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Tuesday, May], 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

After Va. Tech, 'U' keeps to disaster plans

By ARIKIA MILLIKAN
Daily News Editor
Last fall, the University mobi-
lized its staff to prepare for a mas-
sacre.s
Researchers anticipated a situa-

tion where an influenza pandemic
could wipe out up to 40 percent of
the University's population. Uni-
versity staff members all over cam-
pus developed emergency plans to
face the danger the bird flu virus
could pose.


The virus never came, but in
light of the recent shootings at
Virginia Tech, University spokes-
people said the planning was not
vain.
"Many of our emergency
response procedures have been
reviewed and fine-tuned because
of the possibility of a flu pandem-
ic," said Linda Green, a direc-
tor in the Division of Student
Affairs.
Communications procedures
outlined in emergency plans
designed in response to the
threat of pandemic flu would be
relevant in a crisis like the one at
Virginia Tech, said Diane Brown,
a University facilities and opera-
tions spokeswoman.
Some of these procedures
include broadcasting direc-
tions and information through
TV, radio and loudspeakers atop
police cars, as well as alerting
students and staff through e-
mails.
Brown said it is necessary to
have several modes of alerting
students, because one method
might not be enough. An alert
e-mail from the University takes
five to seven hours to reach every-
one in the system, she said.
To aid the speed of informa-

tion, the University is encourag-
ing students to register for the
CodeRED telephone alert system
- a free service available through
the city of Ann Arbor that can
notify 60,000 people of an emer-
gency within an hour.
But for emergency plans to
effectively protect and inform the
University community, students
must do their part and pay atten-
tion to the systems already in
place, Brown said.
Students often ignore warning
systems like e-mail alerts and fire
alarms, and fail to update their
contact information, Green said.
She said the University is work-
ing with the Michigan Student
Assembly to establish an emergen-
cy education program this fall to
"aggressively push this informa-
tion in a way that (students) will
pay attention to it."
While there are no immediate
plans to invest in new emergency
response mechanisms.or increase
the Department of Public Safety's
staff as a response to Virginia
Tech, Brown said that DPS is tak-
ing another look at emergency
plans already in place.
Brown said campus police offi-
cers undergo special training to
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