By

The Louisville Cardinal April 1, front page story; “Student charged with murder of two children,” contained an error and the accompanying editorial, “Concerns presented, effectiveness questioned” was simply off the mark.

The writer of the article stated that at 8:32 a.m. University of Louisville officers “received a call regarding a woman armed with a gun.” As detailed to the media, University Police were asked at that time simply to escort a student to a mental health facility. No gun was reported until more than 10 minutes later.

Once they realized there was a threat, University Police immediately sprang into action, calling other officers to the scene, isolating the situation within Campus Health Services, evacuating and securing the building, cordoning off the surrounding area and alerting the Louisville Metro Police and university officials.

When they had ensured the safety of those in the immediate area; they issued the campus-wide notification.

The UofL Alert system was activated at 9:04 a.m. The alert was posted to more than 9,000 campus phones within seconds. Due to limitations in the technology, individuals who signed up received text messages on their cell phones any time from 9:04 to up to 20 minutes or so after the alert was issued.

Other communication vehicles also were used. U of L’s Web site was updated with the alert within a few minutes. E-mail messages providing more details were sent a short time later.

Again, the officers had the situation contained in Campus Health Services and no students, faculty or staff were being allowed anywhere near the building

Contrary to the editorial, university officials were not “patting themselves on the back” or “accepting mediocrity,” after this incident. Within hours, we began reviewing our procedures and the technology to see where we can improve.

This is part of a regular process that includes monthly meetings among our emergency responders and reviews of situations which happened at other universities such as Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois.

Student safety is paramount at U of L. While no one can ever fully prepare for events like those of March 27, our goal always is to protect our community first and to provide open, honest and timely communication.

In this case, we were able to do both.

-John DreesAssociate VP