Alert! Warning System Overused
April 25, 2008 by brieanne
While it’s very nice that the university cares about its students enough to institute the HawkAlert system, I have to say, in practice, it doesn’t seem incredibly helpful, and, in my opinion, it’s being overused.
First of all, I’ll concede that the system worked nicely when classes were cancelled (although don’t get me started about that decision being made at 9:30 in the morning). I got a call, rolled over in bed, and went back to sleep. Excellent.
I started the hate part of my love-hate relationship with HawkAlerts the morning we recieved one informing us there was someone with a gun somewhere in Iowa City (I’m paraphrasing; I don’t have the actual message anywhere). Two things about this one bothered me: (1) the message didn’t suggest a plan of action for students, like “stay where you are” or “please inform your Admin Law professor who is totally oblivious right now”; and (2) in this day and age, I don’t think there’s cause for these sorts of messages for isolated crimes occuring off-campus. We recieved the message because of the very tragic murders of four people, with a gunman missing. Scary, yes, sad, of course, but from what I’ve read (and I don’t proclaim myself an expert on this story at all), the crime didn’t really indicate random violence coming to campus. With the recent shootings at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois, and elsewhere, it is necessary to have this system in place to be used when the threat to campus security is real and the message will tell students exactly what to do. These alerts should not be used every time a murder occurs, and the university should take pause and consider the implications of their actions. In this case, I think the alert scared more people than it did good, and, frankly, that’s not why we have this system.
Then, today. I recieved three phone calls and two e-mails from the university indicating that there was a tornado warning in effect. Again, cause for concern (especially in light of the tornado damage a few years ago), but that’s what weather reports are for (or, for that matter, common sense and looking out a window). We are college and graduate students–I don’t believe we need to be coddled with weather reports and needlessly scared every time a crime occurs.
Don’t get me wrong–I’d much rather the university err on the side of caution, but it seems like right now it’s being a wee bit overused. If we get a HawkAlert every time the National Weather Service issues a warning, people are going to stop taking them seriously, and that could wind up being a huge liability.
Steve Wieland
fsford
timhilton
smahieu
Morgan N. Engling
maryiowa
jaimiesuzi
jarens
kevinjames
brieanne
lcm
Andrew
sandista
enwinfield
I completely agree that they are being misused. The morning of the shooter message was extremely disorienting. With the implications that come with a campus shooter how can you give students a “warning message” about a possible gunman on campus and not cancel classes or tell students to stay put until they hear of something else? A more competent person needs to be put in charge of this system.
I could not agree more. While it is nice to receive the tornado warning when most of us are holed up in a dark hole trying to cram corporation law into our brains, with little or no access to a view of the outside world, receiving 3 text messages, 3 phone calls, and 3 emails, it was probably unnecessary to warn us of possible flooding (we know that standing/rushing water where it usually isn’t is unsafe and cause for caution) and severe thunderstorms (I’ve never understood the need for this sort of warning anywhere; thunderstorms are severe by their very nature, no? But I’m sure there is a plausible explanation). Or, if all three warnings were deemed necessary, perhaps the University could have economized the process a little and sent out one, all-inclusive message. I can’t imagine that it’s very cost-effective to activate the process 3 separate times.
I will add, that you know it is finals time when a law student hears the tornado siren (whilst sitting on the top floor of one of the taller buildings in Iowa City) and, instead of evacuating, angrily slams her noise-canceling headphones and continues reading.
Remember that time when Hawkalert called me twice, and while I was listening to my second Hawkalert, my phone had an “incoming call” from Hawkalert? Oh yeah that was this morning. Then they sent me two emails AFTER the tornado warning expired. Good job guys.
I love that I got a phone call early in the morning telling me there was an “active shooter” in Iowa City. When I think of an active shooter I think of a disturbed, white, male with a semi-automatic assault rifle and a sawed-off shotgun who is avenging all the perceived wrongs by shooting innocent victims in a crowded area/building. So, I stayed home.
I also love the “damage control” call three hours later telling me that there really was no threat to the UI campus (after the “shooter” was already dead).
HawkAlert no longer has the “chilling” effect it should have if used properly. Instead, I’ll likely take my chances the next time I hear a phone call that says, “If you have any information, call nine-hundred eleven immediately.”
I was really annoyed about the Tornado hawk alerts. I had 4 voicemails and 5 calls from them. One would suffice. And the 2 emails after the tornado watch had past was just ridiculous.
They need to figure out a better system.
Iowa City did a good job though- they had sirens going for like 20 minutes and then a man on a megophone let me know what was going on!