In light of recent mass shootings, Student Association executives are interested in a firm and updated campus safety emergency plan in case the unthinkable happens. University Police took part in a safety plan last week.
The campus safety plan, known by the abbreviation “SRP,” stands for “Standard Response Protocol” and is an effort to improve and distribute campus safety information to Oswego State students.
Matthew O’Donnell, vice president of Oswego State Student Association, said Oswego students may not know what to do during a campus emergency.
“Let’s say you’re in Lanigan 101, and there’s a shooting or bombing situation. What do you do?” O’Donnell said. “I’d rather be proactive than reactive.”
Jaclyn Schildkraut, associate professor in the department of criminal justice at Oswego State, said that the Run Hide Fight protocol, which had been in place previously, is not the most appropriate plan for school-based settings.
Schildkraut, teaches most of the criminal justice department’s core courses as well as electives on homicide, mass shootings, the death penalty, crime in the media and organized crime.
Schildkraut recently published her research, “Mass Shootings and the Media: Why All Events Are Not Created Equal,” which looks at mass shooting events from the perspective of media coverage, while analysizing the extent of coverage received between different events and perpertrators, according to the professor’s official webpage.
The new plan, SRP, takes educational institutions into consideration and is a better protocol across the board, Schildkraut said.
“I am from two communities that had mass shootings – I grew up in the Parkland area and went to college for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Orlando, Florida, which is where Pulse [nightclub shooting] happened in 2016,” Schildkraut said. “We always thought our communities were safe and that it could never happen here … but it can and it does.”
According to Schildkraut, inaction is not the answer.
“The minute you say ‘it can never happen here’ is the moment you become complacent and let your guard down,” Schildkraut said. “Do not ever think you are immune to this violence and do not ever think you don’t have to be prepared.”
“Run, Hide, Fight” is only applicable for active shooter situations, whereas SRP handles all different emergency scenarios: lockout, when the threat is outside near campus, lockdown, when the threat is inside a building, evacuate, moving to a different location, shelter, used for other emergencies or hazards and hold, keeping hallways clear.
The new plan is also based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, emergency management language and provides users with information with regards to the specific emergency and how to respond.
Schildkraut hopes that with the new protocol students, faculty and staff feel more prepared for any emergency that could take place on campus.
“I also am a firm believer that it is better to have the skills and not need them, than to need them and not have them,” said Schildkraut, who trained University Police on the new protocol.
In this sense, Assistant University Police Chief Kevin Velzy said that no changes have really been applied with regard to a safety plan and that it is just a new approach to notifications during an event.
Velzy suggests that students sign up for the NY-Alert service, and add the Oswego/Rave Guardian mobile app on their phones, besides being aware of their surroundings and reporting any suspicious activity.
O’Donnell said he is interested in somehow informing students on what to do in a dangerous situation, perhaps in the same way Oswego State informs students about Title IX before they attend campus for the first time.
University Police table at the Marano Campus Center on an ongoing weekly basis.
“Everyone plays a role in their own safety. Be prepared, not scared and if you see something, say something,” Velzy said.
Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian
