Friday, February 15, 2008

A Message from the UA Emergency Preparedness Group - Feb. 15, 2008

Dear Students:

In light of the shootings that happened yesterday at Northern Illinois University, UA’s Emergency Preparedness Group would like to reiterate the methods we will use to communicate with you in emergency and crisis situations.

If an emergency or crisis occurs on campus:

The University of Alabama has a comprehensive emergency plan in place to deal with any crisis that may occur on campus. Page 3 of the Safer Living Guide provides comprehensive information that can help students, faculty and staff prepare for and respond appropriately to a crisis or emergency on campus.

The UA Police Department is a fully accredited law enforcement agency with highly trained professional officers, who are prepared to respond to emergencies of all types, including gunmen or shootings. All UAPD officers have gone through specific training regarding emergency situations and regularly participate in training exercises. UAPD has a mutual aid agreement with the Tuscaloosa Police Department, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue. All of these departments are prepared to assist UAPD in an emergency.

The University is prepared to notify students, faculty and staff through a variety of vehicles, including:

  • Tide Text Alerts (sign up on myBAMA)
  • E-mail alerts to all faculty, students and staff
  • UA Home page alert
  • Media alerts to local radio and TV stations

If you receive notification of a crisis or emergency through any of these vehicles, you should immediately take safety precautions based on your personal situation.

  • Immediately move to a safe location.
  • Alert others, if you can do so safely.
  • Stay in a safe place until you are notified that the emergency is over.
  • If the situation directly affects you, call 911 or UAPD at 348-5454 as quickly as you can. Stay calm, and provide information about your location, the suspect and any injuries. Stay on the phone until the dispatcher tells you to hang up.
  • The University will provide ongoing and detailed information on the UA Home page at www.ua.edu.

The safety and well-being of our students is one of our highest priorities at The University of Alabama. We proactively invest significant resources in a variety of activities and initiatives designed to create a safe, secure, nurturing environment for all students, faculty and staff. While we hope that our emergency plans will not have to be put into action, we are well-prepared to handle any situation that may arise.

The UA Emergency Preparedness Group

No comments: