Workplace Safety Indiana University Style

Yesterday all members of the Indiana University Community received the following from IU President Michael McRobbie:

Colleagues,

In the wake of the heartbreaking tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, all those who lead educational institutions feel an increased obligation to take all possible steps to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors. I write to inform you of the planning and measures we’ve undertaken and to ask for your help in that effort. The IU Police Department maintains highly trained armed officers on all campuses, and each campus unit has mutual aid agreements with their local municipal and county law enforcement agencies. Response to any shooting incident would be nearly immediate. Given the nature of our campus communities, we continue to enforce a general ban on firearms on our campuses. We have updated emergency and response plans on every campus to better address prevention, response, and recovery from any kind of incident. As part of this effort, a comprehensive exercise and drill schedule is being developed. Exercises have already been conducted at IU-Northwest and IU-South Bend. An active-shooter exercise is planned for IUPUI in Summer 2013. But little of this preparation will be successful unless we all work together to maximize the safety and security of our campuses. IU maintains a robust emergency notification system that can reach students, faculty, and staff within minutes. It is extremely important that everyone register for this alert system. Only you can provide your cell and text number to the notification system. Please do so at http://onestart.iu.edu. This system will be the primary outlet for emergency messages in case of an incident. If you “See Something, Say Something.” Be aware of your surroundings. Report suspicious activities to IUPD. Know the contact information for your campus crisis management and behavioral consultation teams. Do not share your access cards or keys with others. Finally, some time ago we developed a single web site through which a wide variety of general safety and security information is presented: http://protect.iu.edu. Specific to shooting incidents, pay particular attention to the new information at http://protect.iu.edu/police/active-shooter.

There is no fool-proof way to prevent random acts of violence. But if we work together, we can significantly minimize the opportunity for such tragedies to occur at IU while also maximizing the effectiveness of our emergency response.

Yours sincerely,
Michael A. McRobbie
President

I feel so much safer. And I can't wait for the active shooter exercises. I can only imagine what it will involve. Likely duck and cover. Very nostalgic.