Wayne Community College set in case of campus emergency
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 14, 2012 1:46 PM
Wayne Community College officials, like their counterparts around the state, don't anticipate any dire campus emergencies.
But they are going to make sure the college is prepared just in case.
Recent lockdowns at Wake Tech Community College and similar threats at other colleges in the state have prompted the topic to surface.
"We have spent a lot of time with our emergency plans, our critical management, our crisis management," said Dr. Kay Albertson, WCC president. "When we had the second round with Wake Tech, we went into high gear and looked at everything that we're doing, to make sure that we have materials in place for our employees and our students, that we have to do notifications. That's all been back out in people's faces."
In the spring, the college will have another simulation, similar to ones that have been done in the county and at the base, Mrs. Albertson said.
"We're going to do that again," she told the college's board recently. "We want to make sure that we can walk through all this. We want to assure you that we don't take this lightly. It's very serious business."
Board chairwoman Gwyn Wilson said recent news accounts had created concerns, especially regarding the issue of people not being notified. She said sometimes the lack of communication stemmed from something as simple as people not reading their e-mails.
"The difference between even when all these crises happen with Virginia Tech and now is social media," Mrs. Albertson said. "In a crisis you might not know what's going on specifically. What you know is that they're on lockdown.
"We're going to have multiple signals -- campus cruiser, alarm system, it'll be on the website, the media. We're going to do our darnedest to make sure that those kinds of things don't happen. We're definitely thinking about this kind of thing, putting actions in place."