A 9-day-old university Twitter account went from roughly 10 to a little more than 4,700 followers when it was used for the first time in an emergency to update students on Friday’s report of a potential armed person on campus.
The account, @ballstate_alert, was created as another official source of information for Ball State students in an emergency.
“Establishing a Twitter account takes moments,” Tony Proudfoot, a university spokesman, said at a press conference Friday night. “The challenge is establishing the staffing and protocols for how it is going to be used. … We tested them tonight, and they worked very well.”
Ball State has received complaints from students asking for more information and more timely updates following several emergency events. Proudfoot specifically mentioned an incident in March when there was a report of a potential gunman near Bracken Library.
“We were updating that [incident] maybe every 20 or 30 minutes, but we got the fact that people would like information more quickly,” he said.
Proudfoot said during Friday’s incident, the university was tweeting and sending email and text notifications every five to eight minutes at the beginning of the situation. The account then slowed down to update every 10-15 minutes while police were searching the sports and recreation complex made up of the Health and Physical Activity Building, Worthen Arena, the Student Recreation and Wellness Center and the Lewellen Aquatic Center.
“We had students saying that they really wished that we would stop communication with them and asking how they could unsubscribe,” Proudfoot said. “I am going to count that as a win.”
Although the university website is considered to be the official source of information on campus, several students used @ballstate_alert as the source for information.
Megan Dearlove, a freshman organizational communication major, was in the field house for pole-vaulting practice when she heard the news of a potential armed person. Dearlove, along with four fellow pole-vaulters, eleven baseball players and coaches, hid in a closet for an hour and a half and used their phones and social media as their sources of information.
“I didn’t have my phone, but [my friend] did and she was able to keep checking and being updated, so I think it helped a lot,” she said. “She kept checking, going through Twitter, making sure everything was OK. It would have been scarier without that.”
Proudfoot said there were a number of incidents where students and media organizations falsely reported information, which could have become a distraction to managing the actual incident.
“If those reports had start to spread across the nation, that could have compromised the safety of our campus,” he said. “Whenever we see something that is inaccurate, we get out there and make sure that the public has that accurate information.”
Neethi Jelaji, a sophomore telecommunications major, said she thought the university’s response to squelching rumors helped keep the campus safe.
“[The Twitter account] was definitely keeping us updated, especially on the media reports of false accusations,” she said.
Proudfoot asked students to review the official emergency preparedness protocols at bsu.edu/prepared.
“If you are bored, waiting for class or have a few minutes before class, visit [the website] and become familiar with the website,” he said. “Knowing what is there and being familiar with it can really make the difference in a situation like this.”
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