said.
Ball State does well with alerting students and staff members in residence halls, he said. The team is worried about getting the message to students and faculty during the day in classrooms because that's when incidents tend to happen, Kenyon said.
The Crisis Management Team is working on training building coordinators to help get the word out to people in classrooms, he said. Several people have volunteered and gone through training.
Ball State's emergency sirens have been set to go off during emergencies as well, he said.
Gene Burton, director of public safety, said, in addition to the emergency sirens, the external speakers placed around campus now have the capability to broadcast real-time warnings to people outside.
The speakers can be activated at any time, Burton said. Whoever happens to be the supervisor on duty at the Ball State Police Department can send a message on the speakers, he said.
UPD hasn't made changes in equipment, funding or staff since the incident, Burton said, but he feels confident in the response capabilities of the police department and the university.
"I feel with the improvements we've made and the training we've done we can give an appropriate response," he said.
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